immediately register the dismissive words and actions. She eased away and scanned Shannon’s face for any sign of injury. Other than a small white bandage on her forehead and a reddened area on her cheek, there didn’t seem to be any visible damage. “Where do you hurt?” she asked, smoothing the pillow behind Shannon’s head.
“I’m fine, Mom. You don’t need to worry.”
From what she could see, Shannon seemed to be okay, but that didn’t alleviate her concerns. “Why didn’t you call me after school?” It took surprising effort to keep the recriminations from spilling out. If Shannon had answered her phone, perhaps this could have been avoided. At the very least, Andrea would have known what her daughter was up to.
“I was busy and forgot.”
How could her only child forget to call her? That wasn’t how their relationship worked. They stayed in contact, always letting the other know when plans changed. When had Shannon stopped telling Andrea everything? And why hadn’t she noticed that her daughter seemed...different? What had gone wrong, and was Kyle the reason for Shannon’s odd behavior? “Was Kyle with you?”
“He was, but he had to get home. His mom was looking for him,” Shannon said, her anxious glance partially obscured by the bandage above her right eye.
“How did you get hurt?”
Shannon toyed with the neckline of her hospital gown, a frown darkening her features. “Kyle was walking with me to the mall. I needed to get to the drugstore.”
“And?” Dragging answers out of Shannon was like an inquisition. Why was she so reluctant to talk? Was there more to this fall than she was admitting?
“And I tripped. I fell down...” Shannon’s voice shook.
The tremor broke the control Andrea had on her emotions, and tears escaped. “I’m so sorry you’re hurt. But how could you have hit the ground so hard? Where was Kyle? Didn’t he grab you? Surely he didn’t let you fall without trying to help.”
“Mom! Stop! I don’t need you crying when nothing really happened. I wouldn’t have come to the hospital if Kyle hadn’t insisted. He did everything he could to help me.”
“Where is Chloe? She’s your best friend. Why didn’t she come to the hospital with you?”
Shannon closed her eyes briefly then looked up. “I called Daddy. He told me you’d freak out, but I didn’t believe him. I wish he was here.”
Irrational anger tore through Andrea, settling in her throat. She wanted to scream and throw something. Scott hadn’t shown an iota of concern for Shannon since he’d left and married another woman. If it hadn’t been for Andrea’s attempts to maintain a connection between her daughter and her ex, Shannon would have known how little Scott cared. But she’d always made a point of reminding Scott of their daughter’s birthday and anything new or different in Shannon’s life. She’d done it all for Shannon, and this was how her daughter responded?
Shannon’s words brought painful memories to the surface. Scott had done everything to gain custody of Shannon, including having a psychologist, Jake Polegato, do an assessment trying to prove Andrea was an unfit parent. She would never forget those days when Jake interviewed Shannon and gained her confidence. Shannon had been happy that Jake showed her so much attention and understanding. But when he made the case that Shannon might be better off with her father, that staying with her mother was not necessarily the right decision for Shannon, Andrea had been furious.
As far as she was concerned, the man was a fraud. At the very least he was acting in Scott’s best interests, not Shannon’s.
She shook off the memory. She couldn’t stand to be reminded of Scott or Jake. Neither of them mattered to her anymore. The only person who mattered in her life was here in this room.
“Sweetie, there was no need for you to call your dad. He’s too far away to be of any help,” she said, fighting to keep her voice even.
Seeing the loneliness in Shannon’s blue eyes and knowing how much she wanted her father to care about her, Andrea eased her daughter into her arms. “It’s okay. I’m here and everything will be fine. You’ll see.”
She felt Shannon’s tears on her shoulder, the heaving of her daughter’s chest against hers. She stroked her daughter’s blond hair gently, loving her as she had never loved anyone in her life. Shannon meant everything to her.
A nurse entered the curtained space. “We’re taking your daughter for an X-ray, then if everything is okay, she’ll be going home.”
Giving Shannon one more hug, Andrea whispered, “This will be over soon.”
Shannon’s glance was a blend of bravado and uncertainty as the nurse moved to unlock the brakes on the stretcher then pushed it toward the corridor.
“I’ll be here when you get back,” Andrea murmured, clutching her purse tighter to ward off the chilling thought that in the past few hours so much had changed between them.
In the four years since the divorce, Andrea had watched her daughter blossom into a beautiful, independent teenager. A young woman who was carefree and happy, who shared everything in her life with her mother. And that’s why the call Shannon had made to her father hurt so much. She had been there for her daughter, had cared for her and loved her, and now when she needed Shannon to show a little appreciation for all her efforts. Shannon had called Scott, the one person in her life who had hurt her in ways she was still trying to deal with. It wasn’t fair.
Despite everything, she and Shannon were best friends. No one could come between them. Not now. Not ever. Shannon had always confided in her...always.
Until now. Suddenly her anger shifted, twisted in her chest, forming a ball of fear. Fear mixed with foreboding as Andrea waited for Shannon’s return. They were a team. They would get through this together.
JAKE POLEGATO TOOK a moment to calm the disbelief and anger building in him as he observed the behavior of these two very difficult parents. For two months he’d been working with this family to give their daughter a chance to express her needs. She was a seventeen-year-old private-school student struggling to get her parents to accept who she was and what she wanted out of life. The parents couldn’t address each other without yelling and screaming, behavior that clearly upset their daughter.
She wanted to go to the University of Michigan and study genetics rather than the Ivy League school they were pushing her to attend. She wanted to make a difference in the world, not continue living the pampered lifestyle her family espoused. What had started out as a disagreement had escalated into a standoff between the parents, Jessica and Don Parker, and their only daughter, Elaine. He turned to the father whose sullen expression he found particularly annoying today. “Don, do you hear the excitement in your daughter’s voice when she talks about the class visit to the university’s department of genetics?”
“Yeah, Dad, I would really love you to meet Mr. Duncan, the professor who’s heading up all the research I’m interested in.”
The father swung his gaze to his daughter. “You can take genetics at lots of different universities, don’t you know that?”
“There
