Blinding Trust (Mitchell Family #7)(13)
Author: Jennifer Foor

“SHE’S NOT MY MOTHER!”

His words hurt me and I knew she heard them too. I grabbed him by the shirt and lifted him off the bed to a sitting position. “Don’t you ever say that!”

“I hate her! She took my mother’s place. I wish she never even lived!”

My bare hand made contact with Noah’s mouth faster than I could realize what was happening. I’d never been so upset with him before. He covered his mouth and started crying.

When I stood up and got to his door, I turned back around and looked at my son, laying on his bed, bawling his eyes out. “You will stay in this room until you can apologize to your mother. Savanna may not have had you, but she is your mother in every way possible. What you just said to her, you can never take back. You remember that, Noah.” I started to walk down the hallway. “And you can forget about seein’ your uncle again. This is not happenin’ anymore!”

Savanna was in the bathroom, in a ball, in the corner. Her head was in between her knees and she was hysterical. I couldn’t imagine the pain of Noah’s words and how they had affected her. She didn’t deserve that; not after everything she’d done for that kid. In one sentence, he had ripped her whole world apart. Nothing was more important to my wife than being a mother. I knelt down beside her. “Darlin’, he didn’t mean what he said.”

She pulled her knees away. “Yes he did.”

“Oh hell, Savanna. He couldn’t live without you. None of us could. He’s just mad and he’s a kid, so taking it out on us is all he knows to do.”

“Please just leave me alone,” she cried.

“No!” I picked her up and carried her to our bed. Once I had her on it, she turned and put her face in the covers so I couldn’t see her. “He will apologize and everything is goin’ to be alright. I promise!”

She looked up at me, with makeup running down her face. “Did you see his face, Colt? I know Noah and I know when he’s serious. He meant what he said. He meant every word of it.” She cried harder. I watched her face scrunch up as the tears poured out.

What was I supposed to say to her? Noah was probably still crying because I’d hit him. Naturally, I just wanted to walk away and come back when it was all settled. Unfortunately, I was right in the middle of it all.

I left Savanna and Noah crying and headed to my mother’s to get the girls. At least if Savanna had them to keep her busy, she wouldn’t have time to be so emotional.

My mother had this intuition about her. She knew when something was wrong. I’d no sooner walked in the door when she started asking me questions. “What’s wrong? It didn’t go well?”

“Mom, nothin’ about it was well. Zeke wants to take Noah home with him. Noah told his mother that she wasn’t his mother. He said he hated her.” I shook my head in disappointment. “I slapped him.”

She walked over and hugged me. Right away my daughter reached out for me to pick her up. She was getting entirely too big to be carried around. I looked down at the couch and saw that Christian was asleep and laying on Lucy’s leg. Christian didn’t get naps like her sister, so she was always the first to conk out. Lucy smiled but stayed quiet so she didn’t wake her. “Son, this is what being a parent is all about. There is good and there is bad. I hate to tell you this, but the rebelling doesn’t go away over night. I’m afraid this is probably just the beginning.”

“Savanna is never goin’ to forget this. I’m afraid this can’t be undone.”

“Time heals all wounds. You and I both know how much that kid loves her. He reminds me of someone I know.” She patted me on the back.

“What did you do when I got mouthy?”

“I hit you with a wooden spoon!”

I suddenly remember running from the wooden spoon. “You never caught me.”

“No, but your father’s belt did the trick, didn’t it?”

That was something that I could never forget. He used to snap it to scare me. I learned to mind what I said, in fear of getting that leather smacked across my bare ass. “Yeah.” I finally smiled.

“Get the girls home and just be there for your wife. Everything will work itself out. You have to have faith, Colton.”

I kissed my mother and Lucy goodbye before getting the girls back to the house. Savanna and Noah were both in their bedrooms. It was difficult to carry both of them, but I was used to the task. Once I got Christian in her room, I carried Addy straight to her mother. When I laid her down beside her, she started to stir and it got Savanna’s attention. She wrapped her arms around our daughter and kissed her little head. She was still sobbing, but I knew that this was the best thing for her. She needed to feel that motherly connection, even if it was with another one of our children. “Why you cryin’, Momma?”

“I was just sad.”

“It’s okay, Momma.”

We didn’t know why she’d started calling Savanna that, but my wife loved it.

I wrapped my arms around Savanna and Addy, but said nothing to her. I just wanted her to know that I was there for her.

As far as Noah went, well, I left that kid in his room without checking on him. He needed to feel left out, because he’d hurt her so badly. This was going to leave scars and I wasn’t okay with that.

Chapter 7

Savanna

I wanted to wake up and it all have been a nightmare. Noah’s words repeated over and over again. It was breaking my heart each time. Then there was the fight with Colt. I knew we’d both been too frustrated to have that sort of conversation, but I forced it anyway.

Now he was mad, at not only Noah, but me as well.

It felt good to have his arms around me, and even better to have Addy in bed with us. It also reminded me of the child in the other room, who had broken my heart. I never thought I would hear him say such awful things to me. Hearing that he hated me was just indescribable.

When morning came, I was afraid to get out of bed. I didn’t know what to say to Noah. I just loved him so much and if he didn’t love me, I didn’t know how I could handle that.

Colt took Addy downstairs early. I could hear him talking to Christian when I started walking down the stairs. Since she had no idea what happened the night before, I put on a happy face. “Good morning, pretty girl.”

“Hi, Mommy. Grandma and Aunt Lucy let me stay up and watch the show with the duck mans in it.”

“The duck men, you mean?”