Tough Love

CHAPTER ONE

"School was fine. I didn't learn anything new."

"Oh? what do we send you to school for then?" I grinned, trying to lighten the mood with a mum joke.

Her lips remained in a tight line, shrugging. "Dad pays for my schooling, not you."

Ouch. I noticed her pulling out the iPhone from her sports bra. "You're not meant to have your phone at school, Jenna. That's the rule of you having one."

"I forgot."

Forgot my arse. The ten-minute drive felt longer, and I was relieved to pull into our drive way. We had a two-story place, very modern. The outside was painted in grey tones, as the inside all walls were white except a feature wall in the hallway, which was bright green. Ashton had built this himself, taking extra pride in making everything just right. He worked on a daily basis for his own company, building homes and business that he was contracted to. A job which brought him much happiness, and I couldn't be prouder that all his hard work was paying off.

As Jenna began to rush off up the staircase, I called out. "Dinner will be ready by six. Come and do your homework before then please."

"Whatever step bitch." And then the door slammed.

What Jenna didn't realise, that the house echoed at the best of times, and I could hear her perfectly from the stair case to the top where her room was. While Ashton was around, she called me Isabelle. When he was out of sight, it was step bitch, or worse, my mother's replacement.

He never spoke about her, we had the awkward conversation when Jenna asked who and where she was. Ashton, instead of telling her the truth, lied to her. The truth would break her, and change the perfect perception of what her mother is, to the horrible reality of who she really was.

She had passed away during childbirth. That's what he told her.

She and him, were never in a relationship and Jenna was the product of a regretful and drunken one night stand. That's the truth.

Jenna has made it no secreted longing that she wishes things were different. Often using it against him. Throwing it in his face when he must work early morning cementing a slab and can't drive her to school. She'll storm off, wishing her mother was still here so she could go and live with her. I can always hear his heart break as he reaches for his phone, pushing an appointment back just to make sure Jenna is pleased.

Where was the little 6-year-old that loved having all my attention? She could still have it, only she just didn't want it anymore. I missed that little girl.

The bliss of being called mum stopped as she reached her teenage years and began high school. It went back to being Isabelle. I won't lie, after almost eight years of being called mum constantly, it broke my heart. I never responded, and hoped it was at first a slip. And then I hoped it was a phase of being a teen. Waiting for the day she reverted to mum. It never came and the hope died away.

Ashton didn't say anything about it, merely shrugging it off as if she had never called me mum in the first place. Him doing that, hurt just as bad.

I had quit my job two years after we moved in together, twelve months of dating and we were packing my small apartment up to move me in with him and Jenna. When his schedule became more constant, deciding to be there for Jenna when she needed as he couldn't up and leave work sites if she suddenly fell ill at school. I never seen taking care of her as a job, it was a choice. Choosing to be there for her, when she needed me. Hairdressing was my passion, and maybe one day I could make a return, focus on my goals and dreams of opening my own salon. That was on the cards one day.