“I’m sorry, Molly. I don’t know what else to say,” Fallon gasped out. Her mind was still reeling about Lucas loving her. Molly must be stuck back in the past or something, because there was no way.

“There is nothing you can say Fallon, all you can do is listen. Know that I am very unhappy with you, and that you hurt me. I know Lucas hurt you, but I did nothing but love you and you do this to me? After everything I’ve lost? You take the one the little boy that looks just like my James and Lucas and keep him from me? Me? You used to call me Mom.”

Fallon eyes filled with tears and she had to look away. “I know,” she whispered. “I feel horrible.”

“You should. You should feel like the scum of the earth because no man, or grandmother for that matter, should have to learn about a child seven years after the fact. What the hell were you waiting for?”

“I don’t know,” Fallon said shaking her head. “I was scared.”

“So you were a coward? I don’t remember my Fallon being a coward. She was quiet, but not a coward.”

Fallon looked up, moving her hand across her cheek to catch the tears that fell. What did she expect? Molly was a mother bear to the extreme. Fallon deserved this. Lucas should have done this, but he had let her off easily. All he cared about was Aiden. Fallon wasn’t thinking that Molly didn’t care about Aiden; it was obvious she did, but she also saw the wrong Fallon did to Lucas. Lucas was her baby. “I guess so,” Fallon said after looking into Molly’s eyes for a moment, “but let me ask you this — if James cheated on you with your best friend, would you have stuck around?”

Molly took a step closer to her, shaking her head. “Fallon, I don’t blame you for leaving. I would have left his ass too, but honey, a baby? You kept a baby from him? From me?”

“I know I done wrong Molly, I don’t deny that, but I had to protect my son.”

“From what? Lucas? Me?”

“From the ass**le that broke my heart,” Fallon snapped. Molly’s eyes got big and Fallon took a deep breath in before saying, “I know that you think he hangs the moon, Molly, but he broke me and I couldn’t stand to look at him. So how was I supposed to raise a child with a man that couldn’t even stay true to me? How was I supposed to know that he was going to stand up and be a dad? I was a baby myself, only 20.”

Molly shook her head as she looked away. Fallon looked down at the ground, listening to the sounds of the party. She hated that they had done this here, but Fallon wasn’t one to back down from a fight.

At least not now.

“I know he did you wrong but he is his father’s son, and if I know anything of Lucas, it’s that he would have stood up and been a dad. Yes, he was strung out and drunk all the time, but I am pretty sure that he could have used the fact that he was going to be a father as a wakeup call. Maybe then everything that happened wouldn’t have.”

Strung out and drunk all the time?

What the hell?

Fallon shook her head, confused. “I don’t know what you are talking about, but I had to protect me and Aiden.”

“Of course you don’t know, because you left. You left at a time when Lucas really needed you.”

“Molly, you couldn’t have expected me to stay? He cheated on me!”

“I know he did. And no, I didn’t expect you to stay with him, but I wish you had.”

“Well I didn’t and I kept his son and your grandson from y’all, okay? I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to say or do to express how sorry I am. All I can do is guarantee you that you will be in Aiden’s life now. If I could give you back those seven years, I would, but I can’t. All I can do is say I’m sorry. ”

“Okay,” Molly said with a shrug of her shoulders. “I said my peace and we can’t change the past. All we can do is just deal with your mistakes.”

They shared a long look before Fallon looked away, feeling horrible and that she was as Molly said — the scum of the earth. She hated that she had hurt Molly, and even Lucas, because she never meant to. She was trying to protect Aiden, and maybe herself. Yeah, she was selfish through it all, but she had Aiden in mind.

At least she thought she did.

When she looked up, Molly was walking away, shaking her head. Fallon felt like crumbling onto the ground and dying. She didn’t want their reunion to be like that. She wasn’t hoping for a bright and sunny homecoming, but she damn sure wasn’t expecting a verbal slap in the face. Fallon looked out at the party, wishing like hell that she could be excited to go back to it but she wasn’t. When Fallon’s eyes met her father’s knowing look, she cringed as she quickly looked away. She didn’t know what it was about William, but it was as if he knew every wrong thing she did. She hated his knowing looks and hated that she still to this day was the biggest disappointment in his life. No matter what she did, it didn’t seem to make things better.

Fallon closed her eyes and shook her head. She had never felt more like a failure than she did in that moment but it didn’t matter. She had a party to get to. Fallon opened her eyes and smoothed out the skirt of her dress. She had worn the dress to impress Lucas. Why? Who knew? But she did. And to add insult to injury, he hadn’t even noticed.

Another failure.

So all Fallon could do was smile and put on the best damn party in the world for her seven year old.

*********************************