Page 67 of Chasing Football Dreams

He looked at me and instead of hate reflection in his eyes. There was a powerful tug of remorse and wishfulness.

The room was open for everyone to see. The bed I separated was still lying on the ground in pieces. But there was another secret compartment that was opened. It was the photos I found the other day at the orphanage. He had the copies but there was more.

Photos taken of my every birthday and year of school. He kept tabs on me like a father hovering.

"You knew all this time where she was," Shane mumbled, flipping through the photo album. "While you knew what it did to you!"

He grabbed Benjamin by the shirt shoving him into the wall. Detective Patrick gestured for everyone to stand back, giving Shane some time to express his hurt.

"Why would you do that to somebody?"

"You kept her away from me!"

"Zoey is my daughter. She is not Olivia,"

The words hit Benjamin like lightning and the hands he had on Shane fell to his sides with head hanging low as the tears started to fall. The crack of his voice sent a jolt through my system making me endure his pain.

The death of his daughter took a massive hit at him and he tried to convince himself that I could replace her. But it gave him no right to take me away from my parents and put me in an orphanage.

Shane let go of Benjamin when he started crying and stepped back. I slipped my hand into Shane's hand wanting to comfort him, knowing what this was doing to him.

He looked at me and let go of my hand to wrap his arm around my shoulders. He planted a kiss on top of my head and steered me out of the room.

It's never the people who are our enemies that hurt us but the people we love. We were looking at the wrong people to accuse for our heartbreak but it was a broken man who lost his daughter that caused us so much pain.

The truth always finds a way to come alight. It took seventeen years for the truth to lead me back to my parents. I won't change anything from my past or my cicumstances. It forged me into a strong-willed woman, not living in her father's shadow.

People will look at me as Zoey Martin, daughter of the famous quarterback Shane Martin. They will forever speculate on my skill and talent. They will pretend that they know me but they will never truly know me.

Angela waited for us at the bottom of the stairs with my team. Eliza was sniffling tears as the mystery finally got solved. She embraced me and the harsh veracity finally caught up with me. I cried in her arms, not because I was sad but because I was happy.

We beat the system. We defeated the tragedy by following our dreams. We beat the desperate measures of listening to bullies telling us that our future will exist in the same poverty we grew up with. That nobody will love us. But here we stood in a house filled with people who loved us.

It was a sad ending for Benjamin and his family. I felt bad for his son and wife, having to see Benjamin go to jail for taking me away from my parents.

I looked at Duncan when I met him outside. I smiled at him knowing with certainty that things will look up. I've found him in this tragedy and not only did he give me strength to fight the monsters in my dreams. But he showed me that it is worth it to chase my football dreams.

Epilogue

Zoey Martin was a name I had to familiarize myself with. It was a story of a small girl taken by a best friend who thought he could raise her as his own after losing his daughter.

It was a story that confirmed the worst of the worst when they raised the casket and had to confirm the suspicion.

The body wasn't of Zoey Martin.

The media was shaken and every outlet that got hold of the story, showed up at the door of my father Shane Martin, and mother, Angela Martin, requesting answers. To which my parents gave no answers to.

Nobody knew where to find me. People talked about me but only the people that mattered. My name became the next big name in the NFL and teams were fighting to draft me.

But the team that stood out to me for years finally grasped me from the bench and I was drafted as their first-string Quarterback five years later.

I've waited my whole life to jog as an Atlanta Falcon. Being the first woman to be given a chance like this was an earth-quaking experience. Some fans supported a woman taking a signal-calling spot but some kicked against the idea.

However, I washed out their comments and focused on the support of my team. And my father as my coach.

A long road laid ahead of us to get back seventeen years we'd lost but we were getting there. My mother took over the orphanage and didn't convert it into a foster program. The old building was demolished and rebuilt with bigger rooms.

She invented a program to support each orphan's educational decision.

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