Until Then (Cornerstone Book 2) (36 page)

Michelle could hear the dial tone from where she stood. Dad had hung up on her.

Louise rolled her eyes as she returned the cordless phone to the charger. “Your father is coming into the city tomorrow to collect his runaway daughter.”

Michelle sank into the nearby chair. Her Mom turned off the lamp and shuffled back to the bedroom, leaving her sitting in the dark.

“Hey.” Sean’s voice came from the direction of the couch, his makeshift bed. “Are you OK?”

Michelle shrugged.

He motioned for her to join him, so she stood and walked quietly to the couch. He pulled her onto his lap and wrapped her up in his arms.

“I can’t believe she did this. It’s the sort of thing I would’ve done when I was her age. I just pray she’s not turning out like I did.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. You turned out just fine.” He pressed his lips to her temple and tightened his arms around her.

She settled into him and closed her eyes, relaxing with every rise and fall of his chest.

He leaned against the back of the couch and flipped the blanket over the both of them. “We can sort it all out in the morning,” he whispered.

“
Mhmm
.” She vaguely remembered making that sound before she drifted off to sleep in his arms.

It was still dark outside the window when her eyes opened. Sean’s breath was hot against her face. They had shifted from their seated position to lying down at some point in the night. He was still asleep and peacefully so. One arm was under his head while the other rested across her hip. Their legs were intertwined, which was probably the only reason she hadn’t fallen backwards off the couch during the night.

She leaned back and let her eyes adjust to the darkness. When Sean came into focus, she smiled to herself. His lips were slightly parted, steady breaths flowing in and out, chest pressing against hers with every intake. His five o’clock shadow made him look more attractive than usual, if that was possible.

She relaxed into him again and brushed her lips against his. She really should have let him sleep, but she couldn’t help it.

He stirred, wrapping his arm around her as his eyelids lifted. “Good morning,” he whispered. He stretched his arm out behind her, then tightened it around her again. His lips found hers for a slow, tender kiss. “
Mmm
. I could get used to this.”

“My thoughts exactly,” she whispered.

They laughed softly, careful not to wake Aaron, who was sleeping on the floor nearby.

“I should probably get up soon.” She brushed her nose against his. “I really wanna talk to Ava before my dad comes to get her.”

Sean groaned as he reluctantly released her.

As she walked toward the bathroom, she glanced back over her shoulder at him flirtatiously.

He buried his head in the blanket.

Michelle sat across the table from her little sister, who was devouring scrambled eggs and sausage. “Why would you take off by yourself without telling anyone?”

Ava shrugged and kept eating, like she didn’t care if she got in trouble or not.

“Is something going on at home?” Michelle looked at her searchingly.

Ava shook her head and nibbled on a slice of toast.

“Ava, I really need to know. Dad will be here soon, and I want to help you if you need it.”

“I can take care of myself,” Ava declared.

“I’m sure you can. I wasn’t saying that.” Ava sounded exactly like she had at that age, and that worried her. “I just need to know if there’s a problem.”

Ava set her fork down. “I just wanted to see my big sister. Isn’t that a good enough reason?”

Michelle smiled at that. “It’s a good reason, Ava, but you went about it the wrong way. Don’t you know how worried your parents have been? They didn’t know where you ran off to. Can you put yourself in their shoes for a minute and think about how they must have felt?”

“I know. But every time I ask about seeing you, they shut me down.”

This angered Michelle. “You’ve asked before?”

“All the time.”

“Why won’t they let you see me?”

“They don’t have a good reason, really. They’re just too busy to take me all the way to Michigan, or they have to work, or maybe you don’t wanna see me, or some other lame excuse.”

“Why would I not wanna see you?” Michelle asked.

“Because of what you said to Dad the last time you saw him.”

“You remember that day?”

Ava shook her head. “Not really. I remember meeting you, and I remember crying.”

“Why were you crying?”

“Because I thought it was my fault that you left. I thought I did something wrong.” Ava picked up her fork then and pushed the remaining bits of egg around on her plate.

“Oh, Ava, that wasn’t the reason. It was because of Dad.”

Ava looked over at her. “Really? Because I thought you hated me for being Dad’s favorite or something.”

Michelle let out a breath. “I don’t really know our dad, Ava. He left when I was a little girl, and he never looked back.”

“Because he didn’t love your mom any more?”

“And because he didn’t love me.”

“That’s not true.” Louise shuffled into the room then.

Michelle glanced over at her mom. “Whatever.”

Louise stopped next to the table and looked seriously at Michelle. “Your father left because we were never really in love with each other. We jumped into marriage for all the wrong reasons. But he loved you, Michelle. There was no mistaking that.”

“How can you even say that? He hated being home, especially being around me. A kid can tell when her own dad doesn’t care about her.”

