Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 115706 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115706 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
I gently remove her hands from her face and look deeply into her soulful, tormented eyes. “I won’t let Ralph get her. Baby, take a deep breath for me. That’s it, baby. Breathe. It’s gonna be okay.” When Aubrey’s chin trembles, I open my arms to her again, purely on instinct; and this time, she falls into them and lets me hold her sobbing frame for several minutes.
When Aubrey calms down enough to speak, she says, “When I moved in with Claudia in Seattle, we talked about everything as adults for the first time. She’d started going to therapy by then, and she was having all kinds of breakthroughs about her childhood and the abuse. She was even working up the courage to report her father to the police in Seattle. But now, she’ll never get the chance to do that.”
My heart squeezes. “Poor Claudia.”
“She was amazing, Caleb. The best mother to Raine. The best friend to me. I wish so badly you could have actually known the real her. She was so much more than the fangirl groupie you met.”
My heart feels like drumsticks are banging on it. “If only she’d taken me up on my offer to fly her and Raine out to LA to meet my family and me, I would have had the chance—"
“What?” Aubrey’s flabbergasted expression makes it clear my revelation is news to her.
“I . . . Yeah. I offered to fly Claudia and Raine to my house in LA.”
“When?”
“About six months after Raine was born. I sent Claudia an email, directly, not through our attorneys, pleading with her to bring the baby to my house in Santa Monica. I told her about my mother’s diagnosis and explained time was short for her, but Claudia turned me down.”
“Are you sure? Maybe—”
“Her exact words to me were, ‘Fuck off.’”
Aubrey gasps. “I don’t believe it.”
“I’ve still got the email.”
“But . . .” Aubrey rubs her forehead. “I was living with Claudia by then, and she told me everything. Caleb, Claudia constantly talked about you and what a shame it was that Raine’s ‘asshole sperm donor’ had zero interest in getting to know his beautiful child. Why would Claudia say all that to me, but not bother to mention you’d offered to fly her and Raine to your house in LA?”
“Maybe she was too embarrassed about shutting me down to admit the truth to you.”
Aubrey’s clearly not buying that explanation. “Can I see her email to you?”
“Sure.” I scroll on my phone to find it.
As I’m searching, Aubrey murmurs, “Why on earth would Claudia turn down the chance to come to your house? I would have thought she’d be giddy to get to do that. You were always her celebrity crush, even after she’d had sex with you.” She looks out at the lake. “Claudia was a compassionate person. That’s why she wanted to be a nurse.” She returns to me. “Surely, she would have said yes to you, solely based on the situation with your mother.”
“She didn’t want me in her child’s life out of the gate, remember?”
“Because you demanded she get an abortion! And when she said no to that, you made it abundantly clear you wanted nothing to do with the baby. So, of course, she agreed that was for the best. But trust me, if she thought for a second you’d had a change of heart, or even that there was a possibility of you having one, Claudia would have jumped on the first flight to LA.”
I understand Aubrey now wants to think of her best friend as some kind of a saint. It’s understandable, in light of her premature departure from this world. But once she sees the email exchange, I think she’ll realize Claudia wasn’t quite as perfect as Aubrey believes.
“Here it is.” After locating the emails, I hand my phone to Aubrey to read them.
For a long moment, Aubrey stares at my screen with tears in her eyes. When she finally looks up from my phone, she’s pale. Like she’s seen a ghost. “There’s no way Claudia wanted to write that reply to you. I don’t know if her mother or boyfriend influenced her to write that to you, but the Claudia I knew never would have sent that response. At the very least, she would have let your mother meet Raine. Of that much, I’m sure.”
I take the phone back and set it down next to me on the yoga mat. Poor Aubrey. This must be a tough pill to swallow. Clearly, Claudia didn’t want to look like a cold-hearted bitch to Aubrey. And I can’t blame her for that. Aubrey is such a warm, loving person, I also want her to think highly of me. “Either way,” I murmur, “the end result is the same. My mother died without knowing she had a grandchild, and it’s all my fucking fault.”