MOTHER LOVE
By
Ashleigh Anpilova
After a great deal of thought Jeanne sends a letter.
A Jeanne-centric gen story.
Written: October 2012. Word count: 500.
Jeanne read the letter through again before pushing it into the envelope, sealing the envelope and putting a stamp on it. Then she put her daughter into her buggy and walked to the postbox. She hesitated with the envelope in her hand for a moment before putting it into the postbox, turning the buggy and heading for the park.
She had never intended to tell Tony that he had a daughter; but then she had never intended to be a single parent. And she was. She loved her daughter dearly, she loved being a mother, but it was very hard work bringing up Bella all alone.
In fact when she'd discovered she was pregnant, once she'd got over the embarrassment of the fact that she was a doctor and hadn't realized she was pregnant, she had seriously considered terminating the pregnancy.
She'd thought about all the consequences of termination and of bringing a baby into the world, and did so on her own. It was only when she'd finally decided she would let the pregnancy continue, she would become a mother, that she told her mother and a close friend.
And so some months after she'd seen Tony for the last time she gave birth to their daughter and became a mother. Her decision not to tell Tony he had a daughter was a much simpler one than deciding whether to have Bella. She didn't need money from him to support their child, they weren't together and wouldn't be together, and despite everything she didn't want to spoil his life.
But then her own mother died suddenly and without warning and she got to thinking what would happen if anything happened to her. Thus once again she thought and made another hard decision: she would write to Tony and tell him. She would tell him they had a daughter, assure him she didn't want money from him, would not insist he was part of Bella's life and would not force their daughter onto him.
The hardest part of the letter had been asking if he would mind her leaving a letter with her lawyer to be forwarded to him in the event of her dying before Bella turned eighteen. In effect she was asking him to take responsibility for their daughter. She could simply have left the letter anyway, but she loved Bella enough and despite everything still had enough positive feelings about Tony not to do that to either of them.
As she pushed the buggy into the park and listened to Bella's incoherent chattering and saw her pointing at things that caught her attention she wondered what his response would be. A small part of her even wondered if he would want to see his daughter, meet her, get to know her, become involved in her life - which wouldn't be easy given he lived in America and Jeanne and Bella lived in France. All she could do was to wait; maybe he wouldn't even reply to the letter.
New Life is the sequel to this story
Feedback is always appreciated
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