Page 113 of Landon & Shay: Part One

“Shay, perhaps we should talk alone in the other room,” Dad suggested, but it felt more like a threat.

“So, she doesn’t know?”

“Know? Know what?” Mom stood from the couch, and her stare moved back and forth between my father and me. “What’s going on?”

“Shannon Sofia,” Dad warned, his voice low and smoky. But I didn’t care. I wasn’t afraid of him. He didn’t hold the same grip on me as he held on my mother.

“He has another daughter,” I spat out, the words burning my throat.

Mom huffed and shook her head. “What?”

“He has another kid.”

“No, he doesn’t,” Mom argued, still shaking her head. “That’s ridiculous. Tell her, Kurt. Tell her that’s ridiculous,” she urged.

He didn’t though. He stayed quiet as Mom’s face drained of all color.

“Oh my gosh,” she muttered. Her eyes glassed over as her hand moved to cover her mouth. “Oh my gosh…”

Dad shifted around in his shoes and lowered his head. It was clear he couldn’t lie his way out of this one, but I wouldn’t have put it pass him to try. “It was years ago, Camila. When I was using. I made a mistake and slept with another woman. A few months later she showed up with a kid, claiming it was mine. I didn’t believe her, of course. Then, we took a DNA test and…” He looked up to Mom with tears in his eyes, and I wanted to slap him for the crocodile tears.

A little too late for the fake emotions, Father.

“I fucked up, Cam, but she means nothing to me. All I do is provide money to the kid, that’s it. It’s nothing personal.”

“Is that what you tell them about me?” I barked his way. “That it’s nothing personal? Or have they not yet discovered what kind of man you are?”

“You need to watch your tone, little girl.”

“I don’t need to do anything you say,” I replied. “You are not my father. You are nothing to me. Mom, let’s go,” I said, turning toward her. She was frozen in place, tears streaming down her face.

She kept staring at my father with such a look of shock. “I can’t leave, Shay. Not yet. There’s still so much that’s not clear. Things that still aren’t adding up.”

“What do you mean? Everything is added. He lied to you—again. He betrayed you—again. He had another daughter behind your back and only confessed to it when he realized he had no other choice because he got caught.”

“How did you even find out?” she asked.

“Landon told me. He found out, and he told me the truth.”

“And you just believed him?” she questioned. Those words made my mind spin.

“What? Mom. Dad just confessed! He told you straight out what happened, and now you’re questioning Landon? Are you kidding me?”

“Camila, please,” Dad begged, “just stay and let me try to explain.”

“There’s nothing to explain. I’m going to go pack a bag. You should do the same, Mom.”

I hurried to my room and packed up a suitcase. I didn’t know what I needed or what I should’ve left behind. I simply tossed as much as I could into the suitcase and hoped like hell that Mima would help me pick up the rest of the stuff another day.

As I pulled the suitcase out of my room, I saw Mom standing still as Dad sat on his knees in front of her, begging her to stay. He looked pathetic and still very much like a manipulative liar. He was throwing heavy emotions at Mom in an attempt to gaslight her into thinking she was in the wrong if she walked away from his toxins.

I raised an eyebrow at my mother. “Come on, Mom. Let’s go.”

She looked at me and back toward Dad, still so unsure about what her next actions were going to be. I knew there was so much to my parents’ story that I hadn’t ever read. So much history and pain raced through Mom’s heart on a daily basis. I wanted to blame her for being weak. I wanted to call her out on not choosing herself ever in her life, but she was hurting. She’d been beaten down for so many years that she didn’t know what it felt like to not be in such an agonizing pain.

In a way, suffering felt normal to her. She was used to it. If only she knew there was a whole life waiting for her outside of the castle’s prison. If only she knew that she could walk away and begin again.

“Mom,” I stated once more, “look at me.” She turned my way, and I smiled at her. Everything I knew about love, I’d learned from my mother. She was the first person in this world to give love so unconditionally to me. She was the one who first made me laugh, made me smile, made me live. And her heart was currently broken. She was so sad and scared, and I was certain she felt so alone, so it was my job to reminder her that she wasn’t.

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