Cathy and Ian are married. It was a difficult period for her because she struggled to adjust to her new life, but having a son made her realize she needed to accept reality as soon as possible and move on.
One day, she spotted her son, Alex, dressed in fresh new clothes and wearing new headphones. She was intrigued and asked him where he acquired all of that things. “From Dad,” Alex said, his phone in hand.
But something didn’t feel right because both Cathy and her ex valued practicality over name labels, and Alex’s new clothing were quite pricey. To ensure that everything was fine, she contacted Ian and asked if he had recently purchased anything for Alex. His response was no.
This only added to the suspicion and Cathy was determined to figure out how her 14-year-old son could afford such an outfit.
The following day, she overheard him talking to someone on the phone and decided to follow him.
After some time, Cathy noticed Alex entering a car she has never seen before. A blonde woman was on the driver’s seat, but Cathy was too far to be able to recognize her. Once she got closer, Cathy was shocked to see the woman was her sister Lia whom she hadn’t seen in years.
It’s been a very long time since Lia disappeared from Cathy’s life. She never even said goodbye, she simply vanished and never wanted to contact her family again.
“Why are you here with my son, Lia? You disappeared without a trace, and now you’re back, meddling in our lives through him?” Cathy asked, demanding answers.
Lia’s eyes brimmed with a complex blend of emotions, mirroring the tangled history she and Cathy shared. “No, Cath,” she softly replied. “Not to meddle. I found Alex on Facebook, and I reached out to him. I thought we could mend our relationship through him.”
Her words carried the burden of the unspoken pain and the unresolved history. At that moment, tears started rolling down Cathy’s face. “You can’t just waltz back into our lives after all these years. And Alex is not a pawn for you to fix what you left behind.”
Liz, who was aware of her past mistakes, uttered, “Cathy, I know I messed up. I know I hurt you and the family, but I have changed. And I want a chance to make amends.”
Not knowing what to feel and what to respond, Cathy looked at her son whose eyes looked as though they begged her to forgive Liz and start everything over.
As Cathy and Alex walked home in silence, he said, “Mom, I like Aunt Lia. She’s been good to me. She bought me the new things, not Dad.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Cathy asked.
“Because you’ve been upset over the divorce, and I didn’t want to add to that.”
At that moment, Cathy realized how deeply Alex was affected by the divorce, something she wasn’t completely aware of until then.
Although she was mad at her sister, Cathy was thankful she was there for Alex during the difficult times the family was going through and helped him cope with the challenges of being a child of divorce.
After thinking about it long and hard, Cathy decided to embrace her sister into her life. Over time, their parents were also able to forgive Liz for disappearing from their lives without any warning.
Their family was now complete and everything felt right.
