By the time Maggie got home it was very late, she was surprised to see her brother waiting up for her.
“Link, you scared the crap out of me.” Maggie scolded her brother who sat in the kitchen without the light off, the creep.“You were gone a long time.” Lincoln stated ignoring her comment. He tried going to sleep, but when he laid down next to his fiancée, and he was thinking of Holly, he felt guilty, so guilty that he couldn’t go to sleep. So, he came down here to the kitchen to wait for Maggie.“So,” Maggie huffed, she was annoyed with her brother. She may have sworn to Holly that she wouldn’t say anything to him, but that didn’t mean she didn’t want to. Right now, it was hard for her to be near him, she was so angry with him. Because of her brother she missed out on five years with her niece, and Holly had to raise her baby all alone, and whilst in college. Not to mention he had been a total pig.“So, I am curious, she was my friend too, how is she?” Lincoln did not understand why Maggie was angry with him. But he could feel it rolling of off her.She wouldn’t tell Lincoln anything about Holly, she didn’t think he deserved to know, not after all he had done, but she couldn’t help but ask him.“Did Holly ever tell you she was pregnant?” Maggie was hoping he would tell her the truth, as angry as she was with him, and as much as she believed Holly, she could not help but feel like there was a piece of the puzzle that was missing, and that if she could put it together, everything would be alright.“Yeah, she did. It was the last time I saw her,” Holly already confessed that she had forced Lincoln to keep her secret, but still her friend was in trouble, why didn’t he say anything? Maggie was upset, she could have helped Holly if she had known. If Holly had begged her not to tell her parents, she would have listened.In her anger, Maggie punched Lincoln hard in his arm. Lincoln rubbed the spot in his arm that hurt and scowled at his sister.“What was that for?” He asked indignantly. What was her problem, he thought. All he did was ask how Holly was. Was that such a surprise? Was it so wrong that he cared about her?“And you didn’t tell me.” Maggie punched him again. It felt good to hit him.“Seriously, Margret, punch me again and I’m going to punch you back.” Lincoln threatened but he didn’t mean it, he would never hit a woman, let alone his little sister, but he did wish she would stop hitting him. Her punches hurt.“You won’t punch me. You’re a surgeon, you wouldn’t risk your hand.” Maggie said confidently. “But call me Margret again and I’ll punch you in your face.” Maggie warned her brother. He knew she hated her stuffy old lady’s name. Her parents promised her that one day she would grow into it, she did not feel like she would.“Why are you so angry, Maggie?” Lincoln felt dumbfounding. He thought she would be happy; she has wanted to see Holly again for so long.“How could you not tell me that when Holly left, she was pregnant? I tried calling her for months. Even made the drive out to her college myself, only to find out she had transferred out of the dorms.” Maggie had vented to Lincoln about it a lot, he should have said something. Did her tears mean nothing to him?“Because Holly asked me not to.” Lincoln replied cooly, but Maggie knew her brother, that was not the end of the story.“So, you never listened to me or Holly before.” Maggie reminded him. “I could have helped her.” Maggie threw her hands up in frustration.“I don’t know what you want me to tell you, Maggie. She didn’t want anyone to know, as for help, I assumed she had her baby’s dad around. I mean where else would she have gone if not to him.” Lincoln grumbled still feeling the bitter jealousy all these years later.“She did go to the baby’s dad for help.” Maggie said angrily. “And he turned her away!” Maggie walked away. She had said too much, she was so angry with her brother that she almost told him everything. She could not risk it. Not if she wanted to be a part of Holly’s life. Not if she wanted to see Eve again.Lincoln remained where he sat feeling bewildered. He remembered Eve’s sad little face and the way she frowned when she told him, “I don’t have a daddy.”Did Holly tell Maggie who Eve’s father was? How many times was Lincoln going to go against his better judgement tonight? He followed his sister up the stairs to her room and barged his way in. He couldn’t stop himself.“Did she tell you who the girl’s father was?” He demanded to know. The way Lincoln was acting right now, Maggie could finally imagine the boy Holly described, she hadn’t been able to imagine they were one in the same until now.“Yes, she did.” Maggie glared at him, she watched his face carefully waiting to see if he gave anything away.“And who is it?” Lincoln demanded to know.“You have all the clues. You need to figure it out, Einstein.” Maggie, fed up with her brother pushed him out of the room and shut the door. Lincoln stood on the other side of the door; he tried to push his way back in, but Maggie had locked the door behind him.“What does that mean?” He shouted. He knew Maggie could hear him, but she did not open the door for him, even when he started to bang on it.“Baby, what are you doing?” Sasha, Lincoln’s fiancée, came to him, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.“I am sorry, baby, I didn’t mean to wake you. Maggie and I were just having a little argument. Nothing to worry about, let’s go back to bed.” Lincoln took his girlfriend by the hand raising it to his lips and planting a soft kiss on the back of her hand; he tried not to notice how plain she looked in comparison to Holly. In fairness, the whole world looked plane to him compared to Holly.