Page 78 of Redeeming Heart

“It’s far from being the truth, but what else did I expect from someone who rarely spends time with his daughter.” I didn’t say to cause more tension between us.

I walked away with a heavy heart as I couldn’t believe my father doubted me like that and how selfish he can be by threatening to take away my dreams.

My shoulders jumped when the front door opened up at the same time I passed by. Jonah was the first to enter with Brandon following. I almost completely forgot that I asked him to drop Jonah off on his way.

I wasn’t fast enough to wipe away my fears. Brandon noticed them immediately and gave me a questioning look.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” I asked, wanting to stuff my foot in my mouth for being a fool.

The ends of my mouth quivered as he tried to hide a smile when he must have realized I just made a complete idiot of myself. “Wanted to see how things worked out.” He was referring to Isabelle.

“Yeah, she agreed to help us out.” I gave Jonah a fist bump when he excused himself and went up the stairs to his room.

“That’s great news.” He said, noticing I wasn’t celebrating the good news.

I shrugged feeling the pressure of my father’s bad attitude overwhelming me. I had no words left inside of me to express how I felt being undermined like that.

“Hey, come on, walk me out.” He urged, tilting his head to the side persuading me to follow him out and I know what he was trying to do. It’s like I was transparent in his eyes.

I followed him out with him following close-by and he didn’t press me to tell him what was going on. I don’t know if it was some kind of reverse-physiological thing, but it most certainly worked on me because I just wanted to spill my guts whenever he does that.

“Isabelle was more than willing to help us out and she even offered to be an assisting coach to assist with things that coach Peterson doesn’t get, like us being a bunch of girls that suffer from hormones from time to time.” He smiled and I was happy that he at least caught my attempt at a joke.

We stood with our backs to his car, standing next to each other and just gazing down the quiet street.

“What’s troubling you, Adams?” He asked, pressing gently. “You should be celebrating this good news because it’s Isabelle Sanders and you’ve finally got a place you can call your own.”

He doesn’t know about my screw-ups. He is just seeing the person who is angry at her father but he doesn’t know the reasons, so I decided to share it with him.

“Three years ago, the world learned of my mother’s death. Two years before that I was slowly starting to lose my interaction with the world and my passion because my mom got unwell.” That was obvious because everyone who went to school with me knew.

“After my mom passed away, my dad and I went our different ways. He would lock himself up in his study and spend hours drowning himself in his work while I went out there and caused chaos.”

“It was just innocent, sad gestures until he brought Meredith home one year later. My rage got to a point where I started to vandalize the property of the government. Got locked up so many times and my dad kept bailing me out, but we barely spoke about it.”

“Days before you and I met, I got locked up because a guy tried to get frisky with me at a gym and because one of my friends suffered from the evil hands of rapists, I fought back and broke the guy’s nose, and a rib.” It still angered me that no one tried to help me until I was the one throwing punches to defend myself.

“My dad grounded me even while I am nineteen years old and hasn’t seen my side since.”

“Today, when I tried to ask him to lower his strict rules for a few days he bashed out on me, accusing me of using it as a get out of jail free card.” Brandon stayed silent throughout my explanation and nodded his head from time to time to show me that he was listening.

“What do you need, Adams?” I was surprised that he said nothing about my arrests or what I did to the guy at the gym.

“A miracle,” I muttered, easing my head back and closing my eyes.

“Isabelle’s field is so far out of town and she wants us to work on our game plan this week, which means extra hours, but I still have to pick up Jonah from practice and my father doesn’t want to hear one excuse or else he makes me quite hockey for good.”

I wished I possessed the money to move out and into an apartment of my own where I don’t have to obey my father’s stupid house rules.

“I would drop Jonah off after practice. It’s on my way home.” I reopened my eyes and lowered my head.

“I can’t expect you to cover for me. It’s not what I implied.” He shook his head at me.

“You didn’t need to ask because I would do it. You are given a second chance to do what you love and I can’t watch you throw it away.”

“Why, Brandon? We barely know each other and I judged you for so long.”

He shrugged.

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