Page 63 of Losing a Piece of Me

“I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to hate me. I thought that if I told you about my dad and your mom, that your hate for him would rub off on me. I’m so sorry, Striker.”

“That’s not what I mean.” His head dips forward and he rubs his brows with one hand, wishing away the stress of everything.

“When I left you at the bar last night, I went to see my dad. He told everything, and I do mean everything.”

I freeze. He knows about the pregnancy.

Fuck, what am I going to do? How can I make up for this?

Tears flood my eyes and I nod, understanding his underlined message.

“He told you about my pregnancy?”

He inhales, holds his breath for a few seconds, and lets the breath go. It’s quiet, but it speaks volumes to me.

“I’m sorry,” I cry out. The tears won’t stop coming. Sobs wrack my body despite my strongest attempts to restrain them. My chest hurts and my throat is tight from trying to contain it all – the anger, the fear, the sadness, and the pain. I remember everything like it was yesterday.

“How?” he yells.

I take a calming breath and dry my tears. I need my walls one last time. I’m going to bare myself to him, and I can’t let his reaction hurt me. It will wreck me. It will break me. It’s time I give up another piece of myself and tell him about my pregnancy.

Chapter 16

“She was only going to use that kid against you. I told her if she didn’t leave and get rid of that kid, I would tell her father’s secret. I saved you from a lifetime of raising a bastard kid that probably wasn’t even yours to begin with.”

I make him tell me the whole story. Everything from finding out about mom and Lex’s dad, to why mom left, to what he did to Lex. Everything he tells me, she has already told me. Until he says she was pregnant.

When he says this, my whole body goes weak and I collapse onto the couch. So many emotions erupt inside of my head, twisting and turning and melting together into even more painful combinations, that my body and mind shut down. All thoughts of beating his ass vanish.

Lex was pregnant with my baby. He manipulated her to get rid of it.

I shake my head, trying to clear it.

“She was just a whore, son. When are you going to see that? She used you to get back at her parents. When she got pregnant, she was going to make you pay for the rest of your life. I knew that I had to make her leave.”

I shove up from the couch and grab him by the front of his shirt, pushing him against the wall.

“Who gave you that fucking right?” Our noses are inches apart, and his breath is hot on my face. My chest is heaving, my blood is boiling, and my fist is twitching from trying to hold back the punches he deserves.

He’s sees that I’m serious now. He’s not the tough man who beat me. He’s not my father. He’s the man that stole my family. His eyes widen with fear and his body begins lightly quivering. “I’m sorry, I was just trying to hel-”

I shut him up with a hit to the nose, spraying blood across the wall and on the floor around his feet.

“Don’t you fucking dare say help. You’ve never helped me a day in my fucking life. All you’ve ever done is take. You took my childhood; you took pieces of me every time you laid a hand on me and now you’re telling me you took my family? You call that helping?” I pull my fist back again and bury it in his gut.

He doubles over and sinks to the floor.

I jump down on top of him and pull back my fist, ready to deliver one swift, final blow and knock his ass out.

Something flashes in his eyes, fear. For once, he’s scared of me.

“You’re not even fucking worth it.” I stand and deliver a strong kick to his side before leaving the house for good.

That man in there, he’s not my father. He’s dead to me.

I want Lex. I want to apologize for getting angry at her. I want to tell her I’m sorry for being a dick all this time about keeping this secret from me. She was right, I didn’t know the position she was in. She was only trying to protect me from the truth because I’m not strong enough to handle it.

She thinks she’s weak for running and staying away, but she’s not. She’s fucking strong. She took all this on, all on her own. I fucking hate myself for treating her the way I did.

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