Nothing To Lose

24- He's Back

Tally,

I’m so sorry about everything I did to you and Damon, I regret it deeply. It was the only solution I could see, but now everything has changed. I know I hurt you and your family and friends and I can only hope that someday you might understand why I did it. I never wanted to hurt anyone, but after so many years alone- I couldn’t see any other options.

Thanks to Gina (and all of you), I have another chance. I’m going to try to find my soul mate, but with so many people in the world I don’t know if it will be possible. Not to mention, all the people that want revenge. If I can’t find him, I plan to use the other potion and start over.

Thank you for everything you have done for me. Again, I am terribly sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused you. I should’ve thought things through. Thank you for helping me even though I didn’t deserve it. I will forever be in your debt.

Elise

I read over the note once again, still shocked about everything she had written down. She started out wanting to murder me and now she was… apologizing? I didn’t know if I could forgive her, but I didn’t have to. She was gone, hopefully for forever. She’d left Gina’s house while I’d been on the date with Damon. I’d gone back and found the note waiting for me.

“Tally, will you come down here for a minute?” Riley called from downstairs, her voice shaking slightly. What could it be this time? Perhaps the potion didn’t work and Elise decided to try to kill me again! I was downstairs in record time.

But it wasn’t Elise that stood in the doorway. It was my father. The man who abandoned us six years ago… what was he doing here? I marched over, fueled with rage and shock. “What are you doing here?”

“Tally please,” he pleaded, his eyes begging me to listen. But I had waited for him for years before I realized he wasn’t coming back. Why did he decide to return now?

I shook my head, backing up to where Riley stood with her arms crossed over her chest, her stance defensive. She pursed her lips. “Dad, why are you here?”

“I’m sorry,” he breathed, looking between us for some form of acceptance. I knew he wasn’t going to find any.

I laughed bitterly, surprising all of us. “You’re sorry? You think that will make up for the past six years!? You left us! I was thirteen and my mom died, making my dad run off. Can you even begin to imagine how I felt?”

“Tally, I’m so sorry… I didn’t know what else to do. I had just lost your mom and it hurt more than anything.”

Riley shook her head. “That’s no excuse for leaving your children without any parents. I want you to leave; give us time to think about all of this.”

“Alright, call me if you decide you want to talk,” he stated, handing her a piece of paper with his phone number scribbled on it. “I’ll understand if you don’t call, but I miss you.” We didn’t reply and he slipped out the door. The tension didn’t leave the room.

Riley looked down at me. “Are you okay?”

“I think so, but I don’t want anything to do with him,” I admitted. Her blue eyes softened and she nodded in understanding.

“I know; I don’t either.”

I nodded and started upstairs. I had homework to do. I closed the door with a little too much force. Just when things were starting to work out, he had to come back into my life. I sunk onto my bed where English papers were lying. I barely glanced at them before my phone was in my hand and I was dialing Damon’s number. He answered on the first ring. “Hi Tally.”

“Hey, you’ll never guess who just showed up at my house,” I started, drawing hearts on my paper like a love-struck teenager… I guess that’s what I was.

“Who?” His voice was guarded but curious.

I wrote our initials in the hearts. “My dad; he was begging us to forgive him.”

“Did you?”

My pen fell from my hand. “Of course not, he ditched us for years and then suddenly shows up? No way am I going to forgive him.”

“I understand that, but he is your father… I don’t know; just think about it. Anyways, I’m glad you called, I had something to tell you…” He trailed off and I stayed silent, waiting for him to finish. But he didn’t so I rolled my eyes and took the bait.

“What did you want to tell me?”

His next words made me almost fall off my bed from pure shock. “I quit my job.”

“Why?” I couldn’t make sense of my suddenly jumbled emotions. I was happy we could finally be together in public, but I didn’t want him to quit his job for me!

He chuckled softly. “I got a new job at a publishing company; they pay almost double what the school does so don’t worry about me... I love you.”

“You are incredible,” I breathed, astounded by what he would do for me. I guess Riley was right, you can have a mate and still have dreams. “But do you actually want to work at a publishing company?”

I could imagine Damon rolling his eyes as he said, “Yes I do, I love reading. Besides, if it doesn’t work out, I’ll go back to teaching next fall. So what are you going to do about your dad?”

“I don’t know, but I guess you’re right. I can’t just ignore him now that he’s finally back. But there is no way I can forgive him any time soon.”

“He probably knows that. Hey, what are you doing right now?”

I eyed the papers on my bed bitterly and replied, “The homework that you assigned.”

“I could help you with that if you wanted to come over.” I was stuffing the homework into my bag before he finished his sentence.

“I would love that.”

As I hung up it hit me that I had finally found a place that I belonged to. A place with people whom I loved that loved me back. And there was nowhere else in the world I’d rather be.

Hi! Yes this is the last chapter, but there's an epilogue that will be up only a minute after this one. Thanks for sticking with my story and all the votes and reads that you've given me. I hope you liked it! If you did, don't feel shy about checking out my other works...