Antidote

Chapter 11.

"And you know this for a fact?" She questions. Now I'm the one rolling my eyes at her.

"Yes, I'm one hundred percent sure of this. Can you give him a break?"

"I never liked him for you, Alice, I saw things in him that you wouldn't allow yourself to see because you were in love." She begins to defend her hatred of him. "I knew he wasn't going to be faithful to you, I saw a lot of myself in him."

"But Mom, unlike you—" I cut myself off, not wanting to be a complete bitch to her while trying to defend Hayden. She won't believe anything that I say about him because her mind is still stuck on who she thought he used to be. I sigh and continue talking, "Hayden has changed so much and I see it. He still loves me and wants to be with me and I feel the same way about him. He's already an amazing father and I want to raise this baby with him."

She sighs obnoxiously loud and I add, "I can't believe I was naive enough to think you could ever be happy for me."

"Oh Alice, don't be so dramatic. You never cared about what I thought of your relationship and you still don't. If you thought I would be happy for you that's just a sign that you're looking for acceptance because deep down you know it's not what's best for you."

"Okay, how about we skip dinner, and you take me home?" I did not want to be attacked this way by telling her my news. I knew it wasn't going to go well but I still hoped for some kind of happiness from her. If she weren't going to be happy for me and Hayden, maybe she'd at least be excited that she's going to be a grandmother.

"Seriously?" She stares at me quizzically as if I'm being dramatic. "Ugh," She grunts, "I'll order takeout at your apartment and blame your attitude on your pregnancy."

"Fine," I only give in because I'm hungry. The nuts and gum I ate on the plane could only suffice my hunger for oh-so-long.

The rest of the car ride back to my apartment was quiet, she helped me carry my bags up the steps then ordered from a burger house a few blocks away. I didn't know what else there was that could be said between us. Her mind is made up about Hayden, my relationship, and now the baby—claiming that he did it on purpose to trap me into being back with him. That was never even a thought in the back of my mind. Hayden would never do that especially when he already has a daughter he deals with on his own.

He may have wanted me back but purposefully impregnating me sounds like something Lina would have done. I would never put her and Hayden on the same level.

"Alice," My mother's voice breaks me from my thoughts.

"Hmm?"

"There's nothing I can say to make you change your mind?"

"No, Mom, and I don't see why you would want to either. I was so miserable without Hayden and I finally get the chance to be with him. I am not giving that up again. He was the first man that I've ever loved so hard, he was my fiancé and I wanted him to be my husband and the father of my children. That doesn't just go away."

"Look, I get that, but the timing of all of this is just so weird to me. Why after all of this time?"

"It just happened," I mutter. I have to fight myself about mentioning our thirteen to sixteen-year gap when she left my dad and me for her freedom with men. Why did she come back after all of that time? Wasn't it the love she had for my dad or did she have ulterior motives? "As you said before, if love is enough we'll find a way back to one another, and this is it. It's happening for us."

The previous frown on her face settles and that was when I knew she gave in. She knows now that I'm serious about being with Hayden again and there is nothing that she or anyone else can say to make me change my mind. "When are you leaving?"