This chapter is dedicated to Emmie_Clarke for all the votes and great comments. Thank you!

"But you said..."

"I know. I lied," I groaned lying back on my mountain of pillows. "It might not have been love yet, but I know I felt something for him."

Laura smirked. "It's called lust sweety and I don't blame you. He looks like he'd be good in the sack."

"Who's good in the sack?" a voice said from the door. Laura and I both turned in the direction of the person who had spoken and my eyes widened at the sight of the woman standing by the door.

Her strawberry blonde hair, parted in the middle, fell down to her shoulders, framing her face and almost covering the wrinkles on the corners of her eyes. The wide smile on her face made her eyes shrink so I could barely see the green tinge of her eyes that so perfectly matched mine. She stood almost shyly by the door, hands clutching the straps of her black purse.

"Mum." It came out as a whisper but she must have heard it because her smile widened even more as she stepped into the room.

"Hie my baby girl," she said hugging me hesitantly. Our awkward hug lasted a few seconds before she pulled away and sat on the other side of my bed.

"You must be Laura," she said extending a perfectly manicured hand to Laura. "Thank you so much for calling me."

"It's a pleasure to meet you uh, Mrs Troth?" she looked over at me questioningly and I shrugged.

My mother chuckled and smoothed down her red jacket. "It's Mrs Wilson now actually but you can call me Ivy."

I stared at her, shell-shocked. "You married Jack!"

"Last spring," she nodded pushing back a stray lock of hair. I caught the glint of a ring on her finger and seeing it just made me blow my top.

"How could you do that? What about dad?" I demanded.

"Emily dear," she sighed but I cut her off before she could give any kind of explanation.

"Don't 'Emily dear' me! That was such an inconsiderate, selfish, horrible thing to do! I thought you were-"

"Okay that's enough of that young lady," she scolded me, talking like she used to when she was reprimanding me when I was younger.

"Uhhm, I think there's something I'm supposed to be doing right now. I don't know, maybe? It's safer to check so I'm gonna go and check. Yeah I'll go check right now, you know in case there is something I need to do. Not that I'm lying, about there being something or anything but there's always something, right?" Laura stammered and under any other circumstance I would have rolled on the floor laughing at her poor strategic exiting skills but now I had bigger things to deal with so neither of us paid heed to her as she left the room hastily.

"It was one thing for you to date Jack but marrying him? Dad needs you and instead you divorce him and leave him to fend for himself while you go off and get married," I was nearly shouting now but that didn't faze her. Her calm expression only fueled my rage till I felt like I would break several things.

"It wasn't like that. Your dad is..." She didn't get to finish the sentence before I interrupted again.

"Dad's dying! Okay mom, he's not going through some midlife crisis or something ridiculous, he's dying!" I fairly yelled at her.

"Sweetheart, I love you but you're a terrible listener. Can you at least give me a chance to get a sentence out before you start yelling?" she asked me.

I pursed my lips, nostrils flaring in anger but I did as she asked and kept quiet.

"Thank you. Now as I was saying, the marriage was your dad's idea. You remember how he pushed me away no-matter what I did when he found out that he had AIDS? I begged him to let me take care of him and I told him I didn't care about his condition. That I loved him in spite of it but he wouldn't listen. He confessed about his affairs then and told me that's how he got AIDS and then he challenged me saying would I still want to stay with him now that I knew the truth. I was hurt about the affair of course but it didn't change that I wanted to take care of him. So he left. He felt guilty about it all even though he hadn't transmitted it to me. I waited for him to come back but he didn't." She rubbed a hand over her face and suddenly looked weary. I took the moment of silence to take in everything she had said. I had suspected that dad had cheated on mum but hearing my suspicions confirmed still rattled me.

"He came back a few months later to talk. He apologized for cheating and for walking out on me and told me that I deserved to be happy and he couldn't make me happy because he was dying. I tried to convince him that being diagnosed with AIDS is not a death sentence and he could get treated and live a long, healthy life but the idea of depending on pills for the rest of his life just didn't sit well with him and he said he would rather just take it as it comes.

He asked his friend, Jack to take care of you and me. In hindsight, I realize he must have been setting us up but at the time I thought Jack was just a family friend. I resisted falling for Jack for so long but in the end I couldn't fight it and when I told your father about it he was so happy and he gave us his blessing and now here we are."

She reached for my hand and held it between hers. "I'm not the monster you think I am. I still love your father and I always will. I beg him every chance I get to change his mind about taking medication and I pray all the time for him to change his mind. And he knows that whenever he needs me, I'll be there to take care of him."

I felt tears burning the back of my eyelids as I thought about my father. Before long, the tears were spilling down my cheeks and mum hugged me and rubbed my back soothingly.

"He's stronger than you give him credit for you know. Until we can talk some sense into him we'll support him and show him how much he means to us, okay?"

I nodded and settled my head on her shoulder. She kissed the top of my head and patted my back. All the resentment I had felt towards her for moving on and leaving dad ebbed away and I felt considerably lighter.

"I'm sorry I hated you all this time," I told her.

"Does that mean you don't hate me anymore?" 

"Yes. Yes it does."