I don’t know if she did it intentionally, but she left their door cracked open when she joined Mom, so I could faintly hear what was happening in there while I placed mom’s plate in the fridge and loaded the dishwasher.
“What’s going on, Mom?” I heard Ava ask softly. “You barely touched your food.”
There was silence for a few seconds, before I heard the sheets rustling when Ava must have been joining Mom on the bed, followed by another uncomfortably long moment of silence.
“Come on, Mom. Talk to me.” I heard Ava’s follow-up.
Again, Ava’s words were met with silence. I started to feel anxious about this whole situation, and looked around the room in an attempt to find something to do with myself. Mom not talking with Ava was too strange to just file away as a bad mood!
That’s when my eyes fell upon Mom’s purse. Maybe I could find some clues to her behavior in it.
Hearing Ava’s whispered voice that was now too low for me to make out her words, I stalked over to the small bag and opened it. There was nothing suspicious in it, but I found her phone. Making a quick decision, I restored its previous appearance and left to start my PC.
Booting up my phone surveillance software, I immediately went for her messages. Sure enough, there was a lot to take in. Chats and messages with the whole worried family over the past few months confirmed that Ava had told the truth about Mom only watching their get togethers without participating. Apparently, she had not joined in on any of their fun since that epic thanksgiving-blowout four months ago. There was only one sole exception to her self-imposed celibacy, which was the night they ‘cared for’ Logan after the bookie had roughed him up, and even then she rather took on the role of a director than letting him fuck her.
The rest of the family did not seem too happy about her decision. While most of them were simply worried about her wellbeing, I now realized that this had played a big part in Aaron’s suddenly heightened resentment towards me. His own wife was refusing him pleasure, and he held me responsible for that. When his daughter then denied him bareback sex shortly after, it made him snap and try to forcefully take back his women. As that failed so spectacularly, he held me responsible for that as well, since Ava only demanded the use of condoms because of me.
Most insightful were the newest messages, though. None of them went into details, but something happened between Mom and Logan shortly after they had all gathered in John’s house, and none of the family members ever got to even take their clothes off. There were multiple messages from John and the grandparents, asking if Mom was alright. Danny, however, had sent her multiple messages telling Mom that she was ‘doing the right thing’ and comforting her. That was quite interesting. In any case, John’s message about me being right was suddenly put into a new light.
I had shut everything off, when I noticed Ava standing in my doorway.
“Tim...” she started, looking forlorn as she fidgeted around with her hands.
I understood what she wanted without her having to explain, got up from my chair, and gave her a quick peck on her cheek as I passed her on my way to their bedroom.
Mom was still in their bed, above the covers, positioned in something that was halfway towards a fetal position. I watched her for a moment, her chest slowly moving as she breathed, it almost looked like she had fallen asleep. But then Ava probably wouldn’t ask me to check on her. So, I sat on the edge of the bed, causing her to stir a little.
“Sweetheart” I heard her small voice. “I told you I’m fine. You don’t have to worry about me.”
I lay down behind her and, as I slid my left arm underneath her head and wrapped my right arm around her torso, heard her gasp when she realized that I was not Ava.
“I find that a little hard to believe, Mom.” I said softly, pulling her closer into me and feeling her hand affectionately grasp the arm I had wrapped around her. “We can talk about it, or we can just lie here for a while.”
I worried about overstepping. Whatever was bothering her, she obviously didn’t want to talk about it, so maybe me forcing my company onto her was the wrong move.
Those worries were quickly eliminated when I felt her hand squeeze my arm, and push herself even closer into me. We silently lay like this for a few minutes, before she took a deep breath.
“I don’t know if I should tell you.” she suddenly said.
“Why not?”
“I don’t want to undo the progress we made so far. I’m scared of losing you again, Honey.” she whispered, and I could actually feel her lightly tremble. I believed her claim about being scared.
“I take it this is about Logan and Aaron?” I asked, and felt her grip on my arm tighten.
“Just Logan.” she sighed. “I’m ... trying to reach out to him.”
As soon as she finished that statement, her body tensed up significantly, and it felt like she was even holding her breath.
