My Mom & My Dad

Chapter 16: Letting Go

Emily:

When Isabel said goodbye and left, Mom pulled away from Oliver. With her arms crossed in front of her, her hands holding on to both her shoulders, she looked down and shut her eyes. When she looked up again after taking a deep breath, the expression on her face revealed her broken heart. Her eyes were like wide open windows to her wounded soul. She must have felt betrayed and bitter. For the first time since they had taken their relationship to the level of commitment, doubt crept into her aching heart. Oliver appeared to have kept something from her – something that she deserved to know before she even considered committing to a more serious relationship. "Had he lied to me all this time? What else is he not telling me?" Mom must have thought. Although she was hurting deep inside, for some reason the tears didn't come.

She swallowed hard, her hands still clinging to her shoulders, arms crossed, as if trying to comfort herself through a tight embrace. She looked at Oliver with searching eyes and asked, "Oliver, who is Sandra Hawke?"

Oliver couldn't look into her eyes. He was looking down at the floor, his hands on his sides, balled into tight fists. His thumbs were rubbing against his knuckles. When he looked up again after taking a deep breath, the expression on his face revealed his broken heart. His eyes were like wide open windows to his wounded soul. He must have felt ashamed and weighed down by guilt. For the first time since they had taken their relationship to the level of commitment, doubt crept into his aching heart. My mom appeared betrayed that he had kept something from her – something that she deserved to know before she even considered committing to a more serious relationship. "Does she think that I had been lying to her all this time? Would she still trust me?" Oliver must have thought. Unlike hers, his tears came.

Oliver's eyes pooled with tears as he replied, "Sandra Hawke was... a one-night stand. There was a... frat party... in college. Got her pregnant, but..." As he spoke in fragments, his voice kept breaking, trailing off until he completely stopped.

"And Connor?" Mom asked again.

"I didn't know about him until now," he began to answer. He took a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped away the tears that started to fall down from the corner of his eyes. "A week after Sandra told me she was pregnant, she left Starling. I didn't know where to find her. And then... three months later, she wrote me a letter with no return address, saying that she had a miscarriage. She had lost the baby... my child."

Oliver paused. He bit his lip as another tear oozed out the corner of his eye. "Felicity, please... believe me. I didn't know I had a child... another son."

Stephen:

I believed him. I, too, didn't know I had an older brother. I remember thinking right then and there, "If I'm counting right, Connor would be about eleven or twelve by now. Wow! I have a big brother."

Felicity wanted to believe him, too. I could see it in her eyes. Her eyelids twitched, as the battle between doubt and faith raged on fiercely. Her hands let go of her shoulders, and she bent over to pick up her purse on the couch.

"I need to get away... from here... from you," she said.

"Felicity, baby... please..." Oliver begged her to stay.

"Please let me go," she replied. "I just want to go home and be alone... for now... please."

She walked over to Emily. "It's time to go, sweetie. Come along," she said, as she helped the little blonde put on her jacket.

Mother and daughter walked towards the glass door of Dad's office. Just as Felicity grabbed the handle and pushed the door open, she looked over her shoulder and said to my dad, "Oliver, please don't call... or text. I'll see you at the park Friday afternoon."