Dark Legacy by Jen Talty (reading books for 4 year olds .txt) 📗

“Until my mother brings her crazy.”

“Don’t you dare go bringing up one incident that happened ten years ago. Besides, your mother’s bark is worse than her bite, and I have no problem handling her.”

“You don’t have a problem handling anyone.” Shannon took the phone in her hands and flipped through what seemed like a hundred images. She fought the tears threatening to fill her eyes. Annette had been her guardian angel in more ways than one. Even today, she proved to be a lifeline.

“I want you to promise me you will come to the next family gathering. I won’t take no for an answer.”

“It’s overwhelming.”

“So?” Annette took another swig of her beer. Her face scrunched, making her wrinkles double.

“I don’t do the intimacy thing very well. You know that. Hell, you’re the only one who knows everything. Besides my mother, who doesn’t acknowledge anything, but only because that would make her look bad. Outside of my therapist, you’re the only person I trust with my emotions.”

Annette arched a brow. “George knows, and it’s about time you start trusting some people. Sweetheart, you may not need a man, but living without intimacy…that’s a lonely world. Now, promise me you will come, or I’m going to drive up and drag you kicking and screaming.”

“I promise,” Shannon said, knowing Annette would never quit, and she’d also follow through on her threat. Ever since that fateful morning, Annette had gone from a young lady tossed into a world she didn’t understand and trapped in an abusive marriage with no way out, to a woman who would never allow another person to take advantage of her again.

Nor would she let those she loved whimper in self-pity.

“Good. I’m going to hold you to it.”

Shannon tossed her napkin over her empty plate and finished off the nasty beer by plugging her nose. “Imagine if we did this more than once a year? We’d surely die of a heart attack.”

Annette smiled. “Probably, but it would be worth it.”

Shannon laughed. “Agreed.”

“So, I can tell something is troubling you.” Annette never let her get away with anything, and she had a horrible habit of calling Shannon on her bullshit. Of all the people in her life, Annette was the only person she could count on to be brutally honest. “I’m not letting you out of here until you tell me what got under your skin.”

“My mother showed up today and told me I should put a picture of my dad in my office. I know that shouldn’t bother me, but it’s the way she goes about shoving this crazy, screwed, false history she has of him down my throat.”

Annette frowned. “Yeah. Your mom lives in fantasy land. How she can pretend it never—”

“I love you, Annette, but you don’t need to say it.”

“But that’s part of the problem. Your mother doesn’t, and you want her to at least acknowledge that it happened to you.”

And that was the rub. Shannon wanted her mother to put her arms around her, hold her, and tell her that it wasn’t her fault. That she hadn’t done anything wrong. Just once, she wished her mother would put aside her fear of what she thought the world would see and take a closer look at her daughter and the reality she’d lived.

“We’re way past that. My mother’s just stressing out over my stepsister’s wedding and making me unusually crazy because I have seen her more often. And you know what that does to me.” Shannon knew she sounded as if she were making excuses for her mother, but she wasn’t. Sadly, Shannon understood her mother more than she wanted to. “It’s not about my dad, but about her having the life she thinks she deserves. And what my father did taints that. Sometimes, I think she honestly believes that no one knew my father ever cheated on her. Of course, that’s why she left him.”

“You’re deflecting.” Annette leaned back and narrowed her eyes. It was her skeptical look, and it always unnerved Shannon—more because ever since that day in her father’s kitchen, Annette had developed an uncanny ability to read Shannon. She was better at it than most trained therapists.

“Stop looking at me like that.” Shannon let out a long breath before sucking in a deep one, letting her lungs fill with as much oxygen as she could.

“Your mother does this shit every year. Something else happened. I suspect it has to do with why you really hired Jackson.” Annette lowered her chin. “And don’t lie to me by saying you’re trying to find some client.”

Shannon’s heart dropped to the pit of her stomach. “Do you ever wonder what became of my baby girl?”

“Yes,” she said. “Every day, and you know that. But I’ve always respected your wishes.”

“I want to know she’s okay and that I did the right thing.”

“You know you did the right thing, sugar,” Annette said. “I’m not saying it was easy, but considering who you were back then, and your father…it was the only sane choice you could have made.”

“I’m not sure I ever had a choice.” Shannon felt a bubble of rage. Not that she thought she would have made a good mother, but she’d never been given a chance to choose.

Until her father died.

Annette reached across the table and grabbed Shannon’s hand. “You didn’t have a choice about what your father did to you. Or those men your father was involved with. But you could have made other choices when it came to the baby, and you didn’t. Just like I chose to put an end to the madness.”

“I thought about aborting, but it was too late.”

“You were sixteen.” Annette squeezed Shannon’s hand hard. “You were alone. All the people who were supposed to protect you, failed you.”

“You didn’t.”

“In a way, I did. I think, under the circumstances, you did a very brave thing by giving her up for adoption.”

“Did I?” The baby girl’s cry echoed in Shannon’s mind. To this day, she could still