Daughter 05 Values Reasserted

Previously on Daughter...

Sara reeled from the fallout of her mother's betrayal and the damage it had caused to her family. Struggling with guilt over keeping her mother's secret, she sought clarity over drinks with her best friend, Em.

As their conversation unraveled the toxic modern feminist rhetoric Sara had absorbed from her mother and colleagues, she began to question what she truly believed about marriage, monogamy, and personal growth.

Meanwhile, a chance encounter with Liv--one of Tessa's so-called "slut squad"--offered a glimpse into the reality of modern dating and the emptiness that came with it.

With Em's blunt honesty and Liv's unexpected confession, Sara confronted her immaturity and the need to take control of her own life.

But as she prepared to face her mother, and Jon's return loomed, she knew that clarity was only the first step... she still had to fight for her marriage and redefine her values before it was too late.

******

Chapter 05 | Values Reasserted

Friday, April 19, 2024 | 8 AM | 5 Days After the Brunch

Sara eyes blinked open as the morning light streamed through the curtains. She stretched across the empty bed as a cool breeze skimmed across her skin, leaving a trail of goosebumps in its wake.

Her hand instinctively reached for Jon's pillow. The absence of his warmth no longer sent a pang of anxiety through her chest. She pulled the pillow against her body, inhaling the remaining scent of his cologne. Comforting. Familiar.

For the first time in days, the silence didn't feel suffocating. She missed him, of course... his warmth, his steady presence... but something had shifted. Her lips curved into a smile.

She had spent the last few months letting doubts creep in. Letting her mother's words, her own insecurities, and the noise of other people's choices weigh her down. But she wasn't them. She was Sara Evans, and she had a choice to make.

Would she spend her life doubting herself, questioning what she already knew to be true? Or would she stand firm, embrace the life she had chosen, and move forward?

Jon will be home tomorrow. And when he walked through that door, she wouldn't meet him with fear, but with certainty.

She reached for her phone, opening and re-reading the email she had ignored all week. Exhaling slowly, she adjusted her grip on her phone.

Her response was sitting there, unsent. The weight of indecision that had followed her for weeks was gone. No more hesitation, no second-guessing. She pressed send. A choice made. A step forward.

She let the phone slide onto the nightstand, her fingers lingering on the cool glass for a moment before she turned her attention back to the bed.

One more decision in her life, under control.

And yet, something still ached inside her. Not with doubt... she had put that behind her... but with need. The need that had been simmering for days, now rising steadily with every second she spent alone in this bed.

For days, she'd sorted through her emotions, cleaning up the mess her family left behind, trying to make sense of what she wanted.

But when it came to this... her body, her husband, and the connection they shared... there was no sorting, no questioning, no second-guessing.

"One more day, my love," she groaned, pressing her cheek into Jon's pillow.

Her right hand slid under the pillow and past her silk-covered breasts, stopping only to float over the warm tingle between her thighs. She sighed as her fingers strummed against her panty covered core, stirring her arousal.

Spreading her legs, her hips rose to meet her hand as Sara cupped her vagina, just like Jon would have done. She smiled, realizing that every time she thought of Jon, in her private moments, her hand found its way into her panties to cup herself. She was missing his touch, his physical presence...

The pressure of her hand added to the building sensations of her finger's movements.

Images of Jon flashed in her mind... his strong face... soft lips... they way he snuggled her close when they spooned, or how he held her in his strong arms when they kissed... his insatiable tongue gliding across her hungry pussy... the press of his body on top of hers... the feeling of fullness when he entered her... their love.

The visions playing across her mind were passionate... so hot. Her hand moved up and pushed under the waistband of her underwear, raking past her curls, to continue their dance across her core.

These were no visions of sunflowers, or caves... thank God... only the burning desire for her husband that had been building up over the last few days.

Sara moaned into the pillow, her body thrumming with unspent energy, anticipation curling in her stomach.

"One more day..." Jet lag be damned. Jon was in for an exhausting weekend.

