Chimera Fields you're just a line in a song.

It was a lot, but she listened to all of it. There were times when she wanted to interrupt but she didn’t, mainly because despite feeling the urge she didn’t have the words. He was a father twice over and he’d bailed both times. It hurt to hear it. Not because she expected anything different… but because she knew what that was like. She’d bailed on a lot of things but Killdeer had never been one of them. And she hadn’t even wanted him.

It made the last bit harder to hear and even harder to believe. What did love even mean to him, if he treated it like it was expendable? Two sets of kids. Fuck.

He bailed on me, when I had Killdeer. I raised him alone. She didn’t know why that was the first thing she felt she had to say. Maybe so that he would know why this was hard. Why she wasn’t sure she could trust him, even if he was being honest. And definitely because she wasn’t sure how to respond to a confession of love.

A month ago she’d been married. She wasn’t ready yet.

I didn’t even want him. It was a mistake, and I hated it, but now I wouldn’t take it back for anything. Because being his mom is the one thing I did right. And it was worth it.

You aren’t a piece of shit for leaving, even if it was a shit thing to do. But I’m sick of everyone assuming I can’t handle the truth. The lies end up hurting worse every fucking time. You should’ve told me. I told you everything. Everything but Killdeer. She’d spilled her entire soul about Bronco and he’d been itching to leave the entire time.

He said he loved her, but she didn’t remember him ever fighting to keep her. Ever even trying to show it. Maybe, that first trip… the last time she’d ever caught a glimpse of that hope. But then everything had gone to shit and ever since, there’d been only passing meetings and vague jokes.

She didn’t know what she wanted to hear, or how he could even respond to something that hadn’t been a question. She just didn’t know what else to say.