Overlooked(1)(225)

“Who’s not coming?” Knox asks.

“Mom,” she says.

My heart stops. I thought her mother didn’t have anything to do with her.

“What do you mean mom? Do you mean Grandma?”

“My mom. She’s not coming and I thought she was going to come and I, I…”

“What are you talking about?” Knox says, his nostrils flaring.

“Why don’t you start at the beginning,” I say, and take her hand. Knox runs his hand down her arm, and takes her hand from me.

“When Darla was here,” she says. Knox winces at Darla’s name. “She told me if I want to know the truth about my mother, I should look it up on the internet.”

“Not ask me?” Knox says.

“I do ask you, but you always say you don’t know.”

“Because I don’t.”

“But Darla,” Knox closes his eyes at her name, “said that everyone in the world is online, and if I really wanted, I could find her.” She pauses to swallow and wipe her nose. “And I found her, on Facebook.”

“What did she say?” Knox says, the tendons in his neck straining.

“I asked her to come to my graduation. Because Avery said to follow my dream, and that was my dream. For her to see me graduate.”

“What did she write back?” I ask, and Knox glares at me with daggers in his eyes, and I slouch.

“She didn’t. Until this morning, she told me to… to stop sending her messages and leave her alone,” she says, and dissolves into another fit of tears.

“You should’ve asked me,” Knox says to her.

“But Darla and Avery…” she says through an open-mouthed sob.

Knox’s face becomes stone and he swallows hard. He glares at me and says, “Weren't you leaving?”

My heart stops and my arms fall to my sides. He continues to glare into me, my skin burning under his eyes. My mouth hangs open, but his eyes continue to bore into me.

I don’t want to make a scene in front of Piper. But I want to defend myself, to not be lumped in with Darla.

“I didn’t know,” I say.

“It doesn’t matter,” Knox says, and wraps his arms even tighter around Piper.

Brushing a tear from my cheek, I stand. My knees are weak and my heart thumps all the way up in my throat. I want to defend myself. But Piper is still crying, and I don’t want to upset her further.

“I’ll come over after and help you get ready,” I say, my hand on Piper’s shoulder.

“I’m not going!” she yells, and I step back from them.

“I’ll see you later?” I say to Knox hopefully, but his attention is on Piper.

My heart shattering into a million pieces, I turn, stumble into the coffee table, and flee the house.

I can barely get the key in my lock, my hand is shaking so badly. Finally I get the door open, and stagger to my living room. Stunned, I collapse onto the couch and try to understand what happened. The whole time, tears flow down my cheeks until it seems like I’m crying just as much as Piper.

All day, I’m hopeful Knox will come to my door once Piper has calmed down. The closer and closer it gets to midnight, the more my hope drains. At two in the morning, all hope is gone and I make my way upstairs to bed.

The next afternoon, there’s still no word from Knox. He hasn’t been in his garage all day, but I tell myself that’s because it’s Sunday.

In the late afternoon, I work up the courage to knock on his front door.





Knox

No matter how much I tried to convince her, Piper refused go to her graduation. She said she told all her friends her mother was going to be there, and that it was too embarrassing to go knowing she wouldn’t be.

I kept saying she’ll regret it, that it was the only one she’d ever get but she didn’t care. She was too upset.

Piper spent the day either crying on my lap, the couch or her bed. She wouldn’t even watch Law & Order in the evening. Said she was too busy thinking of everyone having fun at the graduation dance without her.

Her heart is crushed.

And I wasn’t there to protect her heart because I was too wrapped up in my own enjoyment. If I hadn’t been spending so much time with Avery, maybe I would’ve seen signs Piper was searching for her mother.

If I hadn’t been so desperate to get some cock action, Darla never would’ve babysat Piper, and maybe she wouldn’t have got the idea to track her down in the first place.

I failed Piper.

I failed because I broke my own fucking rules, the rules I made to make sure nothing like this ever happened. It kills me that I can’t change the past, but the only thing I can do now is make sure it never happens again.