Chapter 89

Chapter 92
Harper

Fear engulfs my body. Who is that man? Momma is talking telling us how happy she is to be free and I am happy for her. I am happy for all of us but now with this man showing me the slit your throat gesture - has shivers running up and down my spine.

Taylor hasn’t noticed, she is too engrossed telling momma all about her classes and what she has planned for her birthday and her new boyfriend. Which does make my ears prick up. I didn’t even know my little sister had a boyfriend. I need to pay more attention. Let’s face it all those hormones will be on the rampage and she needs to have the sex talk very soon.

“I can’t wait to see what you girls have done with the house,” momma says as I turn to her and force a smile on my face. As soon as we are home, I need to get hold of Levy and let him know what just happened. Maybe this is connected to why he left and went out of town.

Am I in danger? Alarm bells start cursing through me as momma chats about her program. “I need to attend a session on a weekly basis. They said it would be good for me and there is a group session I would like to also participate in. My counsellor mentioned that if you girls wanted to join you could. Perhaps you might want to discuss your feelings.”

“I want to go,” pipes up Taylor. “I think it would be useful. What do you think, Harper?”

“Sure,” I reply then realize I sound off-hand. Of course I am the man has given me the fears. “I mean yes of course I would love to attend. Personally, I think we all have some issues we need to deal with and if we do it as a family it could benefit all of us,” I add to the conversation.

“Thank you, girls. It means a lot to me. Above anything else I want to stay clean and sober. It’s going to take a lot of hard work but I think I can do this with both of you by my side. Also,” Momma says as she places a hand on my thigh. “I’m thinking of doing online courses. You know to get back into the job market and provide for my family.”

“Wow, Momma that would be amazing,” I reply as I indicate to take the next exit to the road that leads to our town.

“Thanks, honey. It’s time. You have been the mother for way too long and looked after everything. If you hadn’t of gotten me to the hospital as quick as you did by calling the ambulance,” Momma’s voice is quiet before it trails off.

I give her hand a squeeze. “Momma, I’d do anything for you. You know that, right?” She nods.

“Can we talk about something less depressing please?” Taylor says from the back. This has been a lot for a young girl like her to digest and take in.

“Absolutely,” I say. We chat about the nice things momma has done whilst in rehab. Apparently, she has been doing a lot of reading, she even started a patchwork quilt project that she intends to pick up on when she goes back for her weekly visits. I’m looking forward to her bringing it home.

We pull into our drive. I park in front of our garage. “Oh, my,” Momma says and places a hand to her heart. “This looks beautiful. Girls, what a surprise. It looks new and pretty. And will you take a look at those flowers.” She is eager to get out of the car and survey all the hard work we put into the house alongside Levy and Dylan.

“That Levy is a good man,” she says wistfully. I tilt my head.

“He is, momma.”

“He’s Harper’s boyfriend, Momma.” I give my sister a death kill stare she shrugs her shoulders. So much for keeping everything quiet until our mother has had a chance to get used to being back home.

Momma turns quicker than a frying pan on fire. “What was that?”

“Er, Levy and I are dating, Momma.” Do I sound sheepish. Yep! And why should I? Just because he is older than me, I don’t have anything to be ashamed of. And nobody on this planet is going to make me feel otherwise. What I have for Levy is real, it is my heart, body and soul and I know he feels the same way about me.

“You are dating our neighbor?” Her eyes are wide.

I nod. “Yes, we’ve been seeing each other for the last month practically. We love each other.”

Momma digests this bit of information then scrunches her eyes and holds her finger and thumb to the bridge of her nose. “Levy. As in Levy, Dylan’s father? Your ex-boyfriend’s daddy?”

“That’s the one, Momma. Is there a problem with that.”

Momma releases her nose, good job otherwise I think she might forget to breathe. Taylor is watching the interaction and seriously I could kick her in the shin for being a huge blabber mouth.

“Isn’t he a bit too old for you? How does Dylan feel about that?”

“Let’s go inside shall we, Momma and not do this on the street for everyone to see,” I tell her as I go in front of her on the path and press the key fob to release the auto lock on the door. Then she notices the two burly men standing either side of the property.

“Who are they? What are they doing by the house? Harper, do you have some explaining to do?”

Shit, this could all be way too much for momma to take in. I inhale deeply and open the door. “You aren’t going to like it. How about I make us all some tea and we sit down in the lounge and I will let you know everything that has been going on.” Fuck, the last thing I want to do is tell my momma on her first day out all about that prick, asshole who tried to rape me.

“Good idea, because I want to know everything!”

Inside, I place my bag on the hook by the front door and slip out of my shoes. Taylor removes her shoes and follows me inside with momma.

“Gracious, this is a whole new make-over. And the wall colors, I love the ivory it goes with everything. And the kitchen cabinets. Harper this is, I don’t know what to say.” Instead of talking she comes to me and wraps her arms around me.

“We wanted it to be special, Momma and give you a fresh new start.” I go and fill the kettle with water and press the on button and grab some cups and saucers out of the cabinet.

Momma and Taylor take a seat at the small island whilst I wait for the kettle to boil and fix some fresh tea into a pot. “First, tell me about those two men outside,” momma says.

Inhaling and feeling sick to my core having to relive the incident even though I’ve done it countless times with my therapist; I tell my momma about the incident. She looks absolutely horrified as you would expect with her hand over her mouth and tears in her eyes.

“Oh, Harper I am sorry this happened to you. I don’t think I can live with myself knowing I am the root cause.” She hangs her head low. Taylor gives her a hug.

“Don’t say that, Momma. What happened, happened. We need to remain focused on your recovery and not about negativity. So yeah, that explains the guys outside. We want to protect you momma from any unwanted sleazebags and to help keep you clean.”

“Thank you, sweetheart. It means the world to me. Now tell me about you and Levy. I promise I won’t judge. It’s just a shock is all.”

And so, I tell her about Levy and I. I tell her about the ranch he has bought in Montana and how he’d like us all to vacation there soon. Momma’s eyes light up and she tells me she would love to go visit Montana.

I pour the hot water into the pot and we talk some more as we then drink out rea.

“I have to call, Levy he wanted to make sure everything went well.” I also want to discuss with him the man in the car park.

If he has something he is keeping from me, now is the time to tell me.