|| Victoria ||
I pulled myself together by the time we were back at the house, ashamed of myself for allowing Luke to see me break down like that. But the tears had passed, and now I was in my room, trying on the brand-new periwinkle dress Mom had bought for the bridesmaids.
I stood in front of the mirror, moving this way and that. The cut was beautiful-it had a swooping neckline that dipped upwards a few inches from my chest, and the back was buttoned up vintage-style, all the way up to my shoulder blades. The fabric was made up of soft tulle, and I let it slip in-between my fingers admiringly.
There was a knock at the door, and I opened it without question, only to find my mother standing there in a pink bathrobe with matching curlers. At the sight of me, she audibly gasped.
"Tori, hon, you look wonderful."
"Thanks," I told her, giving her a quick hug. "I'm so excited for you."
Something passed over her face, and she closed the door behind her, crossing the room to sit on the foot of my bed.
"About that," she said, quietly, "I've been wanting to talk to you all week-there's so much I have to make up for."
"Mom," I began, but she held up a finger, looking up at me with the saddest look in her eyes.
"I screwed up, Tori," she told me. "I screwed up bad."
I sat next to her, my brow digging into my forehead.
"What do you mean?"
She raised her eyes to mine with a slight shake of her head.
"I left your father because I didn't think there was another way out. I wasn't myself, Tori, you've gotta understand that. I couldn't be who I wanted to be when I was with him. We got married straight out of high school; we thought love lasted forever. But we were young and stupid and we didn't know any better. When we had you, it was one of the best moments of both of our lives, but afterwards-things just got out of hand."
I stayed quiet, my heart pounding in my chest. I had never heard this side of the story before. I hadn't really heard any side of the story before. The only things I knew about the complicated details of my parents' past I had learned from my father's late-night, drunken ramblings. Because neither of them bothered to explain, and because I wasn't the kind of person to press the matter, I just left the rest to my imagination.
But here, now, as I listened to my mother, I was introduced to an entirely different perspective-hers.
"We didn't fit. There's only so much lust until it rubs down into the raw realities. Once the rose-colored glasses come off, and you're knee-deep in debt and you've got another mouth to feed and your husband's off at the office every day, you have a lot of time to think. And I thought about it almost every day. I thought about the way your father treated me-like I was nothing more than a trophy wife, a pretty face at his parties-and I thought about how I was just so unhappy. It was really only a matter of time before I strayed.
"And to this day, I have regrets. Sometimes, when Daniel's out and about and I call you, I can't help but wonder what it would be like if your dad and I had made things work. But the only thing I can get out of that reality is still being with you. I love Daniel, honey, I really love him. And I love your father, but for a different reason. I love your father because he gave me you, and you are...you're everything to me."
She was tearing up now, and I felt my heart tug at the words. This wasn't Laurie Matthews, the Very Rich Island Woman. This was my mother, Laurie Hemmings, in her purest and realest form. This was the woman my dad fell in love with, and this was the woman I remembered from my childhood.
YOU ARE READING
Paper Hearts
Teen FictionFour weeks. That's all the time Victoria Hemmings has to fall in love. Or, at least, find someone who's willing to play pretend. When a girl on a mission collides with a boy desperate for a date, things seem to be looking up. But when lies and fake...