Daisy's Choice (A Tale of Three Hearts) (55 page)

“
Aiden isn’t… you’re right… a million dollars ain’t worth it. No amount of money is. I met him and things went wrong. What I done, ain’t on just him. He didn’t force me. Hell, Sandra, he didn’t even trick me. I knew what it was and I… I did it anyway. It’s done. I stayed away because of that. I know I did the right thing by the way you two are looking at me and the way you judging me. I can’t keep apologizing for it though. Either you can forgive me or not. This ain’t easy for me, and I know it ain’t easy for you or for mama. I did what I thought I had to do.”

Denise glared. “You stayed away cause you were ashamed. But you’re right. That was five years ago. I may not like what happened to you, what choices you made, but I love you. That’s it. You hear me? That’s all there is.”

Sandra sighed, the last to give in. “I want too kick your tail from here to the Kentucky Derby. But I love you too. Stop acting like you don’t need us. I ain’t buying it. We need you too.” She only took a step. Daisy went to her and threw her arms around her neck, a geyser of tears exploding from that embrace. Tears of relief. Denise wrapped them both in her arms, holding tight to her sisters.

****

“
What they out there talking about?” Martha asked.

Janette walked over. Her sisters seemed to be arguing, and then from nowhere embracing. “You know what mama.”

“
Look at this place,” Martha said, ignoring the comment. She looked around and frowned. “Place ain’t nowhere to raise a baby. Definitely something Daisy would do.”

“
Mama, you said you wouldn’t.”

Martha waved her off. “Amy still asleep?”

“
Yeah, she’s worn out. Girl had the party of a lifetime. Daisy is doing good with her, isn’t she?”

Martha remained unimpressed. “I remember when Daisy was that age, stubborn and defiant. Your daddy spoiled you girls rotten, but that one out there, the worst.”

“
He loved us all equally, mama.”

“
Mmhmm,” Martha said, shaking her head, “She say who the father is yet? That nasty man ain’t here, so I’m guessing it ain't him.”

“
Pete,” Janette said. “Give her some time. She’ll open up and talk to you about it.”

“
Praise God!” Martha threw her hands up and shook her head in relief.

Janette frowned. Martha clapped her hands together, and rejoiced as if a burden was lifted from her shoulders alone. “Go upstairs and check on the baby. I want to talk to Daisy.”

“
Mama. Don’t. Not now. Let things settle some.”

“
Nonsense. She’s my daughter and we need to talk.”

Janette sighed. “Be right back.”

Martha didn’t flinch at her daughter’s disapproval. She had played the bad guy many times with her girls, since her husband raised them with soft hands. But it was just her now, and Daisy was the one child she feared for the most. Willful, stubborn, she just didn’t value all the teachings she tried to give her through the years. She looked around the beach house and bristled at the extravagance. If she had earned it, that would be one thing. But the place felt sullied to her, considering everything she had learned and suspected.

Her daughters laughed. Martha’s glare focused back to the patio doors. They were laughing with each other. She felt them bonding. Despite her disappointment in Daisy, she accepted the small dose of relief at finally having them together. Then she heard the knocking to the front door. She eyed it, curiously, looked back to where Daisy was and decided to answer it for herself.

****

Aiden paced. He was halfway out of Mango Grove when he turned around and drove dangerously fast to her doorstep. He almost called her, but decided not to. What he had to say, he had to say face to face. Inside, he carried a lightening storm of anger, hurt, and disappointment that he couldn’t process with everyone watching. He left to keep from acting on his pain and to keep from taking it out on the one person he didn’t want to hurt. But the further he went from her, the more it hurt.

With the shock of the paternity easing, he just needed to talk to her and tell her how he felt, taking the risk. That’s what he’d do. Talk to Daisy and have her help make sense of it. Get his head right, before… before he went the wrong way. Because he was so desperate, he wanted to make someone pay.

His chest bulked with anger and his nostrils flared. His temper was still barely manageable. She calmed him in ways he couldn’t explain. He just needed to see her. Turning to the door, he began to pound. Suddenly it opened. But he was now face to face with an older version of his lady. Daisy’s mother.

“
Ah. I’m Aiden and—”

“
I know who you are,” Martha said, stepping out and closing the door behind her.

Aiden stepped back, looking her up and down. The disgust in her eyes was the last thing he needed. “I want to see Daisy. Is she home?”

“
She doesn’t want to see you.”

Aiden expected those words from the woman who openly seethed when he was near her daughter. But he had to
hear
those words from Daisy. He had nothing to offer her now. No way to threaten her and no way to leverage himself in her life. With nothing to bargain with, it took every ounce of his swallowing his pride to come back on bended knees. His apology was buried deep in his throat. So deep he might not be able to even speak the words.

“
Can you tell her I’m here?”

“
No.”

“
Mrs. Johnson, I appreciate what you think you’re doing, but Daisy's a grown woman. If she wants me to leave, she’ll have to come out here and tell me herself.”

“
She won’t. My daughter has lived in fear for five years thanks to you. You got in her head and twisted everything that me and my husband put in our child. I’m not afraid of you. You hear me?”

Aiden shook his head. “This is fucking ridiculous. You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about!” he snapped.

Martha’s eyes stretched wide at his cursing. She paled. Aiden tried to pull it back in, but it was too late and she was hitting all the wrong buttons, pushing him too hard. “Okay, I’m not attacking you. It’s not what I’m trying to do. I just need to talk to Daisy.”

