Iris was screaming so loud I had to turn the baby monitor down, there is no reason for her to be awake right now. I fed her an hour ago, her diaper was changed 20 minutes ago. I was perfectly on schedule, and she has never scream cried like this before.
I rushed out of bed in my white lace silk nightgown, my bare feet hitting the hard wood floor, rushing to Iris’s room quietly. I walked into her finished bedroom, rushing to her crib and picking her up, consoling her.
“What’s wrong little flower?
“I think she might be scared of me.” A deep voice boomed out.
“AHH!” I screamed. I had screamed so loud, I lost my voice.
“Don’t scream I don’t want to wake up your boyfriend.”
“Who are you?” I said glancing in the dark, no fear in me, adrenaline of protecting my daughter pumping through my veins.
“Iris!” Collin said running into Iris’s room and turning the light on, stopping in his tracks when he saw the previous darkened figure.
“Gee Collin, glad to see you care about me.” I looked at him, before seeing the man that stood in my daughters room.
“What the hell are you doing here in my house! Why are you in my daughters room!” Collin shouted standing next to me and Iris.
“I wanted to see my granddaughter, I wanted to get away from Sherri. She’s making me do all these things and I don’t think I can do it. She’s said if I wasn’t going to comply with what she has in mind, she’ll file for divorce, and believe me; it’s not what I want. I love your mother, Tessa.”
“Don’t blame this on mom. You were apart of it also. Did she send you here, make it look like we hate our baby!?”
He swiftly turned his eyes to look at Collin, “If you remember Collin, I was arguing with Sherri out in the waiting room, I wanted to go see Tessa right after she gave birth to Iris. But Sherri, she wanted to go to the lawyers, so when she went out to the car, I did go see you Tessa, you were sleeping but I saw you. I didn’t want you to leave our house, I wanted you to stay and live with us so I could be with you when you needed me the most, and I wasn’t. I’m so very sorry.”
I wasn’t sure if I could trust him, if my mother put him up to this and he’s only lying to cover himself, or if he was actually being honest and getting away from her. “How would I trust you dad?”
“There’s nothing I can say for you to trust me, believe me I wish there was but there isn’t, and it angers me that your mom put this wedge between us, I never wanted it to come this far. I came her to see my granddaughter, I didn’t mean to scare her. ”
My dad walked past me and Collin out of her nursery. I looked at Collin with Iris in my hands, my eyes full of sorrow. I’m not sure if Collin knew what I was thinking, but I didn’t want to be known as the one that prevented my daughter of having a relationship with her Grandpa.
“Dad, wait!” I quietly yelled. He turned around, his eyes baggy than all hell, Collin following behind me. “I don’t think me or Collin would mind staying up for you to hang with Iris, get to know her a little bit would we Collin?”
Collin looked at me, my eyes pleading, then looked at my dad, “No. I don’t think that should be a problem.” with a smile.
I walked into the living room, Iris calm, and bobbing her head, smiling the littlest smile she can sneak in. I sat down on the couch with Collin next to me. My dad was heasatant to sit down at first but I patted down a spot next to me, my voice still gone.
“She’s beautiful. Her eyes are like your mothers.” I looked at him in question, but didn’t think anything of it, maybe he’s too tired to remember.
“She is. I wouldn’t change anything.” Collin stated.
“I wish your mother wouldn’t put you through this, I’ve tried so many ways to get her to stop but she’s adamant on taking Iris away from you two.” he shook his head, and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Are you okay, dad?” I asked putting my hand on his upper back, Iris’s head resting on my elbow pit.
“Yeah, I’m fine, my head hurts sometimes.”
“Probably because you’re not getting any sleep. You can sleep on our couch, get a break from the drama at your house. We’ll leave you alone until you wake up on your own; I don’t think you should drive home.”
“Would you guys really do that? I don’t want to take your guys’s time away, and it wasn’t my intention to sleep here, I just want--”
“Dad it’s okay. If you need something I’m willing to do anything for you if it puts your health first, Collin can put the sectional together and give you a comfortable place to sleep, we’ll be as quiet as possible.” I got up from the couch and put Iris back in her nursery, she fell fast asleep without a fuss.
___
5:00 AM
Collin walked back into the room, Iris in his hands handing her to me, “He’s still asleep, I put some melatonin in his water, he should be out for awhile.”
“I can’t thank you enough for having sleeping problems Collin. I worried he wouldn’t be able to get to sleep without it.”
“I mean technically it’s illegal, but being that he’s family, and we didn’t kidnap him, he’ll be fine.” I grabbed the bottle from my side table and fed Iris, Collin hopped in to bed, and sat next to me.
“Okay, I don’t mean to like gross you out or anything, but your 13 years younger than my dad, and 16 years younger than my mom. Isn’t that weird?”
“It’s a good gap.” he laughed. He put his hand on Iris’s head, her Golden blonde hair under his hand. She always stares at him, and almost every time I wonder what she’s thinking about.
*****
“What were your intentions when you met Tessa?” The judge asked Collin.
“To get to know her, I wasn’t expecting to sleep with her, Tessa asked me, I know it might be hard to believe but it’s true judge, I was and still am older than her and she was and still is a minor. I would have been more prepared if I knew we were going to have sex, I would have asked her if she made sure it was okay with her parents I would have asked if she was on the pill. But I didn’t make sure that it was in date, I never thought with all the times I’ve had sex, that I would get a girl pregnant, and it happens to be the first girl that was a virgin, I get pregnant. But I wasn’t upset about that. She felt like the right girl for me, I would do anything in the world -legally- of course.”
“Is this true Tessa?” The judge asked.
I looked at my mother, than my dad. “It’s mostly true. I was the one who put forth the idea of having sex with him. I didn’t know what sex was being that my parents never had the ‘birds and the bees’ conversation with me or any of my siblings. I wasn’t the first in the family to have children, in fact my dead brother has two children, both older than my own daughter.”
“So what’s the untrue part, if Collin is stating mostly truth?”
“I’m not the first girl you’ve ever got pregnant.” I said looking at Collin.