A Sister's Heart

Chapter 11

A typical Sunday in the Hart household usually consisted of Ivy making dinner whilst Esther read one of her Catherine Cookson books. The kids would be in their own rooms doing their own thing until food was ready although Lauren would sometimes help her Mother in the kitchen. All of this was after they attended the morning service at St. Matthew's Church. This Sunday would be considerably different, however Ivy still wanted to prepare a proper dinner for the family, and most likely the kids would still spend the majority of the day in their rooms, but there would be no church this morning and her sisters and niece would be around to give any assistance needed although she was unsure just how much help they would be since none of them really knew how to cook. The biggest difference of course would be the absence of their Mother.

These thoughts had been plaguing Ivy all night, so much so, that she had barely slept. It would be the first Sunday since her mother had died and she knew it would be tough, yet the knowledge that the rest of the family were there as some extent, rather comforting. It was nine am and she was still in bed since there was no need to go to church. To anyone else it would be called a sleep in, but because she hadn't slept, she couldn't really call it that.

"Are you awake?" She turned to find her daughter stood in the doorway.

"Yeah Honey. What's wrong?"

As Lauren closed the door and moved towards her Mom's bed, Ivy could see that she had been crying. "I miss Grandma." She said, wiping the tears that gathered around her eyes. "It's not the same without her."

"Oh Sweetheart, I know!" Ivy sat up and pulled her daughter close to her. "I miss her too." She wrapped her arms around Lauren, allowing her to just be in the moment and cry.

Lauren's cell phone pinged from the pocket of her hoodie. As her Mom retreated from their embrace, she dried her eyes again and looked at the phone. "It's Dad!" Knowing her parents didn't have the best relationship anymore, and that her Father wasn't the nicest guy, the teenager glanced at Ivy for permission to answer.

"It's okay." Ivy managed. She didn't want to stop all communication between her kids and their father, but hell would have to freeze over before she let him anywhere near them again.

Lauren answered the phone. "Hey Dad!" She hoped he couldn't hear the slight tremble in her voice.

"Hey kiddo. How are you doing? I heard about your Grandma." From what Ivy could overhear, he seemed to genuinely care, and she had no doubt that he did, but Brad always had an ulterior motive.

Their daughter answered his questions pretty generally and before she could ask him how he was, he asked to speak to Ivy, so she held the phone out to her Mom. "He wasn't to talk to you."

She didn't know what to do. She couldn't leave him hanging, especially with her daughter there, but the last thing she wanted was to talk to him. On the other hand, her Mother had just died and although she had not informed Brad of her death, he had no doubt seen the obituary in the Herald and wanted to offer his condolences.

"Brad?" Ivy said as more of a question than a statement as she took the phone from Lauren. She listened to what he had to say as Lauren remained perched on the end of her bed. She had been right; he did express how sorry he was to hear about Esther, but there was a note to his voice that she had heard numerous times, and her antenna went up. It was clear to her now what his true motive for the phone call had been; he was trying to worm his way back into her life. She remained polite enough as she spoke, but at the first opportunity, Ivy made her excuses and hung up.

Handing the phone back to her daughter, Ivy felt a weight upon her that she hadn't felt in a long time. She slumped backwards onto the bed. "Mom, what did Dad want?" She ignored Lauren's question, covering her head with a pillow, wanting to just disappear. Bradford Montgomery had a way of getting inside Ivy's head; it had been the same way since they were teenagers. It had taken everything she had to get out of that marriage when she did, and now it was gonna take whatever she had left to keep him out of their lives.

Lauren tried to get her mother to get up, but nothing was working; not even the promise of blueberry pancakes, and that always worked. So, she did the only other thing she could think of.

Running down the hall to the spare bedroom where her Aunts were staying, she thought about what to say to them, but she decided getting help was the main think so ran with that. "Aunt Diana? Aunt Ronnie?" She called out as she ran into their room, but Diana was the only one there and she didn't miss a beat. "I need your help; it's Mom! Dad called and now... something's wrong!" The worried look appeared on her Aunt's face as she rushed past her before she had even finished speaking. Lauren just hoped she had done the right thing.

