Chapter 18 Chapter 18
When the door opened a few hours later and I recognized the sound of my mother's familiar shuffle of steps followed by the quicker patter of Cam's sneakers, I stood up from the couch, prepared to joke with them about how long errands were lasting these days.
"Did you two get lost in the store again?" I shouted, trying to keep my tone light.
No response.
I frowned, rounding the corner, looking for at least a smile from Mum or Cam's duty-free breathless rundown of some school drama, but they were both away. Not tired, and if they were, I would have gotten it. This was not like it. Cam had her shoulders rolled forward, her face puffy and red like she'd cried before, and Mum… her eyes refused to meet mine.
A frozen terror gripped me. "What's wrong?
Mum carefully placed the shopping bags on the ground and breathed out slowly. "We need to talk."
I glanced between her and Cam. "Okay…"
Mum leaned against the counter with her arms crossed. "Something went on at Cams school."
Cam's face flinched, and her head fell.
"Did Cam get into trouble?"
Mum shook her head no and continued, her voice low. "Some kids were talking about that post. It had spread for some reason. Someone called Cam." She swallowed hard. "They said she was the daughter of a slut. One even asked her if she even had a father."
The world tilted for a second.
My hands stopped moving.
"What?" I whispered.
Mum nodded. "The school handled it straight away. The teachers handled it and called the parents and me. But Cam." Her voice cracked a little. "She was very upset."
I hadn't even realized I was standing up until I sat back down to my knees and opened my arms.
Cam crept into them quietly.
Her little body shuddered against mine.
I hugged her close, not willing to let go.
"Oh, baby," I breathed in her hair, tracing my fingers through it slowly. "I'm so sorry it happened to you."
She didn't say anything, only snuffled into my shoulder, and I let her. Allow the silence to fill for her pain. Allow my arms to try to do what my words couldn't yet.
Mum slipped by unobtrusively and made for the kitchen. Water poured, pots clanked, but it was all ambient noise as I gently coaxed Cam onto the sofa beside me and continued to cradle her.
She eventually pulled back far enough to gaze up at me.
Her cheeks flushed pink, her eyes rimmed in red. "Is it true?"
I froze.
That one, so simple, yet so sharp it could cut all the way through flesh and into the heart.
I took a breath. Then another.
I couldn't lie. But I couldn't bleed all over her either.
So I answered gently. "Someone wrote something about me that wasn't true. They took pieces of things, twisted them, and made up a story meant to hurt me. Mevand the people who care about me. Like you."
She gazed at me, her brow creased in confusion. "But why would someone do that?"
"Sometimes. when people see a woman who's independent, or assertive, or just being in a way they don't agree with, they want to bring her down." I paused. "Especially if they're scared of her. Or jealous. Or just mean."
Cam looked down at her hands, her voice small. "But you're not a bad person. I know you're not."
That broke something in me.
I moved forward, forehead against forehead. "And I will never let what they say change that. Not in your eyes. Not mine."
She blinked at me. "So… I do have a dad, right?"
That one hurt in a different way.
"Of course, baby. You do. He's just not here with us anymore. That doesn't mean he didn't exist or that he didn't love you. You are not a mistake. You are not shameful. You are mine. And I am so, so proud to be your mother."
She nodded, nibbling her lip. "Can I still go to school tomorrow?"
I pushed a strand of hair out of her face. "Only if you want to."
"I do," she said. "But only if you do too."
I smiled through the blur in my eyes. "Then we'll both show tomorrow."
We sat in silence again, the clock ticking quietly in the background, the sound of Mum cooking grounding us in the mundane world as we sat amidst something that had changed everything.
I kissed the top of Cam's head. "You know what? You're the bravest girl I know."
She looked up at me, her eyes glinting with unshed tears, confused. "Braver than a superhero?"
"So much braver. Because you didn't hide from something ugly. You faced it. You allowed yourself to cry. And now you're willing to go back, even when it's frightening. That's real courage."
She smiled slightly, bashfully. "May I have extra nuggets for dinner? For the courage?"
I laughed, actually, for the first time that day. "You can have all the nuggets."
Grandma's voice floated from the kitchen. "Well, now that you've negotiated for extra nuggets, come help set the table, Miss Courage."
Cam hauled herself off my lap and ran to help, lighter now, still recuperating but standing a bit more erect.
I lingered there a bit, gazing at where she'd been, the silence insinuating itself back into my bones.
The world had thrown its hurtful rocks.
But we were still here.
Still standing. Still mother and daughter, guarding the line.