Moving her fingers down, she leisurely circled her core. With a soft sigh, she pushed one finger inside and curled it upwards. The meaty part of her thumb now pressed down and ground onto her clitoris while she curled a second finger inside herself, letting them graze against her sweet spot.

The apartment had been so quiet this week. So lonely... The single life was definitely not for her.

"Mmmm, sooooo nice..." using her fingers to mimic his tongue with slow, flicking movements.

Arching her back, she moaned, rolling her neck backwards onto her pillow, her measured breath matching the excruciatingly slow movements of her hips and fingers.

Her heartbeat quickened as her left arm crushed Jon's pillow to her chest. She could feel herself building towards release.

Sara reluctantly pulled her fingers and tossed the pillow aside.

Drawing her legs up, until her knees lay upon her chest, she grabbed the sides of her panties and pushed them down, and over her butt and hips, then up and over her knees.

They had been constricting her fingers' movements, and she wanted the freedom to play. As she got closer to her feet, her phone buzzed loudly against the nightstand.

The ringtone, so bright, cheerful, and completely inappropriate for the moment, sent a jolt through her.

The best day...

"Arrghhh!" Her mother... God, her timing sucked! A grunt of frustration escaped her lips as her head fell back upon the pillow... her mood shattering like glass.

Her hands flopped down to her side as thoughts of updating her mother's ringtone to something more ominous solidified. Possibly one of Jon's metal songs.

Sara's fingers stilled, but her body buzzed with unspent energy. She tugged her underwear back into place, rising as she swung her legs off the bed. Grabbing her phone from the charger, she fought the urge to throw it across the room... as her mother's face smiled back at her. She imagined drawing devil's horns and a beard. Definitely a metal song.

8 am. She debated letting it ring out... She wanted a hot shower and a session with her shower massager... but no... no more hiding. It was time to deal with her mother and get on with her life.

Sara straightened her spine, rolling her shoulders back before gripping the phone. No hesitation this time. She swiped the screen and brought it to her ear.

"Hello Mother." Her voice was frostier than normal.

"Looks like today is going to start off with a bang after all." She thought.

******

Steam wisped around her as Sara walked out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel. She carefully dried herself in front of her mirror before gathering the damp towels and yesterday's clothes... tossing them into the laundry bin with a soft thud, then smoothing the sheets and tugging the corners tight.

She was done pitying herself.

Slipping on a fresh pair of coral hipster panties and matching tone tri-colored ankle socks, Sara topped it off with one of Jon's oversize hoodies. Well, oversize for her. It didn't have his body scent on it, so she spritzed some of his cologne on the inside, and breathed in deeply, comforted by the familiar scent of home, before slipping it over her body.

Since she was alone for the day, she didn't bother with a bra or makeup.

Cell in hand, she padded out of the bedroom toward the kitchen.

On a normal Friday, Jon would have already brewed their coffee, needing to be up earlier than her for his international team call.

Today, however, Sara had to make her own... again. She set the brewer for a full pot, knowing she'd need the caffeine boost.

Sitting at the counter, she pulled her legs up to her chest and tucked them under the oversized hoodie, wrapping her arms around her knees. A small sigh escaped her... other than the unopened fortune cookies from Tuesday. The counter was too clean, the kitchen too quiet.

The hiss and gurgle of the coffeemaker was familiar, but without Jon bustling around her, the routine felt incomplete... just another echo of what was missing.

Yet despite the shitty week, Sara felt surprisingly refreshed today... physically and mentally.

Her eyes wandered across the kitchen, taking in the small touches of their shared life...

Jon's weekly recipe notes pinned to the fridge. The walkway into the dining area, where their table sat waiting for a gathering that wouldn't happen today. She hugged her hoodie tighter around her legs.

Jon's office door, across from their bedroom, stayed shut most days. On the nights when he needed to work late, she imagined the blue light of his laptop flickering under the door as she prepped their meal in the kitchen. They rented the two-bedroom unit just for that reason... to make room for their separate routines that fit so neatly together.

Her gaze finally drifted toward the sliding French doors... the star of their apartment. Sara's favorite place to unwind. The small westward facing balcony felt like an extension of the living room, a place where she and Jon often shared quiet moments over a glass of wine.

