Mrs. Avery

Chapter 26

Of course there were the 3 pictures that she had shown the children... and then one very long message to follow.  Her fingers started to make strong indents in her thigh as her other hand scrolled to the top of the message.

Agnes, I know that I'm the last person that you want to be talking to, but there was no way we weren't going to share this with you. We would love for you to come meet your new nephew, Liam James Avery, and it would absolutely make Molly's day. She hated going through this pregnancy without you. She said you knew how to make the right kind of fuss over a new baby. We love you and we're sorry for the stunt we pulled at the house, but it was 2 years ago now. We have only seen you in passing since then and it's absolutely breaking Molly's heart. We both miss you. James has already visited the hospital so your visits won't overlap and he will stay out of it. We're done with all of that. We're sorry we pushed it. We know it was wrong and looking back we should have seen it then, but we didn't. Please, just please reach out to your sister.

Agnes paused to look up at the ceiling and breathe before reading on.

We know we fucked up, but we can't take it back and we just need you to tell us how to fix it. Agnes, we will do anything. We just want the entire family back together. We want you to be a part of our children's lives. I know that we made everything weird with you and James, but if we keep out of it, then maybe you two could go back to being friends like you had originally planned. Please, just please consider it. We love you.

She probably put the phone down a little too hard, but she started digging into her thighs and rocking back and forth to try to control the tears that wanted to come.

Of course, James, came down the stairs at that moment, she took a startled breath and wiped her face.

"Hey, whatcha doing?" He asked walking past her into the kitchen.

"Ah nothing, just looking at some old pictures." Her voice sounded off so he knew she was lying, but in an effort to be a considerate adult he played along.

"What did you find?"

"Just some really old pictures of the kids." Her voice broke and James decided he couldn't ignore it anymore. He put down the dishes he was putting away and sighed. He wasn't at all sure how this would go. He walked back around to the living room and saw the grip she had on her own thigh.

He smacked her lightly on the shoulder. "Hey stop that."

She realized immediately and brought her hands together as she flattened her legs under the coffee table. Without her hand in the way, he could see that she had quite a few bruises already, which surprised him. He had been giving her plenty of time to go see Evan. If that was still how she handled stress then she should be fine right now or maybe this was far worse for her. He wasn't sure.

She was quietly hoping he would just walk away. All she needed was for someone to show her sympathy to break down about something like this. And of course that's exactly what he did. He slid his hand onto her shoulder.

"Agnes, now that we have two kids together.... Secrets seem unnecessary." He tried to sound playfully patronizing.

"Ughhh." She groaned deeply and smacked him on the knee as she tried to laugh. "I'm fine."

"Yeah, I totally believe you. What are you looking at?"

That was when she broke. She silently handed over the phone as the tears started to build again. He read it quietly while she looked down and started grabbing at her thighs again. When he finished, he slipped onto the floor next to her.

He slid his hand in between her hand and her thigh. She grabbed onto it. He put the phone onto the coffee table and just looked at her.

She brought her eyes to his. "I was supposed to come home that Christmas, you know. Momma and I had this big family picture planned. I ordered a tripod and we were going to surprise them." She took a gasping breath. "I had a bad cold when Liam was born so Momma and I talked about how it was important to keep my distance until it was gone," Her face was pained and her breathing came in shudders. "but I was so excited to come home." She sobbed for a bit and put both hands over her face. "And then they died. The day before I was supposed to get here."