Chapter 104 Chapter 104
Liana's Pov
I sat against the hospital window, knees pulled into my chest, the stale smell of antiseptic heavy in the air. My arms were clasped tightly around me like a crumbly shield, attempting to put everything that had happened. Dominic had left the room feeling very heavy and the room seemed hauntingly quiet, even with the constant beeping of the machines and Lee's gentle breathing from the hospital bed.
I didn't hear the opening of the door or even fell anyone's presence until my mother's voice was a soft knock on my fraying control.
"Liana," she said, her voice heavy but soft. I turned, slowly, and met her gaze.
The second I looked at her, I broke.
Tears I'd held back all morning overflowed my cheeks as I stood and staggered into her arms. She wrapped me tightly, rubbing soothing circles on my back the way she used to when I was a child and I woke up from bad dreams.
"I tried, Mum," I whispered into her shoulder.
"I really did."
She didn't say anything for a moment. Just hugged me. And then, relaxing back slightly, she looked at me.
"Tell me what happened."
So I did. All of it — from when I'd gone into the room to see him sitting beside Lee's bed, to the way she'd looked at him. The moment she opened her eyes and froze. The storm in her voice when she screamed that she didn't like him. The way she wouldn't hear him, the way she turned her face away from him like he was poisonous. I told her all of it.
And my mom sat and listened. Quietly. Her face not changing expression. Her fingers holding a tissue but not wiping at her eyes. Just listening, nodding slowly when I paused for air, wiping at my tears when I couldn't speak due to them.
I didn't make her say any of those things," I said finally, my throat parched. "I swear. I never once told her to hate him. I—I just never mentioned him. I thought. maybe I was protecting her."
Mum sighed, folding her arms.
"I know you didn't make her say it. But no one else will believe that."
I stared at her. "What?"
"Liana, for all that you try to shoo it away, Lee's reaction is what she's learned. Maybe not from your lips, but from your behavior, your silence, your pain. Children are absorbers. She knows something has hurt you. She just doesn't know what, and now she thinks it's him."
That stung. I wasn't trying to make her feel that way. I was only trying to protect her from my own.
"I didn't want her to know she was unwanted as an adult," I whispered, rubbing my temple. "I didn't want her to think she was a mistake."
"She's not a mistake, Liana," Mum said, edging closer. "And neither was the fact that her father appeared. However badly he handled it, he's her father. And she's entitled to know him."
I shook my head. "He left. He didn't want anything to do with us."
"Yes. And that is inexcusable," Mum said, her voice raising just a little. "That's why we're going to court. We'll fight for custody. You will protect her. That's what mothers do."
I swallowed. I had envisioned court — judges, attorneys, evidence. A nasty, long fight. But a part of me had clung to the idea that I just could keep Lee away and that would be it. That I could keep her from the muck of my past. But my mother was correct. Dominic was her father. That would never change.
"But you must get her to see the truth. And you must get her to accept it," Mum continued. "Even if you hate him. Even if it destroys you within. Because this is no longer just about you."
Her words hit me like a splash of cold water.
"But I don't want him near her, Mum," I said, my voice trembling. "What if he hurts her all over again?"
"Then you'll be there. And you'll catch her. You'll never stop being her mother. But you can't erase him."
I leaned back in the hospital couch, covering my face with my hands. My whole body hurt — not just physically, but emotionally, spiritually. I'd been drained, every bit of strength wrung out.
"I just. I'm not ready for this," I whispered.
"Do you imagine any of us are?" Mum said, sitting down next to me. "Do you think I wanted to see you weep over some bloke again? Do you think I want to have to trust him after what he did to you? But this isn't about us. It's about Lee.". And whether we like it or not, Lee needs to know who her father is.
Otherwise, she'll create her own story.
There was a silence between us for a moment. The kind that said a thousand words we were too tired to say.
"She wouldn't even allow him to speak," I said at last.
"She's a child," Mum said. "She's hurting, confused, maybe even scared. But you can help her find her way through this."
I leaned against her shoulder, eyes closed.
“I feel like I’m going to break.”
“You won’t,” she said. “You’re your mother’s daughter.”
A soft laugh escaped me — dry and choked, but real.
We both inclined to glance in Lee's direction, her still peacefully sleeping. Her little hands were placed beside her on the hospital bed, face calm but pale. I knew she needed my presence. But she needed more than my protection. She needed visibility. She needed truth.
She needed a mother brave enough to face the past so her daughter would not be weighed down by it.
I don't even know where to begin," I said.
"Start with forgiveness," Mum said, covering her hand with mine. "Not for his sake. For hers. For yours.".
I looked at her then. For the first time in years, I saw past her strength — into her exhaustion, her fear. She was scared too. Scared for me. For Lee. For the fight ahead. But she stayed strong because she had to.
And now, so would I.
"I'll talk with her," I said. "When she wakes up, I'll tell her. I'll tell her the truth."
Mum nodded slowly. "Good. That's all you can do. One day at a time."
I exhaled and stood up, returning to Lee's bedside. I grasped her little hand and wrapped my fingers around it. She stirred slightly in sleep, then settled back again.
I wasn't ready. But I was willing.
And maybe. maybe that was enough for now.