Chapter 43

A few days later

Kristin was now back at Ann's house and Kevin would not stop pampering her. He wouldn't let her get up for anything, unless it was the bathroom of course. Other than that she had been stuck on the couch for the past couple of days, doing nothing but watching TV and eating lots of food.

Right now she was the only one in the house, except for Lily, but everyone else was outside playing football and other games. Kristin would have liked to go outside and enjoy the beautiful weather, but she wanted the peace and quiet more. So she had decided to just stay inside, grab a book, and read.

She tried to concentrate on the book, but she couldn't. All she could think about was what Kevin had told her, about how he had thought Lily had died. As he talked to her about it, she watched the pain in his face as he remembered that same feeling again. She saw the emptiness flash through his eyes and then the happiness return as he told her about how Lily had come to him. Kristin couldn't imagine what it would feel like if someone told her that Kevin had died, she didn't even want to think about it.

Kristin then put the book down and just lay there on the couch with her eyes closed. She began remembering hearing Lily's voice. She tried to make out what Lily had told her. All she could remember though was hearing Lily begging for Kristin not to hate her, to please forgive her. Kristin felt terrible for saying those things to Lily right before the accident, she didn't realize the effect that it would have on Lily.

Kristin sighed and then sat up. She was determined to talk to Lily, even though Lily had done a pretty good job of avoiding Kristin. Every time Kristin was around, Lily became quiet and reserved. She stayed as far away from Kristin as she could. And every time Kristin looked at her, she could see how hurt and scared Lily was.

Kristin got up and went upstairs to where Lily was. She quietly opened the door and found Lily, lying on the bed sleeping, with her hand on top of an open book or something. As Kristin got closer she realized that it was a photo album. She then carefully pulled it out from underneath Lily's hand.

Once Kristin had it in her hands, she began flipping through it, noticing that all the pictures were of Kevin and Lily. She laughed as she came across the picture of Kevin sliding into the sea of balls. She smiled as she realized that Kevin was now truly happy. She couldn't believe that she hadn't seen it before. Instead she had been to busy being angry with Lily, and thinking of ways to get rid of her. Kristin hadn't even tried to accept her; she just wanted Lily gone.

I woke up to see Kristin in my room and looking at the photo album that Nick had given me.

"What are you doing?" I asked quietly.

Kristin quickly looked up, surprised to hear a voice.

"Um…nothing. I just came up here to talk to you," she said as she set the photo album down.

My heart began racing as I thought about what she was going to say. She was going to yell at me for her being in the hospital and then she was going to tell me to leave.

"I'm sorry," I said as tears began to fill my eyes. "I didn't mean it. I never wanted you to get hurt. Please don't make me leave my dad. I promise to stay out of your way. I'll never bother you again, I promise."

Kristin stood there shocked at Lily's reaction. She didn't expect her to be so frightened. She expected Lily to either run out and ignore her or instead for Lily to just give her attitude and not listen to what she was going to say.

"Please don't yell at me," I said as tears began to fall from my eyes.

Then Kristin immediately sat down next to me and wrapped her arms around me. "Yell at you? I'm not going to do that," Kristin said softly. "What would I do that?"

"Because you hate me," I said as I pulled away from her. "I caused the accident. It was my fault! I wished that you would die."

Kevin stood outside the door, shocked at what Lily had just said. He had meant to come up and see if Lily wanted to go outside and play a game of volleyball with them, but he heard Kristin and immediately stopped.

He stood there quietly listening to the rest of the conversation, trying to understand why Lily would wish that Kristin would die.

"Look…we both said some things that we didn't mean," Kristin said quietly, as she stared at the floor.

I looked at her puzzled. "You're not going to yell at me?" I questioned hesitantly.

She shook her head no.

Then we heard the creaking of the door as it slowly opened.

I got up and pulled it open.

"Dad!" I exclaimed.

"Kevin!" Kristin exclaimed.

"Hey," my dad said quietly as he walked in to the room, shutting the door behind him.

"You were listening?" Kristin asked.

"Yes," replied my dad. "And now I'm going to stay here for this talk, since neither of you will tell me what happened. I want to know now. I want to know why Lily thinks that she caused the accident."

Both Kristin and I were silent, just staring at each other. Knowing that if we told my dad what was said between us, he would be angry. But it seemed as though we had no other choice, since he had made himself comfortable on the bed, and he was blocking the way to the door so that we couldn't leave.

"Um…I guess I'll go first," Kristin said, uneasily.

