Free Evie's Knight by Kimberly Krey Page B

on the empty space at his side. “So I’m just supposed to picture her as some perfectly healthy, happily adjusted person? There’s no way.”
    “She was selfish, Evie. That’s all.” The jaded tone of his voice gained her attention in a blink. “Your mother didn’t want to be the adult. Even after she had you kids, she …” He stopped there.
    Evie gulped as a world of activity unfolded behind her father’s blue eyes.
    “She what?”
    His mouth opened, but he waited to speak, shaking his head before he even began. “Shortly after she had you kids,” he said, “your mother started resenting the way her role in life had changed. It was like she wanted to go back to being a teenager.”
    Evie strode across the room as a rash of unanswered questions scurried to the tip of her tongue. She stood in front of her father, leaning her head down to look at him. “She didn’t like being a mom?” The words stung as they repeated in her head.
    Her dad squirmed into a new position, eyeing a spot on the floor. “I don’t think that’s a fair way to put it. She loved you girls. But on more than one occasion, your mother told me she wished she could go back–be who she was before she’d gotten married and all that.”
    And all that–giving birth to two girls. Her mother had wanted to take it all back and she couldn’t. So she’d walked away. “You used to tell us that mom was sick inside. That there was something wrong with her.” The words sounded weak and defeated.
    “There is something wrong with a person who can walk away from their children.” The stern sound of his voice took Evie by surprise.
    “You’re right.” In the quiet moment, she glanced at the photos hanging on the wall. Her eyes landed on one in particular–a picture of Jessica and Skylar. Evie could hardly believe how young her older sister looked in it.
    Her father glanced back at the framed portraits. “That really affected you, didn’t it?” he said, guessing at where her thoughts had gone.
    “What, when Jess got pregnant?”
    He gave her a nod.
    “Yeah. I hated Luke for bailing on her. I can still picture Jess standing there with her tiny little body and that huge belly, defending that jerk even after he left.” Evie folded her arms, setting her gaze back on the photo. “But really, the person I blamed most was Mom. Jess never would have wound up pregnant at seventeen if Mom would’ve stuck around.”
    Her dad tilted his head as if considering the statement. “I guess we’ll never know.”
    “We already do know. Mom messed all of us up in one way or another. And what makes her so much worse is the fact that she wasn’t some clueless teenager. Luke never even saw Skylar before he walked away. But Mom gave birth to us.” For a brief moment, Evie scanned over the other photos once more, looking for something she knew she wouldn’t find–a picture of her mom. Proof her mother was ever really there to begin with. “Mom watched us grow and just … took off right in the middle of it. I don’t know how anyone could forgive something like that.”
    Dad looked almost guilty in that moment. Though she knew he wasn’t to blame, he was probably angry at himself all the same. For not being able to prevent it. For picking a woman who would do such a thing. He scooted forward, his posture stiff and agitated. Though she’d figured their conversation had just begun, Evie could see that, for him, it was already over.
    “Where are the home movies, Dad? I want to watch them.”
    The clock ticked louder as she waited for him to respond. He came to a stand, glancing at the storage room. “I’ll see if I can find them. Tomorrow.”
    She watched as he strode toward the stairwell. Evie was glad to have the time to herself, but she felt lonely too. And sad. Sadder than she’d felt before they’d spoken. Her mother’s absence felt all the more personal now, and she wished she could somehow forget what he’d said to her. Believing mom was