*****

"Aunt Diana? Aunt Ronnie?" As she burst into the room Diana was sharing with her sister. Lauren's voice cut through the silence of the rest of the house. When she realised that Diana was the only one there, it didn't deter her. "I need your help; it's Mom! Dad called and now... something's wrong!" For her niece to come and ask for help, it must be bad, and she didn't say anything else. Hearing that her sister needed hr was enough.

Seconds later, she emerged into Ivy's bedroom and was confronted by the sight of her youngest sister cocooned in her duvet with a pillow over her head, shutting out the world. "Ivy?" Diana tried. No answer. "Ivy?" Still no response. "Damn it Ivy!" She was getting annoyed now, and when Ivy finally did make a grunting noise, she had had enough. Ripping the pillow away and puling the duvet away, Diana forced Ivy into a confrontation.

"What are you doing?" Ivy snapped, clawing back the pillow.

"Lauren came and got me. She said Brad called and she's worried about you!" This got her sister's attention. "I know he's a sore subject for you, but you need to pull yourself together and tell me what is going on!"

"I'm fine. Go away!" Ivy mumbled, yet after a few seconds, she must have had a change of heart. "Wait!" She called, sitting up and removing the pillow from in front of her face. "Is Lauren okay?" Diana may have thought that her sister didn't always make the best decisions, especially where Brad was concerned, but she cared about her kids. Lauren and Matthew always came first, and Diana couldn't fault her for that. She still wasn't sure exactly what Ivy had left Brad; thinking that maybe he had had an affair, but she never really liked him in the first place so or her it was good riddance. When she first found out, she decided it best not to push, knowing that her sister would open up when she was ready, and she stuck by that decision now.

"She'll be okay. She's strong; like her Mother." She gave Ivy a playful nudge. It was a trait that all Hart women had, and her niece was no different.

Ivy knew her daughter was strong, but that didn't mean she couldn't get hurt, but she trusted her sister's judgement and if Diana thought that Lauren would be okay, then she probably would be. To be sure though, she would have a little talk with her daughter later. For now, however, she had chosen to come clean to her eldest sister.

"So, Brad?"

The silence sat between them for a moment until Ivy finally spoke. The whole story came flooding out about how Brad wasn't the person she had thought he was and how he tended to get violent when he was drunk, or upset, or something didn't go the way he wanted. She explained how it got so bad that at one point she thought she might actually die.

Diana listened carefully and as the story came to an end, she found herself in awe of her sister. Yes, there were tears, lots of them, but this had been a revelation. She had had no clue that Ivy had been going through all of this and it made her realise that maybe Ivy was strongest one of them all. She got out; she got her kids out and even though all she wanted to do was wrap her arms around her, Diana held back, knowing it was not the right time, but that Ivy would let her know when it was.

"I had no idea!" She reached out a hand to comfort Ivy, who didn't react but continued to sob, so she let her hand drop to rest on her sister's knee. "Why didn't you say anything?" Diana couldn't understand why her sister wouldn't tell them.

"I didn't want to be a burden. I already felt like a failure compared to the two of you and I couldn't bare to be made to feel even worse!" Ivy hid her face, seemingly ashamed of her own feelings.

"What?" Diana couldn't believe what she was hearing. How could Ivy feel like that? "Ivy, you could never be a burden to me. You're my sister and I'm here for you. Always. I might not always be the best at showing it, but I would do anything for you and if I had known what was going on, I would have been here in a heartbeat." She was being sincere and when her sister placed her own hand on top of hers, she knew that Ivy had heard her.

Having thought it before, the idea that Esther's death is what would finally bring the three of them back together crept up on Diana again. This time she couldn't shake it, but she didn't say anything; about that anyway. "Okay, so, hug?" She didn't hold her breath for Ivy to agree, but when her sister held out her arms, there was no hesitation.

.