"Okay," my dad said.

"Well we were in the car and fighting as usual…" Kristin began.

"About what?" my dad asked.

"You," we replied in unison.

"Me?" my dad questioned.

"About who you love, and how we thought that you were stolen from us by each other," Kristin explained.

"Oh," my dad said. "Well you know that I love both of you. And I belong to both of you, not just my daughter and not just my fiancée."

We shook our heads agreeing.

"Okay, continue on," my dad told Kristin.

"Well I just said some stuff that I really didn't mean," Kristin said.

"Such as?" my dad inquired.

Kristin sighed as tears came to her eyes. "I told Lily that she wouldn't be apart of our family because…because I wouldn't accept her as our child."

Kevin's eyes widened as he listened to what Kristin had said. He couldn't believe she had actually said that to Lily.

"And I…I uh, I told her that I would never want her as my mom because I hated her. And then I…I wished that she would die," I said as I began crying.

Kevin sat there, amazed that the two of the most important women in his life would say such hateful things towards one another.

"I'm sorry," I said as tears blurred my vision.

"So am I," Kristin said as she hugged me.

We sat there for a while, crying until all our tears were gone.

"Lily, I truly am sorry about what I said. I can't imagine what it would be like to not have a mom, and then someone like me tell you that you wouldn't be part of a family. I'm so sorry," Kristin said.

"And I'm sorry that I told you that my dad no longer loved you. I know he does though. I only said that cause of what you had said to me, but it's not true," I said.

Then both Kristin and I turned to my dad. We tried to read his expression, but it was blank. Neither Kristin nor I could tell if he was angry with us.

"Kevin, I'm really sorry about treating your daughter, Lily, that way," Kristin said. "I don't know why that I didn't see it before, but now I do…I see how much you love her. And I realize that you must've missed her with all your heart. I just want you to know that I want her to stay."

"Daddy, I'm sorry too," I apologized. "I know you love Kristin, just as much as you love me. And I promise to not be rude to her and not to argue with her. I just want to start over."

Then my dad got up and wrapped his arms tightly around us. "I love both of you."

"I love you too Daddy," I said.

"I love you too Kev," Kristin said.

As he pulled away, I asked, "Are you mad at us?"

"No," my dad said as he shook his head. "I'm not mad at you guys. I'm just so happy that you two are no longer going to fight because it tears me up inside when you two do."

"I promise that we'll never fight again," I said.

My dad laughed. "Well, I don't know about never, but I know you'll stop saying such hateful things to each other."

Kristin shook her head agreeing. "Yes, we will."

My dad smiled. "Now we can go to the reunion as a happy family."

"Yep," I replied.

"Yeah. But can I talk to Lily alone?" Kristin questioned.

"Sure. I'll just be outside in the back, call me if you need anything," my dad said as he began walking away.

"We'll be fine," Kristin said, smiling.

"Okay," my dad said, just before he closed the door.

"Um…you wanted to talk to me alone?" I questioned.

"Yeah," she said. "You said that you wanted to start over?"

"Yes, I'd like to. That is if you want to," I said hesitantly.

"Oh yes," she said. "I do. I just was making sure that you wanted to."

I shook my head yes.

"And I wanted to talk to you about me being your mom and what I said to you," Kristin said.

"Okay," I said.

"I don't know how you want our relationship to be, such as friends or mother and daughter," Kristin said. "But I'm going to try and accept you. And just to let you know, I won't try to replace your mother in any way…"

"Kristin," I interrupted. "Some day, I'd like for us to have that relationship…mother and daughter," I said quietly. "Cause I've never really had a mom. Unless you don't want that."

"No, I'd love for us to have that kind of relationship," Kristin said. "But it's going to take us time."

"I know," I said. "I know that we can't just have that relationship now, it's going to take us time to get to know each other."

"Yes, but I think we'll be able to do it," Kristin said as she hugged me.

"Thank you," I said.

"You're welcome," she said as she let go. "Now do you want to go outside and play volleyball?"

"Sure," I said. "But what about your arm?"

"It's okay," she said. "I'll just sit on the porch and watch you guys."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied. "Now come on, let's go outside. Especially since I'm pretty sure that your dad is curious to know how we're doing. He probably thinks that we're at each other's throats again."

"Yeah," I said as I smiled. "We should go out there yelling at each other, I'd love to see his reaction."

Kristin laughed as we walked out of my room. "Yeah, it'd be priceless."