Page 57 of Losing a Piece of Me

My dad looks from her to me and back before letting out a laugh. “Are you fucking kidding me? You two fucking around again?” He kicks me in my side.

The adrenaline coursing through my body numbs me to the pain. I shoot to my feet and rush him.

The main door is propped open, and the two of us fall in tandem through the screen door and onto the sidewalk outside.

“You fucking did this!” I scream between blows. “You took her from me!”

The small shred of self-control that I have left snaps. I’m lost. He’s beneath me and he can’t stop me this time. His face is bloodied, but that doesn’t make me stop. She does.

She runs over to me and grabs ahold of my arms, pulling me off him. I let her because I don’t want her hurt in this. I want her away from him.

I wrap my arms around her and put her in my truck, leaving my dad gasping and stunned on the ground as I jump into the driver’s seat and speed off.

* * *

“It was him, wasn’t it?” I ask after parking in our old make-out spot.

She doesn’t say anything, but gives a small nod.

I punch my steering wheel. “What did he threaten you with?”

“Striker, I…”

“Don’t.” I shake my head. “Don’t lie. Just tell me.”

She covers her face and cries into her hands.

Some of the anger leaves me, replaced by sympathy.

“Please, just tell me. What did he do?”

“I can’t. You will hate me, too.”

I get out of the truck and walk around to her door, pulling it open and holding her tight to me.

“I can never hate you. It doesn’t matter what you say to me right now, I will still be here. It’s only you and me. Remember?”

She pushes against my chest until I release her. She turns toward me, sitting on the edge of the seat with her legs hanging outside the truck. “He knows.”

“Knows what, Lex.”

“About my dad…” She takes a deep breath. “And your mom.”

“I know he knows about that. He’s the one who told me. That’s why he doesn’t like you, he blames you for your dad’s mistakes.”

Her jaw drops in surprise. “You knew?”

“Yeah, I knew as soon as it happened. Is this why you left? You thought I would blame you for what your dad did?”

“He got her pregnant, Striker.”

What? I take a step back. The anger that had evaporated earlier returns, stronger now. It builds and builds until I can’t contain it. I punch the side of my truck, leaving behind my knuckle prints.

“He got her pregnant and when she refused to abort the baby, he paid her to take it and leave, to never come back. My dad is the reason your mom left you. It’s all his fault and your dad was going to make sure my mom found out. She would’ve left him. My family, it would be ruined. I couldn’t let that happen, Striker. I’m so sorry. I just did what I thought I had to.” She starts crying again, but I don’t move to comfort her. I can’t.

Lex’s dad got my mom pregnant? She chose money and her new baby over me? She left me at his mercy, to get beaten and abused, all so she could start over with her golden child? How could she fucking do that? I wasn’t fucking good enough for my own mother?

My thoughts and eyesight blur and fade out into a red haze of hatred. Not for my father this time, or even Lex’s dad, but for my mom. My own mother who chose to abandon me.

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