Chapter 15
For the next year and a half, Mary continued to go to Nathan's every second week-end. Things weren't easy. Peyton made sure that Mary didn't like Nathan or Haley, and Jenny, who was sad that her cousin had to leave told Mary not to like her father. So the little girl learned to think that she didn't like her dad. She never told him though. But when she was at Nathan and Haley's house, she always found something bad to do, like she would put lotion in Haley's slippers and then said it wasn't her, or she would cut Maggie's bunny's ears. She thought, in her child mind that if she didn't behave well enough, Nathan and Haley wouldn't want to keep her and she could stay at Peyton's, because for her it was her home.
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March 2009
It was a Saturday evening, Haley, Nathan and Mary were having dinner. The court had taken a decision. Nathan would get custody of his daughter, but they would do it step by step, so as not to confuse the little girl too much.
"Mary," Nathan started," there is something we have to tell you." He paused and looked at the little girl in front of him.
"Yes Nathan?" She never called him daddy or dad, and each time his heart ached.
"From now on, you are going to come here every Wednesday." He said with a smile.
When she heard that, Mary wanted to cry even if she didn't know why and tears started to form in her eyes. But she simply nodded, she just wanted to go home. This wasn't her home, her home was with Peyton and Jenny and Jake, they were her family.
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The same evening, Peyton came home crying and Jake who had stayed home with Jenny immediatly understood what had happened. So he just took her in her arms and let her cry.
"We lost her." She sobbed. "We lost her. It's over."
"Shh, it's gonna be ok," Jake told his wife, but deep inside he ached too.