Page 7 of Tainted

He didn’t care anything about me beinggrown. I was still the little girl who gave him a hard time when he started dating Mom. He never let it run him away. Instead, it made him commit harder to being a father. So much so that he legally adopted me because he refused for me to be the only person in the house with a different last name.

“If that’s what it takes,” he threatened. Leaving Autumn Grove was a suicide mission that Dad was prepared to stop by any means necessary.

“Daddy, I-.”

He raised his hand, forcing my lips to clamp shut.

“Don’tDaddyme! Not when you’re trying to ruin your goddamn life or worse!”

“She’s made up her mind. We can’t be with her every second, and making her stay tonight prolongs the inevitable. She doesn’t want to be here, Albert, and we can’t force her.”

Dad had yet to master that level of parenting. Mom made peace with letting go while his solution was holding on tighter.

“You and Mom have lived. This is all I’ve known, and that’s just not enough for me.” His hooded eyebrows made my feet afraid to move, but I dropped my suitcase anyway. I slowly walked over to him, and his eyes followed, glaring down at me in confusion as I wrapped my arms around him. “Please don’t be upset.”

“I’m trying to understand Babygirl. I swear I am, but this isn’t a movie. Life outside of Autumn Grove is dangerous.”

“I’ll be okay. You don’t have to worry,” I reasoned, but Dad had lived enough that he wasn’t as confident.

His cold brown eyes softened. Dad hugged me and kissed my head, afraid to let go.

“You can leave, but if you do understand, you can’t come back,” Mom explained.

“Camille,” Dad scoffed because her statement felt harsh.

But Mom refused to budge. I had drawn my line in the sand, and so did she.

“I don’t want you to misunderstand what I’m saying. You don’t have to leave, but I can’t let you come back if you do. We have Sasha to think about, too. It’s no telling who may trace you back here, and I can’t have that.”

“We all need to have dinner and take a moment.”

But that’s where I disagreed with Dad, so I replied, “I understand,” forcing him to throw his hands up because we were too much alike let him tell it.

Those two words felt like a gut punch as she spun around to finish dinner. Mom hid her pain well. You'd never know she was crying if it wasn’t for her shoulders quivering. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the same strength. I couldn’t ignore the gnawing feeling clawing at me like she could.

“You don’t have to do this.” Dad attempted one final ditch effort to change my mind.

I walked over to the sink and wrapped Mom in my arms. Resting my head against her back forced her to stop what she was doing and brace the counter because it killed her to watch me leave.

But staying would kill me, and I just couldn’t. I turned to leave, but he was standing at the door in true Dad fashion, waiting to walk me to my car. He dropped my suitcase in the backseat and stared at me sadly.

“It’s not goodbye,” I explained because the sadness in his eyes almost made me give in.

“I owe you an apology,” he said, and my mouth rushed open. He raised his hand, silencing me one last time. “I never understood how a father could not want to be around you. Your smile. Your infectious personality. You’re half the reason I fell in love with your Mom. I promised myself I would always be there for you. Be the man you deserved becausehedidn’t, but somehow, standing here right now, I feel like I failed.”

Listening to him internalize my decision, my eyes watered. “This is just something I need to do for myself. Besides, you could never fail. You stayed when you didn’t have to, and he didn’t.” I shrugged because I didn’t know much about my biological father. Mom said he wanted it that way, and she didn’t fight it. “For that, you’ll always be my number one guy.”

Dad pretended that a gnat had flown in his eyes, but I think he needed my words as much as I needed his. After shoving all his cash in my pocket, he opened the door so I could slip inside.

1

Kenyon Keyes

Yanking the comforter back, subtle sounds downstairs had me grabbing my gun from the nightstand. I lived alone, but my brother, Kross, had a key. He usually never popped up without calling or texting first. Since there weren’t any, I stood up and crept to the doorway.

The hallway was clear, so I tiptoed down the stairs. Nothing looked out of place, and the front door was still locked. Rounding the corner, the box of cereal slipped as her eyes widened, staring down the barrel of my gun.

“Jesus Keyes! What the fuck!” Sydney yelled.

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