The smell of fresh coffee snapped Sara from her thoughts. She walked over and poured herself a cup before sitting back down on the counter.

She smiled, thinking back on last night's conversations with Em and Olivia. But the warmth of it felt like a distant memory, as she tightened her lips, recalling her mother's call this morning.

******

Dad wasted no time.

Within five days, his lawyer had prepared divorce papers, and he'd hired a process server to serve her at work, humiliating her in front of her Friday night friends.

Sara hoped that the shock of receiving the papers would jolt her mom back to reality, and make her realize what she'd done. But instead of remorse, there was only rage. Instead of finding a way back home, she was digging deeper into the lie.

She was fiery and pissed that Tony had the audacity to file for divorce. She told Sara that she would fight it and make him act reasonably. If it would help his ego recover, she would offer him a true open marriage, instead of the one-sided deal she had initially proposed.

"This is not how he was supposed to behave." Julie railed. "He is throwing away 30 years of marriage... for what? Because I allowed myself a little fun on my one night out? He gets to have me the rest of the week. I don't love William... he's just a fun distraction from my everyday life. A new experience."

"God," thought Sara, "I really hate that fucking word." She was spinning the same tired story. Why had she not seen it for what they were... pathetic excuses. What happened to her mom to turn her this way? She was the rock of their family. She could handle any situation on her own, but with dad behind her, she was unstoppable. How could someone she looked up to with love and admiration become so... delusional?

"Sara, you need to talk to your father and get him back in line to keep our family together."

Sara gritted her teeth and began pacing the bedroom. She was no longer deluded about her part in her parents' pending divorce. She made terrible choices, and would no longer be her mother's sounding board for infidelity.

Instead of finding the sweet, doting daughter hoping to keep mommy and daddy together, her mother was facing an angry and fed up Sara.

Her chest, so recently pounding for release, now hammered with anger. Each word her mother spoke became formless, a blur of complaints and excuses that Sara could no longer stand to hear.

Sara's fingers tightened around her phone. For a second, she wondered if she should hold back, try to reason with her, but the frustration that had been building for months spilled over, unstoppable.

"Stop." said Sara.

"What? Did you say something, dear?" asked Julie.

"I said... stop... What a load of crap. Get him back in line. Did you really just say that?"

"Sara...?"

"You knew dad would not stand for you cheating on him. You knew he would never agree to your idea of an open relationship, nor would he allow you to continue to have your experiences. That stupid. Fucking. Word! Everything you just said is bullshit and not something the mother I love would ever say about her husband."

Julie let out a gasp, but Sara was just getting started.

"I pleaded with you to speak with him. Why didn't you speak to dad about your issues before you began cheating? Hmm? And yes, it's cheating mom, they are not experiences. That's just you avoiding accountability... which, like a stupid ass, I went along with..."

"I am so disappointed by you and your actions. But using crappy feminist justifications to hide the fact you are a cheater...?" Sara grabbed the hair on the back of her neck and pulled.

"You know what? I'm done with you and this stupidity. I tried... I really did... Give dad his divorce, so you can be free to have whatever experiences you want. Let dad find love again."

"Wow, that felt good," thought Sara, regaining her breath.

And in a last whisper, "Why didn't you put all this effort towards new experiences with dad?"

Julie couldn't believe what she had just heard. "Sara Rowan Williams... Y... you do not speak to me that way..."

"Or what, mom? Hmm, you gonna ground me? Or send me to bed without dinner?" Sara made the mental note to thank Em for that line later.

"No. I..." Julia found herself caught off balance, unsure of how to respond. Sara had never spoken to her in this manner. She was always the good girl who listened and showed her mother respect.

She needed to re-assert her authority. "Sara... I am still your mother. You will show me respect!"

"Physically, yes. But mentally... I'm not so sure. People like you throw the word respect around... but do you even know what it means? I've tried my best to respect you and dad, many times ‌to my detriment. Your emotional affair disrespected my father. Adhering to your command to not tell him, disrespected my father. I will have to work hard to regain his trust. But the person you have become over the last 6 months is someone I no longer respect. I don't know who you are anymore."

