Here’s this week’s prompt:
300-500 words * original female character * I hope you’ll forgive me
“Renée, how am I going to look him in the face at every single family gathering for the rest of my life?” Isabel asked her sister.
“I doubt he’ll be at every family gathering!” Renée said. “His son is marrying your daughter. That doesn’t mean that our families have to socialize.”
“Yes, but I don’t want Alexis to feel torn between her family and her in-laws.”
“She won’t. Caleb wouldn’t do that to her.”
“But his father might.” Isabel sighed. “I don’t know if Nicholas will ever forgive me.”
Renée took a sip of her coffee and then leaned forward. “It’s not your fault. If anyone needs to ask forgiveness, it’s him.”
Isabel crossed her arms on the table in front of her. “I gave up on him. Who knows what would have happened if I had stuck around?”
“Nick treated you like dirt.”
“I wouldn’t say that exactly,” Isabel said defensively.
“Your whole relationship was a mess.”
Isabel snorted indelicately. “If you could even call it a relationship.”
“Nick was a jerk, plain and simple.”
“He wasn’t always bad. There were times when things were really great.”
“And times when he was completely obnoxious and ignored you. He messed with your head and then dropped you—repeatedly.”
Isabel sighed. She shouldn’t have brought this up to her sister in the first place. Renée had extremely strong opinions about Nicholas . . . she always had. After all, she’d been there to see Isabel’s heart broken by him over and over again. “Well, let’s just hope Caleb doesn’t take after his father.”
“I doubt he does. He actually asked Alexis to marry him after all.”
Isabel stared out the window, watching people walk by. “That could have been us. Maybe I gave up too soon.”
“You put up with his yo-yoing emotions way longer than any sane person would,” Renée said.
“Stop blaming him for everything, Renée! It wasn’t just him. I’m to blame too. I think he may have been starting to come around, but then I lost my temper.”
Renée shook her head. “You’re still delusional about him after all these years. Do I need to spell it out for you yet again? He. Didn’t. Love. You.”
Isabel stared at Renée, angry tears beginning to well in her eyes. “I can’t believe you. Even if that was true, you don’t have to be so hateful about it.”
“I’m sorry. I just hate that he’s still hurting you after all these years.”
“I understand. But you’re really not helping.” She drummed her fingers against the table. “Now the question is: Do I tell Lexi or not?”
“Don’t tell her. You don’t want your daughter getting freaked out and ending her relationship just because her mother dated her future father-in-law.”
“Yeah, that would freak her out. Okay, we’ll keep this between us.”
“Agreed.”
“Maybe I should find someway to apologize to Nicholas,” Isabel said.
“He doesn’t deserve an apology. He needs to apologize to you. Just let it go.”
“Fine. I’ll let it go,” Isabel agreed. For now.
*Note: I may eventually extend this into a novel. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think of it!
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