Page 128 of All I Ask
“It wasn’t like that.”
Nina walks forward, touching my shoulder. “Call me later, okay?”
I nod, not taking my eyes off him.
I wait, trying to wrap my mind around what she just told me. Derek, who hates Keith, took my daughter to see him. He didn’t talk to me, ask me, get my blessing. He just took her? Why? What could possibly be the reason why he would go against something I so clearly was opposed to?
Nina walks around us, her hand rests on his shoulder for a minute and then drops.
“Nina?” I call. “Can you ask the girls to stay downstairs until we get them?”
“Of course, honey.”
“Thank you. For being honest as well.”
She gives me a sad smile and then closes the door behind her.
Derek straightens his back and his lips form a thin line. I don’t care that it hurt, this is far worse. “Before you go ballistic, hear me out.”
“By all means…” I say with anger vibrating in my voice.
There’s not much that he can say that makes this okay. He took her, behind my back, to see the man that has single-handedly tried to destroy me.
“I was driving down Main Street and saw her walking, which I thought was a little strange, since she said she had to do homework.”
I’m going to lose it. She told me that she was going with him and told him she was doing school stuff? Unreal. My daughter is in big freaking trouble, but then again, so is my boyfriend.
“Which led you to…?”
“She was going to the funeral home whether you or I wanted her to or not. I thought it was better for her not to go in there alone.”
“That wasn’t your decision to make!”
“She wanted to see him, Teagan. She knew he was here, you forbade her from going, and I didn’t want her to go in unprotected.”
My heart is racing and I can’t believe this. “Then you call me! Me! I’m her mother. I’m the only goddamn person in this world who has protected that girl. She never should’ve seen him.”
“You would’ve rather I did what?”
“Tell her no. Talk to me.”
This should be clear as day. He had no right.
“I understand you’re mad, I didn’t know what to do when I saw her and I didn’t want her to walk in there alone. You and I both know she was contacting him.”
“You didn’t have the authority to act like that.”
“So you’d rather I held her captive in the car so you could handle it?”
“Yes!” I slam my hand on the counter and turn away.
I don’t know what to feel right now, but betrayal is the one thing that keeps coming to mind. My anger isn’t only about the fact that he took her, which is bad enough, but that he kept it from me.
“I’m sorry. I really am. I did what I thought was best for Chastity. I wasn’t trying to hurt you.”
The thingabout intentions is that even while they may be good, they still have consequences. There are things that he’s done and I’ve done that put us here to begin with. I didn’t intend to fall in love with him, but I did. He didn’t intend to have his wife find the journal, but she did. I also don’t know how to reconcile the fact that he intentionally lied.
“No? Then why lie, Derek?”
