Henry.
“Jeremy, go to the room and don’t come out,” Anna said, kissing the child’s head. He looked at me confused and then frightened at the door, still being brutally pounded by Anna’s mother.
Damn, everything was too perfect; I should have assumed that this would happen, that something would ruin it.
“Anna, open up! They’re in there!” she began to shout. God, that woman is still a nightmare, and knowing that we live near her… It’s going to bring us trouble. I know it.
Jeremy ran to the room and closed the door, obeying his mother. Anna had shiny eyes; she wanted to cry, but her cold expression didn’t change. She approached the door, closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and looked at me. She looked at me with fear. She looked at me as if asking me to make this moment disappear. I couldn’t; it was something she and I had to face. Her mother has no say in this; only we do.
“What do you want, Mom?” Anna shouted, trying to keep calm. She didn’t want this, I know; she just wanted to be at peace with Jeremy and me. But sooner or later, we had to do this because obviously, her mother would never accept it.
“I want you to open the door, ungrateful girl. Now!”
Upon hearing the words “ungrateful girl,” Anna reacted. She turned red, her eyes widened even more, and her nostrils breathed on their own. She opened the door abruptly, walked to the living room with her back to her mother. She walked quickly toward her, not noticing my presence, and the first thing she did was try to hit her, or at least grab her hair. When she was raising her hand to do it, I took her arm and pulled her away from Anna. She doesn’t touch her, no one touches her, not even her.
“Let go of me, you degenerate! Look at what you cause!” she started yelling and hitting me, but I wasn’t going to let her go knowing she could hurt Anna. If she hurts Anna, she hurts me, and let’s say I wouldn’t react very peacefully to that.
Anna turned around and looked at me confused, not knowing why I took her mother by the arm. “I was going to hit you,” I said, and her eyes turned shiny again. She closed her mouth and swallowed forcefully as she looked at her mother.
“What are you doing here, Mom?” Her voice was broken; I wanted to hug her and tell her that everything is okay, but that would make the situation much worse.
“What am I doing here? I came to get you! You’re coming with me now, and you’ll beg your fiance for forgiveness for what you did! Do you want to leave the child here? Do it. I don’t care. But you won’t ruin your future again for…” She looked at me, and her disgusted expression left much to be desired, although it almost made me laugh. “This.”
Anna took her head in her hands and started crying. God, seeing her cry breaks my soul and reminds me of the little Anna, the one who begged for her mother’s approval… I feel like kicking the intruder out and going to the farthest point of the universe away from her.
“No! I won’t do that! You’re no one to tell me what the hell to do anymore!” She approached her, her face inches from her mother’s. “He, just like five years ago, is the man I love and want in my life today! If you don’t understand, it’s not my damn problem! And how can you say that about your grandson?! Do you not have a heart?! Have you never loved anyone?”
“Yes, your father, and look how we are. He left me alone with two ungrateful kids that I had to raise on my own! My son, a drug addict, and my daughter, a whor…”
Before she could finish, Anna slapped her. I let go of her mother and grabbed Anna’s waist, pulling her away. The moment she did it, the girl in my arms let out a muffled scream and grabbed the hand she used to hit. Her face of remorse was very noticeable.
“Mama, I… I’m sorry,” she says, trying to approach her again, but I prevented her. The woman in front of us looked at us with a twisted smile.
“I don’t know why I had you. Seriously, you’re useless. I thought you were going to do something with your life five years ago, and you only ended up spreading your legs for your ex-boss. You know? At least you could have asked him to pay you, so at least you’d be good for something.”
Suddenly everything turned red for me. Now it was my turn to attack. I let go of Anna and approached the piece of crap that’s looking at me with fear.
“Learn to shut your mouth,” I grabbed her blouse and lifted it just a little, “say something else, come on. That way you’ll give me a reason to…”
“Henry, stop, please, stop,” Anna took my shoulder and tried to pull me back, but I didn’t step back.
“She serves better than you in many things. She’s a better mother than you. She’s a better person than you. She’s braver than you. She’s stronger than you. She’s more valuable than you. She’s more of a fighter than you. And she’s the best person and woman I know. You did nothing to make her this way, no, no. With your ignorance, your bad temper, your lack of love, your way of ignoring her, not supporting her when she needed you, with all of that, you pushed her to become what she is today. And for what she is today, I will defend her with everything I have, and I’ll care little if you’re a woman or not. She is my life.”
Anna’s mom looked at me with wide eyes. I let her go with the disgust I truly felt for her and saw Jeremy behind me, clinging to his mother’s leg, looking at me and his grandmother.
“What’s happening?” Jeremy asked, with half of his face hidden in his mother’s thigh.
“After all he did to you, he left you raising a child alone, Anna. Are you going to leave Dave for him?”
Anna looked at me, gave me a half-smile, and then touched Jeremy’s head.
“I love him, Mom,” she said simply. My heart literally skipped a beat. Am I the only one, then? Is she not going back to Dave? I’ll ask those questions later with pleasure.
Not very pleased with her daughter’s response, she looked at Jeremy.
“Do you know that the piece of crap here is your father?” she spat, looking at the child.
That ended my patience and shattered the child’s world. His face told me everything. He looked between his mother and me, shook his head, and the tears started flowing. He let go of his mother and sat on the floor. Yes, this completely breaks my heart. He shouldn’t find out like this, damn it!
I grabbed the shoulder of the nasty woman and dragged her out of the house, slamming the door in her face. Damn, I’m really pissed off. Anna is in some kind of shock, looking at the child and not knowing what she’s supposed to do.
“This isn’t over, Anna! I won’t tell Dave about this! You have a week to come back home, or you’ll see what happens!”
And just like that, she left.
I approached Jeremy, who anticipated my move because he looked at me as if touching him would hurt. He stood up and ran quickly to the room.
When I tried to go after him, Anna stopped me by wrapping her arms around my waist.
“Give him time. He needs to think for a bit and remember that he truly adores you and that this won’t be a problem.”
“I just thought it wouldn’t affect him so much… He’s four years old,” I whispered back, taking her hands and squeezing them tighter against my stomach.
“Henry, I told him that his father was in heaven,” I turned to look at her directly. I was surprised and hurt. “He always thought you were dead. He kept asking about you, why his classmates have a dad, and ‘where is my dad?’ I didn’t want to tell him the truth, so I lied and said that. I didn’t want him to feel unloved. Jeremy is very sensitive.”
“You could have told him that I was coming back.”
I was outraged. My voice said it. I was outraged, angry, and sad.
“Are you kidding? I didn’t know you were coming back. I thought you’d never do it,” she responded with noticeable irritation.
“I don’t want to talk right now, Anna,” I replied simply. I don’t know if I’m angry with her or with myself, and before saying something stupid, I decided to step away from her warm proximity and locked myself in the bathroom. When two minutes passed and she didn’t open the door, probably pissed off at my anger, I thanked the heavens that she didn’t. It would have been World War III. When we fight, there’s nothing that can stop us, and right now, nothing can hold me back.