Page 83 of Forget That Guy
“Not your daughter anymore.” Denver snorted. “She goes by Holly now. You want to know why?”
My mother stiffened. “You changed your name?”
I didn’t bother telling her that I didn’t.
Though the thought sounded like a good one.
“I gave you a strong name that has a hell of a backing to it, and you changed it?” She gasped, affronted.
I wish I’d gone to court to change it legally. I would’ve loved to see her face as she learned that.
“You stupid little girl.”
I sighed.
I’d heard thatsomany times before.
But for the first time, it didn’t shred my soul to be called stupid by my mother.
“Denver,” I said. “I’m heading back to grab our lunch. You can…do what you need to do.”
My mother screeched at that. “You will not leave! We have things to discuss.”
I gently pulled the reins to my left and led Skylark back to the barn.
I had no plans of grabbing lunch, but I’d wait for Denver to do whatever it was that he was going to do.
“I called the cops,” Margery said. “She’ll be escorted off soon enough.”
I looked over at Margery on her golf cart.
“Some days I wonder why I was given a mother like her,” I lamented. “I question what God was thinking. And then when my dad was diagnosed, I cursed him a thousand times over because not only was I given a woman like her for a mom, but I was given a dad that was the best in the world, only to have him taken away.”
Margery looked up at me, the sunlight causing her to squint as she looked up.
“Sometimes we have to make do. It’s not fair. It’s not easy. It’s not even logical sometimes. But what you make of your lifedespite the hardships becomes a thousand times more worth it,” she said softly. “Your dad loved you so much. And when you grew up to look exactly like your mother, he loved you even though his heart broke every time he looked at you.”
I didn’t get affronted by what she said.
I knew that seeing me caused my dad to hurt.
I was the spitting image of her.
“Sometimes,” Margery said, “I think your mother hated you toward the end because you were young and beautiful. Had your whole life ahead of you. And she was on the downward slide. She left because she wanted people to look at her like she was beautiful again. To only focus on her. If she stayed, she would always have you as a reminder that she wasn’t as young and pretty as she used to be.”
I snorted. “I think that’s why she always belittled me. She had to find a way to tear me down.”
“Your mother is a tool,” she said as she smiled. “There he is.”
A sheriff’s department SUV pulled up across the pasture, and my mother whirled around, pointing her finger and stomping those high-heeled feet.
“Maybe she’ll break the heel,” Margery mused.
“She would die,” I snorted. “Those shoes are her favorites. And like she used to say, ‘this stupid land has taken way too much from me.’ That’d be just one more thing it’s ‘taken’ from her.”
“Your mother spouts so much bullshit that it’s coming out of her ears.” Margery sighed. “You may look like your mama, but your personality is all your daddy. He did a great job raising you.”
That made my heart happy to hear.
