Burning Bridges

Chapter 5

Thing didn’t really change for us much while Tori was in rehab. Mom and I had been caring for the babies by ourselves for so long anyway. But it was less stressful not worrying about Tori being cooped up in the dark bedroom all day. I was able to get the house cleaned and even her room aired out and clean before mom brought the girl’s home.

We settled into a routine of talking to Tori when we could and making a schedule of who would visit her and when so that someone was always with the girls. Things were going well.

The first time that we seen her she was angry. Not at us. But at herself and at Ian. She spent my entire visit telling me all the things that she felt about it. I was actually happy to see some type of emotion out of her. Each visit and video call were better and better. She got to call the girls for a half hour on their 1st birthday. We opted out of doing a big party like mom wanted to do. We didn’t feel that it was right to do it with Tori in the center.

Something changed during her last month there though. She started having home visits so she could see the girls in person for a little bit. She was happier than ever and very doting on her babies. But you could tell she had a secret. Those are some of the scariest times. Because we knew something was up and we never knew what it was. However, we were so happy to see the change in her that we pushed it aside and didn’t worry about it. I don’t know that it would have made any difference if we would have confronted her about it or even just asked her what she was keeping from us, but I still believe that that secret is what was the beginning of the end of our relationship.

Tori finished her six months and came home a different person. She got a job right away and put the girls in day care. She immediately took over care of the girls’ full time and though there was a little bit of adjustment time she was patient. Not really something we were used to with Tori. She went to therapy twice a week and seemed to just be focusing on getting her life on track. But I could still see that there was something she wasn’t sharing.

She was home for about a month when she started disappearing into her room when her phone would ring. She was constantly texting, and she started asking me or mom if we would babysit so she could go out for a couple of hours. She was never gone long, and it was only once or twice a week and we didn’t mind because honestly, I missed taking care of the girls.

One Thursday night I was babysitting, and Tori called me and asked if I would mind watching the girls overnight and dropping them off at day care in the morning. She said she had a surprise and would be done in time to pick them up and would meet me for dinner at our parents house the next evening. I didn’t mind but was curious. She wouldn’t give me any details. Just told me that I would find out with everyone else the next day.

I dropped the girls off to day care on my way in to work. All day I was wondering what this big surprise was. I was almost dreading it because rarely has a surprise been good when its coming from my sister. Right after lunch Tori called and asked me if I could pick up the girls from day care because her surprise is taking longer than expected. I told her I could and asked if she was still going to make it to dinner. She promised she would and thanked me and hung up.

Since Tori said she had a surprise, and I was always looking for ways to spend money on my nieces I left work early and went shopping and bought them adorable matching red dresses with white polka dots, some little shiny red patent leather shoes, and red hair ribbons. I picked them up from daycare, took them home, fed them, got them all cleaned up in the bath, and finally dressed them in their new dresses.

They were so cute that I decided to do an impromptu photo shoot of them. I was having so much fun taking pictures that I wasn’t paying attention to the time. Mom called me and asked if everything was ok because I was supposed to be there, and Tori was due to arrive at any moment and share her surprise.

I grabbed the girls and ran across the street to mom. Our parents made the appropriate fuss over how cute the girls were, and we just sat down in the living room when we heard the front door open. We could hear whispering so we could tell Tori wasn’t alone. We were not ready for her surprise.

Tori walks in leading this man by the hand. He about six ft tall with dark hair and dark eyes. He had a muscular build and looked like he belonged on Wall Street. We could tell he was nervous just looking at us. We all just stare waiting on Tori to introduce us.

“Mom, Dad, Roni, girls, I would like you to meet Conner, my husband!”