“Well, he wasn’t the best at showing it, but you were the reason he stuck around as long as he did. If not for you, we probably wouldn’t have made it past our first anniversary.”

Michelle stared at her mom, her mouth agape. She didn’t know what to say. “Why didn’t you ever tell me that before?”

“I didn’t wanna face it for a long time. It took a while for me to accept the fact that we were doomed from the start. But once I got some distance, I saw the whole thing very clearly. We were already on a rough path by the end of the first year, then I found out I was pregnant. The pregnancy made things better for a while. We were excited about you. And your dad, oh, he was so happy when you were born. You were the light of his life.”

Tears burned Michelle’s eyes, but she was determined not to cry over her dad. “But he always left. Even when I cried and begged him to stay.”

“That was my fault, not yours. He just couldn’t stand me any more. And I think the older you got, the more you reminded him of me and the years he wasted with a woman he didn’t love.”

“Mom, how can you talk about this so calmly? How are you not breaking down right now?”

“A few decades of distance and perspective, I guess.”

“Dad leaves me a lot, too,” Ava said quietly.

Michelle glanced over at her sister. “Really?”

Ava nodded. “He works all the time.”

“Do he and your mom still get along?”

“Yeah. They don’t fight or anything like that, but I can tell she’s not happy when he goes away on business trips. And he doesn’t really have time for me like he used to.”

Michelle could feel herself tensing up, her fists tightening. “I can’t believe him. Is that why you ran away?”

“I didn’t run away,” Ava stated. “Not really. I told you. I wanted to see you. I was sick of not knowing my sister.”

There was a knock on the door just then, and Michelle tensed up even more.

Louise went to answer it, and Michelle exchanged glances with her sister.

“You should probably go pack up your things,” Michelle told her. “I’ll talk to him first.”

“OK.” Ava skittered off to the guest room, where Ashley was getting ready.

Michelle cleared the plates from the table. She could hear her parents talking in the hallway by the door, which was very strange for her. It had been many years since her parents were in the same place at the same time. At least there was no yelling … yet.

Robert and Louise walked further into the apartment and joined Michelle in the kitchen.

“Michelle, how are you?” Her father gave her a hint of a polite smile, but it didn’t appear sincere.

“Not great, Dad.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. I hope your sister hasn’t done anything to upset you. She’s getting to be a bit of a handful for us.” He rubbed his palm against his black hair, which Michelle noticed had quite a bit of grey to it now.

“Well, I guess if she’s too much trouble, it must be time to walk away. That’s what you’re best at, after all.”

He looked as though he was going to speak, but he held his tongue. “Is she ready to go?”

“In a minute. I want to know why you haven’t let her come to see me before. She said she’s asked you several times. Why would you keep her from me?”

He didn’t answer at first.

“Why?” Michelle demanded.

“I know what kind of girl you were at her age. I didn’t want you to be a bad influence on her.”

Michelle began to laugh. She couldn’t stop herself. He had no idea what he was talking about, basing a decision on what she was like as a teenager.

“It’s not funny,” he said.

“No, it isn’t. But, honestly, Dad, you don’t know me at all. You don’t know what I’ve been through, what I’ve overcome. You don’t know what I’ve done to fill the void you left in my heart. You don’t know that I found a better life, friends who love me for who I am, and faith in God, who forgave me for all those bad things I did because of you. You’re far worse for your daughter than I would ever be. You don’t know me, so don’t pretend that you do.”

He stared at her in disbelief. “I didn’t know,” he stuttered.

“You’ve never tried to know me, Dad. You didn’t care enough about me to try.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.” He stepped toward her. “I cared more about what happened to you than anything else in my life.”

Her heart skipped a beat.

“Why do you think I got your grandparents to pay for your tuition?”

What?

“I saw my little girl self-destructing right before my eyes. Do you think that was easy for me? Do you think I didn’t know that it was my absence that caused it all?”

Michelle was now the speechless one. She had always assumed it was her grandparents and her mother who were behind the plan.

“I’m very happy to hear that getting you out of this city did change your life for the better. That’s all I ever wanted for you.”

Tears sprang to her eyes.

He took a tentative step toward her, then another. And before she knew it, her dad was hugging her. She stood limp at first, her arms hanging at her sides.

“You may not believe this, Michelle, but I do love you. And I’m very sorry for everything.”

Her body began to shake as she cried, and he held her for a long time, before she finally wrapped her arms around him and hugged him back.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

She swallowed hard and made the decision she knew God wanted her to. “I forgive you.”

Never in her wildest dreams would Michelle have imagined strolling along Michigan Avenue with her mother
and
her father, but that was the reality of the day. Instead of snatching Ava and heading home right away, Robert gave in to his youngest daughter’s pleas after she, Ashley, and Aaron emerged from the guest room holding handmade cards for Father’s Day.