“What about this time?” Sasha smirked, Lincoln thought she was only teasing him but her smile was sincere. Sasha would never confess this to Lincoln, but she liked it when they argued.Maggie was dead weight, always begging Lincoln to come visit, or asking him to take a local job. He was a brilliant surgeon. How was he supposed to make a name for himself if he practiced in some backwards small-town hospital? He has only been able to hold his family off this long because he has yet to complete his residency, but that won’t always be the case. As long as she could keep Lincoln away from his family, then he wouldn’t want to move back here. They had a good life in the city, she didn’t want to leave all that behind.“Oh, nothing, just petty sibling stuff.” Lincoln dismissed the question. It was not something he particularly wanted to share with Sasha. She was the jealous type, and he did not want to fight with her about Holly.“Okay, well can you argue with her about it when the sun is up?” Sasha poked at him.“Nothing worth bringing up again.” Lincoln guided Sasha back to their bed. He let her curl herself up beside him. Lincoln knew how much Sasha liked it when he played with her hair, so he did just that until she fell asleep again. But still, he could not sleep. Maggie said that he should be able to guess who Eve’s father was, that meant they must know each other, but for the life of him, Lincoln could not remember Holly showing interest in any of the boys he used to know. As far as he knew, she only ever had eyes for him, and he had liked it that way. It was why it hurt so much when he found out she had been with someone else. Despite knowing how wrong it was, he always kind of thought she was his.Lincoln thoughts drifted back to the night he felt like he regretted most as he stared up at the ceiling.The masquerade party was likely his last chance to win Holly over before she went to college, where she would likely meet so many new and interesting people that she would completely forget about him. That’s why he got so drunk that night, because even then he couldn’t bring himself to ask her out, instead he got so drunk, he took a random girl to bed, she confessed her love for him, and blah blah blah so did every girl. They didn’t care about him at all, they just wanted a chance with the quarterback, and the man who was going to be a doctor they looked at him like he was their meal ticket, he repeated her cheap words back to her. By then, he knew it made the girls feel better about letting go of their inhibitions and she was all too willing to follow him back to his bed once he said the things she wanted to hear.The sex was surprisingly good, but he was disgusted with himself, this was the last chance he had to be with Holly and he was squandering it with this girl who was selling herself for as cheap as the dollar store wig she was wearing. It was his fault, he knew that, but in his anger, he cursed the girl out and threw her from his room. She ran out crying. Ignoring her, he pulled on a pair of pants. It was then he noticed he forgot to put on a rubber. Now he wished he really had paid attention to who the girl was. He would have dragged her down to the chemist for a plan b, first thing in the morning.He decided to chase the girl back to the party, but when he got there, he couldn’t see that cheap wig anywhere. A few girls come to talk to him, they touched him and chatted, but he was too distracted, he wanted to find the girl and ask her if she was on the pill. He wasn’t one to take chances.He approached his sister and her small crowd. Holly had to be the only one at the party without a mask or wig, and for some reason she was crying. She was trying to leave the party, and Maggie was trying to talk her into staying, something must have happened to make her so upset. The masquerade theme had been her suggestion after all. Feeling awkward, he made some excuse about another party and left.He should have asked her then why she was crying, was it over her baby’s dad? Did she know him then? She would have had to, and it would make sense that he had been at the party if, like Maggie suggested, he knew him.If Lincoln knew Maggie like he thought he did, she would want to spend all her time with Holly and her daughter while they were in town, maybe he would get lucky and he would see her again. Maybe then he could ask her about it.When Holly went to bed that night, everything that had happened in the five years since she left home, played over and over again in her mind, starting with the night she spent with Lincoln. At first, it had been a dream come true, although in her dreams when she tasted his lips, they had never tasted of whisky. But he had said everything she had spent so many years longing to hear. He told her, how much he liked her, confessed that if he had known how she felt about him that he would have taken her in his arms sooner and she had believed him. But that is where the dream ended, and reality took hold. She went to college and studied nursing like she always wanted. She was on a full ride scholarship, and was lucky that she did not have to worry about tuition as long as she worried about her grades. Her mother took on a second job to give Holly the money she needed to move into her own apartment. A baby and a shared dorm room just weren’t a good mix. The campus where Holly studied had a
Kathy was feeling tired, knowing how she got sick in the afternoon she decided it was time for bed. It was barely midday, Holly worried about her mother and how fast she was declining lately. Eve was such a good girl; she was doing her best to keep quiet so that her grandmother could sleep. Knowing that Eve however was getting bored, Holly decided to take her out for the afternoon. She got Eve dressed up, and styled her hair in beautiful little pig tails that she then platted. While Holly got ready, she put on a movie for Eve to keep her distracted. It didn’t take Holly long to put on a nice dress and some light make up. Her hair was a little more stubborn, she had forgotten to pack her conditioner when she left home, and so she had been using her mothers, it had not been cooperating however with her hair. Once she managed to get it looking cared for at least she put on a pair of earrings, she slipped cute little bell studs in her ears in honour of the festive season. “Come on, Eve
