"Mom, we're going to go meet Frances." My son Blaise announced in the kitchen. He was picking up his keys and walking toward the door with his girlfriend Chloe.
"Wait, what?" they surprised me while I was busy making a Shepherd's Pie for dinner. I thought we were going to have a cozy little family dinner with the kids all home for once. I followed them toward the door. "Blaise, hold up. What's going on?" I was alarmed and I'm wondering why Frances would call Blaise out of the blue. "Blaise, don't trust her. She's not the little girl we knew. She's probably been brainwashed by her mother. She might have even put her up to this."
"Mom, it's okay. She just wants to talk. I talk to her sometimes, she's okay."Blaise tried to reassure me.
"Blaise, I just don't feel right about this. What if she tries to have you arrested or something?" I was maybe panicking a little bit here, but I really needed more time to digest this new development.
"Mom, Chloe is with me, it'll be okay. Don't worry. We'll be right back."Blaise said casually.
"Tell her we didn't forget about her. Tell her we tried to keep in touch." I had no choice but to accept that he was going.
"I know Mom, I'll try." and with that Chloe and Blaise drove away waving in his little blue Audi.
I thought back to those days after Frank inexplicably called Terry and said he didn't consider her his mother any longer. We were in a quandary. What to do about Frances and Eric's birthdays and what about Christmas? After talking it over with my sisters-in-law, we decided to go ahead with the annual pollyanna. I must admit that I was against it. We sent emails back and forth discussing the merits of including them or the reasons to exclude them. "Obviously they don't want anything to do with the Laytons, so why bother them", I reasoned. Vincent's wife insisted that they be included and wouldn't hear of it any other way. In the end we decided that the children shouldn't be punished for their parent's stupidity and we should send the message that they are still part of our family. That's only if Kat allows them to even know about our gifts though.
I sent birthday cards with no acknowledgement. Terry had sent Frances two beautiful necklaces for her birthday that had just passed. She said "I couldn't decide which one to get, the topaz or the opal, so I got both. They were just so pretty, I knew she would love them." Frances would often call Terry just to chat. Out of all Terry's grandchildren, Frances seemed to be the closest with her; I don't think any of the other children would call to say hello. Terry said, "I knew something was wrong when Frances didn't call after I sent the necklaces. I'm just so disappointed." Terry sent Christmas gifts that year anyway. She sent the usual Old Navy and Abercrombie gift cards not expecting, but hoping to hear from Frank's kids. I pulled Eric's name for the pollyanna. I didn't think we should send anything if they didn't want to have contact with us, but if I had to send something, I would do it right. I mailed a stereo system complete with CD player and speakers. I knew it was something Kat would never buy for him. I have to admit, I went extravagant to make myself look like the greatest aunt in the world.
Nothing came from Kat and Frank. Not a card, not a thank you, not a phone call. I predicted it would happen though and the more I thought about it the more dumb I felt. "I'll bet she either returned the stereo to the store or she just gave it to Eric from herself." I said to Matt. The following Christmas, I tried one more time. We didn't do pollyanna, but I just sent the children money in Christmas cards from our family. Again, there was no response and it was then that I decided not to continue attempting to include Frances and Eric.
I asked Frank what happened those years. He couldn't remember anything about the stereo or the necklaces, but he told me that Kat wouldn't allow the children to have anything from the Layton's. She intercepted all the mail and kept the money for herself and threw the cards away. I was pretty sure she would do that, but we had to try to take the higher road before assuming she would react the way we knew she would.
Blaise and Chloe, true to their word, were back pretty quickly. He said they met at a Starbucks. Blaise said "Mom, she just wanted to say hi. She said she remembers the pink sparkly jeans you bought her for her birthday. She said her mom made her return them though."
I huffed, "That just figures."
"Did you tell her about the Christmas and birthday gifts we sent?" I asked.
"Umm, no mom, I didn't get a chance." Blaise stated. I was disappointed. "Well, I just wanted her to know that we didn't forget about her and Grandma didn't either."
"Yeah, she asked about Grandma, she knew that she died. She asked if she could have one of those cards from her funeral." Blaise said.
"What was she like? Did it seem like she was prying for information?" I asked.
"No, it wasn't like that." Blaise was getting tired of my interrogation so I looked at Chloe for confirmation. Chloe reassured me that she seemed fine and her motives were not suspicious.
"I'm not paranoid, but the timing of this is kind of weird." I stated.
Nicholas Zinc, Frank's attorney filed for a hearing to request alimony from Kat. We haven't heard anything back though about the hearing being scheduled. The workers at the courthouse are supposed to file the papers and post a court date, but that was over a month ago and nothing has been scheduled as of yet, which we think is a little strange.
"Did she ask about her dad?" I continued my interrogation. "She asked if he had a job yet. I said he wasn't doing too good lately, forgetting words and such so he couldn't get a job. I asked her if she wanted to give him a note or anything and she said she didn't. She didn't seem like she wanted to talk about him." Blaise replied.
"Hmm, that's strange. I just can't figure this out." I said.
Did Frances want information about her dad, but was afraid of her mom finding out or was she on a scouting mission for her mom, or did she just really not care?
It was to remain a mystery, my only link to her wasn't able to find out.
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