“
You get away from here!” Martha hissed. “Today, she found out that she doesn’t have to put up with your harassment anymore. Janette told me how you been chasing her all these years, scaring her! She’s free. You hear me! Free of you! At last! Thank you Jesus!” she pointed a finger at Aiden “I know what you did, Mr. Keane. I think you’re disgusting. No. I take that back. I know you’re disgusting. Taking advantage of kids and using your money to corrupt my child. You pervert!”

“
You have got to be kidding me.”

“
Shut up!” Martha yelled back at him. “You hurt her so bad she had to change her name to keep you away. Got that baby upstairs just as confused!”

Aiden glared at her but held his tongue.

“
What’s worse is what you did to Amy. Now we got to help that poor child understand that you aren’t her father. I don’t know how you brainwashed Daisy to even agree to it. But the good Lord stepped in and banished you.
Get thee back, Satan
!”

Aiden didn’t follow. His eyes went up to the top level of the beach house and then fell back on the woman before him. He wiped his hand down his face and evened his tone. “I love Amy. I didn’t do anything to hurt her. You’re the one that’s twisted. You have this all confused in that head of yours. All I’ve tried to do is make things right”

“
I saw how you work. Out there on the beach, pretending to be the daddy. I saw the way you looked at my daughter. Lustful.”

Aiden laughed.

“
You think this is funny?”

“
I don’t have time for this. Hate me. I don't care. Just tell Daisy I’m here!”

“
Serpent! That’s what you are. Pete told my husband what you were. What you did to them. Dangled that forbidden fruit in front of my child and lured her away from us, you devil!”

“
Pete? Of course, so this is where this is coming from, playing into your superstitions.”

“
My faith isn’t a superstition!” Martha hissed.

"It is when you use it to damn people without giving them a fair hearing.”

“
Is it fair that my husband had to leave this earth thinking his daughter was lost to him because you wanted to play games with all our lives! What you did to her ripped my family apart. And look at you. You aren’t repentant!”

“
Mrs. Johnson, you need to hear me out.”

Martha Johnson stepped up to his face. “That’s what you are, Mr. Keane. A devil. Distort things, make a person believe in the lie, turn away from the truth. That’s what you are.”

Aiden stepped back, putting distance between them. She’d pushed the final button. His patience was done and his nerves were frayed. She’d caught him battle weary. He just didn’t have the energy to deal with a mother lioness guarding her cubs. Aiden couldn’t risk alienating Daisy further by verbally sparring with her mother. He wouldn’t try to convince this woman that Daisy loved more than him, that she was a willing participant. “I don’t blame you for not trusting me. But your daughter does. She forgave me. That’s what you taught her. That’s why I—”

“
Why what?”

“
You’re right about me. The truth isn’t something I deal in, but I’ll give it to you now. I love her. And I love Amy. All I want to do is tell her that, and I’ll go.” As soon as he confessed it aloud to someone other than Daisy, it freed him. Words he could never muster to another, other than Daisy, just came out. Aiden wheezed, winded by it. But those words were lost on Martha Johnson. She just glared in disgust.

“
You’ll leave now. If you love her, then you know better than me that your black heart will do nothing but destroy her. I can see it on you. Something is wrong with you, and I don’t want my child getting sucked into the arms of a man that has no faith in anything but his money!”

Aiden’s eyes slipped away. She peeled off the scab too soon, and he bled internally. She was right. He could very well cost her custody if Pete was as vengeful as he was at heart. Loving her and admitting to it wasn’t hard, but being the man that could build something out of it was. He just didn’t know if he was. And who was he to ask her to risk her future on a maybe?

He stepped back. “I’ll call her. Tell her that.” He turned and went to his car. As he got in, he couldn’t shake the cool stare Mrs. Johnson kept trained on him. She watched him while he backed out. He threw the car in reverse and sped out of the drive. Picking up the phone, he placed a call to Donovan.

****

Daisy laughed. She looked back through the house and saw her mother walking in from the front foyer. Martha crossed the living area heading for the kitchen again. “How much does mama know about me and Pete and who Aiden is to me?”

Her question silenced her sisters. So much so she looked at them to see if they had heard her. They had.

“
She knows about the deal, and Amy, the paternity test, all of it,” Sandra offered, capturing her blowing locks and pulling them away from her face in a makeshift ponytail.

“
Janette had to tell her plenty to get her to come. She was so angry, Daisy. You know how she is.”

“
Yeah. Its time she and I talked, I guess. We should clear the air.”

“
Wait.” Denise grabbed her hand. “Mama isn’t coming from a bad place, Daisy. She grew up old school. That means she thinks daddy spoiled you too much. She’s really hurt by the way he died, the way you left and the way it all went down. You understand?”

“
I know she loves me, Denise, but she has to accept the parts of me she doesn’t agree with. You right. I need my family. I need her. So I’ll go in and show her some respect. I just want a little in return.”

Denise nodded. “Yeah, I understand.”

****

Martha fiddled with the cordless phone, looking for a way to shut off the ringer. But it would just ring in other parts of the house. She turned it on and then stuck it in the drawer just as Daisy sauntered in. Turning, she smiled. “Oh, I thought I heard you come in.”

“
What are you doing?”

“
Cleaning up this fancy kitchen of yours,” she said, dusting her hands.

“
Mama, you didn’t have to do that.”

“
I wanted to. Had to put up all that food. Tried to give some away, especially the cake. Amy ate too much, you know.”

“
She likes cake,” Daisy said, walking in. Martha shook her head in agreement with her daughter but didn’t say more. She stared at Daisy for a moment. “I wanted to talk to you, Daisy, to tell you I’m sorry.”