"It's Friday, mom. Are you going to fuck your experience tonight and celebrate your pending divorce?" Sara almost felt bad about that jab. Almost.

Julia wanted to respond, but found herself short on answers. "How dare she speak to her that way? How...." she thought.

"Mother?" Sara looked at the screen. The call had ended.

She exhaled sharply, staring at the phone in her hand. She should've felt guilty. But she didn't. Not this time.

For months, she had been trying to hold her mother together, waiting for the woman she once loved to wake up. To come back to herself.

But that woman was gone.

What remained was someone else. Someone who didn't deserve Sara's blind loyalty anymore.

"Coward," she muttered, gripping her phone.

Anger fueled her fingers as she swiped open her message app and began typing. Fingers trembling against the glass, pressing harder than ever. She continually backspaced and retyped words... correcting mistakes. Each retyped word lessened her anger to an aching sadness as she reviewed the text before hitting send.

>>I love you, Mom. I miss you terribly. But what you have done, and what you are still doing, is wrong. You listened to the wrong people, and now you've destroyed a marriage with a man who actually loved you.

>>Actions have consequences. You taught me that. So now it's your turn to deal with them.

>>I should have told Dad the truth the second I knew. That's on me. But what happens next? That's on you. I hope you planned for this.

That wasn't a lie. She missed her mother. At least the version of her that used to exist. But the woman she was now? That woman had made her choice. And for the first time, so had Sara.

She was done sitting on the sidelines and done staying quiet to keep the peace. Even if that meant losing her mother as she once knew her.

"One down."

She would call her dad later. Ask to see him. Apologize in person. If he didn't pick up, she'd leave a voicemail. If he ignored that, she'd send a text. Either way, she would make things right.

And then?

She had a meeting to prepare for. It was time to stop playing it safe in other areas of her life, too.

Sara sat back, regaining control, her fingers tracing the rim of her coffee mug. The apartment was still quiet.

But for the first time in days, it didn't feel empty.

******

Sara rose from the counter and walked over to the front door, grabbing her laptop from her bag. She placed it on the counter, powering it up as she refilled her coffee cup.

Opening the fridge, she pulled out the last two slices of Jon's sourdough and slid them into the toaster, setting the butter and raspberry jelly on the counter.

The rich scent of warm, crusty bread mixed with the fresh coffee, a comforting aroma that grounded her in the present moment. When the toaster popped, she plated the slices, taking her time slathering butter across the surface, watching it melt into the air pockets before spreading the jelly on top.

The first bite was perfect, a familiar crunch giving way to the silky blend of butter and fruit. She closed her eyes briefly, letting herself enjoy it.

After finishing one slice, she checked her work email. Even though she was off today, she liked to make sure nothing was blowing up in her absence. All clear.

She logged out and switched to her personal inbox, expecting nothing but newsletters and junk, until her eyes focussed on the only email that had been on her mind.

RE: CMO Opportunity--Revisit the Conversation?

She clicked it and read it again.

The message was direct and to the point. The AI startup she had interviewed with a couple of months ago wanted to reconnect. They had revised the role requirements and were interested in discussing the opportunity with her again.

Sara sat back, grasping her coffee mug.

It wasn't surprising. She'd kept an eye on them even after she had stepped out of the process. The company had intrigued her. They were fast-moving, innovative, and well-funded. More than that, the hiring process had been one of the most professional she had ever experienced.

She had respected their approach. And they had clearly respected her.

Her initial instinct had been to play it safe, to stay in her lane. But now? Now, this felt like more than a job offer... It felt like a door opening.

Her fingers rubbed her grandmother's amulet as she glanced at her phone on the counter, the screen still dark from where she had left it after replying to them earlier.

They had seen something in her. And now, so did she.

She had given them her availability for later today or Monday.

Let's see where this goes.

She finished the last bite of toast, carrying her plate to the sink. After a quick rinse, she loaded it into the dishwasher and returned the condiments to the fridge.