The Wife Stalker(85)

Stelli sat up, his eyes wide. “Joanna said Mommy told her she was going to go away ’cause she wanted Joanna to be our mommy. But I don’t want Joanna.”

Leo and Piper had exchanged glances.

“Joanna was just confused. Mommy never told her that,” Leo said.

“Mommy was sad, though. She cried a lot, and that made me sad, too,” Evie said, tears filling her eyes.

“I still don’t like those trails,” he’d told Piper. “Mommy told me there are monsters at the bottom. They make you jump and then they eat you.”

Piper was shocked that his mother would have told him something so frightening. “That’s not true, Stelli. There are no monsters.”

He’d looked at her imploringly. “Mommy told me she could hear them. They said her name.”

So that was it, she’d thought. No wonder this poor child had trembled in terror at the thought of hiking those trails. She should have talked to him and explored the reasons for his fear. So much could have been avoided if she had.

“Stelli, you know how sometimes you hear the waves splashing against the rocks or you hear the ducks quacking or a bird singing, and it sounds like they’re saying a real word?”

He nodded.

“Well, it’s just our minds telling us that. Because we know that water can’t really say things, and birds and ducks don’t know how to speak our language, and monsters are only make-believe. Right?”

He fixed his eyes on Piper’s, seeming to think this over, and then slowly nodded his head. “Right.”

“You see, your mommy only thought she heard her name.” Piper paused. “Stelli, I need to apologize to you.”

His eyes grew wide.

“I didn’t understand what you were going through, and I pushed you too hard. I promise to do better, to be more patient. And I know I can never take the place of your mommy, but I want to do a good job and be like a mommy to you, if you’ll let me.” She noticed the look of gratitude on Leo’s face.

Stelli thought about that a moment. “Will you stop making me drink those smoothies and eat yucky stuff?”

She laughed. “Yes. No more yucky health food for you, I promise.”

That night had been the real beginning for all of them, but especially for Piper. She’d steeped herself in self-help advice and often flippant bromides. She’d even chosen Reynard, an old Germanic name, because of its meaning: counsel and strong. She’d been overcompensating for a childhood that had been sterile and bereft of any tenderness or affection. She had never been taught that the true essence of the relationship between a parent and a child was understanding and acceptance. She had to stop trying to make others into what she wanted them to be. It sounded so simplistic, even trite. But she knew now that she had to stop, let go of her past, and move fearlessly into the future.

Piper smiled. She would do her best to help Stelli overcome the anxiety that had tied him up in knots these past few years. She was thinking of selling the Phoenix Recovery Center and starting a new counseling practice here. But first, she had to recover.

“Dinner will be ready soon,” Leo said. “Why don’t you two go see how Yiayia’s doing in the kitchen?” Leo said.

They ran off together, leaving Piper and Leo alone. He took her hand in his. “Do you know how much I love you?” He leaned toward her and kissed her lightly on the lips. “You saved Stelli’s life. And risked your own.”

“Stelli has taught me a lot. I saw myself as so evolved and wise. Don’t get me wrong—I worked hard to bring myself out of deep grief and self-hatred after Ethan’s and then Matthew’s and Mia’s deaths. But I got a little too cocky, threw around a lot of high-sounding advice without putting anything into action. I want the children to be able to come to us with all their hopes and dreams and fears. I was never able to do that with my own parents, and I won’t let the same thing happen to Evie and Stelli.”

“You’re incredible. The kids are so lucky. And so am I.”

She smiled at him and rose from the sofa. “I’m going to see how your mom’s doing with dinner.”

The children burst out of the kitchen just as Piper entered it. “Whoa, where are you off to?”

“Yiayia said dinner’s ready and to get you and Daddy,” Evie said.

Piper laughed. “Okay. Go get your father.”

She walked over to the stove, where Evangelia was stirring a pot of heavenly-smelling soup. “That smells wonderful. Lemons?”

“Avgolemono. Egg and lemon soup,” she said. “I hope you’re hungry.”

“Starving,” Piper said.

Leo’s mother had come to stay with the children while Piper was in the hospital. She had come up to Piper’s bedside the first night after she’d been released. Pulling a chair next to the bed, she had reached for her daughter-in-law’s hand. “I’m so sorry, pethi mou, I misjudged you terribly.”

Piper had been pleased by the sincerity in Evangelia’s tone and her use of the affectionate term, my child.

“We all made wrong judgments. There were so many things I didn’t know. I wish . . .” Piper stopped, too choked with emotion to go on.

Evangelia shook her head. “Shh, it’s okay. Don’t upset yourself. The important thing is to move forward. You are strong. Just what the children need. And what Leo needs. I will never forget that you risked your life to save my grandson.” She’d squeezed Piper’s hand. “You are my daughter now.”