“Holly, are you okay?” Kathy stuck her head in the door. She was concerned about her daughter, it wasn’t like her to hide out in her room. Holly lifted her head and looked at her mother and mouthed the word, “NO,” and put her head back down. She most certainly was not okay, but she did not wish to talk about it in front of Eve. Knowing now was not the time to push, Kathy simply said, “Get some rest, baby.” And quietly shut the door. Her daughter appeared fine this morning, whatever was troubling her now Kathy was convinced it had something to do with Lincoln. Given her and Holly’s disagreements about how to handle her situation in the past, maybe she wasn’t the person Holly felt like talking to right now, so she decided to call in reinforcements. Kathy called Maggie from the land line and asked her to come over. Maggie was currently busy, but promised to come over as soon as she could. While she waited for Maggie to come over, Kathy busied herself making an array of sandwiches a
Holly took Eve inside and put on a movie for her. Kathy was resting in front of the fire where she usually sat. Holly made the three of them some popcorn and joined her daughter on the couch. For a while, they sat in silence and watched the movie together. Holly watched Eve and was thankful that she had such a happy and healthy little girl. “I love you.” Holly said as she kissed her daughter on the head. Eve smiled back at her mother and kissed her arm and replied. “I love you, Mommy.” Holly loved to hear her daughter say that. The words always sounded so much sweeter when Eve said them. Thinking about what Maggie said, Holly decided to ask her daughter as casually as possible as to avoid upsetting her. “Do you ever wonder about your daddy?” Kathy stopped rocking in her chair, her daughters question caught her by surprise, she wanted to hear what Eve had to say. “I mean sometimes.” Eve looked sad but didn’t say anything more. “Do you want to talk to Mommy about it?” Holly wa
It surprised Holly to feel so comforted and welcomed, it didn’t feel any different then it did before she left. She knew they were good people, but she was certain what she had done would have been beyond their forgiveness, and yet here they were treating her with all the love, warmth and kindness they always had. The Smith house still felt like a home to her, it both put her mind at ease and made her extremely sad. The decision she made to keep Eve to herself had never felt more wrong then it did right now. Seeing them all together painted a very vivid picture of all the things she had stripped from Eve and her second family. Holly helped Keith, Patricia, Maggie and Lincoln carry the food in. Eve had wanted to help too, so Patricia let her carry in a few smaller items inside such as the napkins. Holly who felt right at home, chatted freely as she helped place the food around the dining table. Sasha didn’t know this girl but she hated her, she viewed her, and her daughter as a threa
“Hey, Mom, look who I brought home with us.” Holly announced as she entered her mother’s home. Maggie and Eve had manged to get the tree up, and the decorations out while she was gone. Kathy, who was getting tired quickly these days, had already retired to her rocking chair in front of the fire. “Oh, Patricia, how wonderful to see you.” Kathy made the effort to get out of her chair and embrace her old friend. She was overjoyed to have the house so full again. It had not been the same since Holly had left. This was turning out to be better than she could have ever imagined. “It’s wonderful seeing the girls together again, isn’t it?” If anyone were to understand how Kathy felt, it would be Patricia. “It really is.” Paticia was relieved to see Maggie so happy to have her friend back. She was over the moon when she returned home in the early morning hours after her trip to the Christmas market. When Lincoln had told her where Maggie was, she just had to wait up for to hear all about
Kathy found Holly asleep on the couch in the morning. She worried about her daughter, and what she would do when she was gone. Bringing her back here had been a good thing, she wasn’t sure she would find her way back to Maggie at first, but was relieved that she had. Kathy knew that when she passed, her daughter would need someone to help her through her grief. Even if she lived far away. Kathy busied herself with a coffee pot, the cancer had robbed a lot of things from her, her taste being one of them, she no longer drunk coffee for that sweet burnt caramel flavour she so often craved, but for the calming ritual. She placed a cup down on the table for her and got one down for Holly and poured her a drink too. She walked over to where her daughter rested on the couch and gently shook her by the shoulder until she woke. “Good morning.” Kathy said as she swept the hair from her daughter’s face. What a beautiful face her daughter had. She was going to miss those blonde curls and big b
Holly took her mother home and tucked her straight into her bed, she was worried about her as she wiped the thin veil of sweat from her mothers forehead. She had a temperature and it was only getting higher. “Are you sure you don’t want to go to the ER?” Holly pleaded her mother one more time. “Holly, I’m fine, I just overexerted myself, I just need some sleep.” The last place Kathy wanted to be right now was back at the hospital. It was awful, loud, cold and sterile.“I know, I would just feel better if someone could take a look at you.” Holly was a nurse, she could do it herself, but her mother refused her help. Kathy didn’t want Holly to look at her like a patient, it was undignified. Seeing her like this was bad enough as it was. “Holly, I am immunocompromised because of the cancer and the failed rounds of chemo, I am in more danger there, than I am here.” Kathy said flatly. Holly knew that what Kathy said was true. The ER was full of sick people. Feeling like she was unable to