The Player Next Door

#18- Awkward Family Conversations

#18
Madelyn's POV

"Hazel, tell everyone what you told me"

"Which one is Chris?" She asks everyone. They all turn to look at Chris. "I am your sister", she starts. "Well, half sister technically. Our dad had been taken prisoner by people in Iran. Almost right after the people told your mom that he had died, he was found and returned to America. Him and my mom started dating shortly after and had me. Very recently, he told me that he had a wife and kids before he met my mom. So I looked you guys up, and here I am."

"How do you know this is legit?" Cara asks.

Hazel takes off her backpack and pulls out a folder with her birth certificate and handed it to me. Our father's name was under the 'father' spot, as well as his birthday underneath. I pass the birth certificate around, allowing everyone to look at it. She reaches back into her back pack and pulls out picture of her family and hands it me. My breath catches in my throat, that's him.

That's my father. He looks grayer than the last time I saw him 14 years ago.

I hand the photo directly to Chris.

"So... he's alive?" Chris asks.

"Except for the fact that he needs a kidney, which is why I'm here. I can't give him one because I'm not old enough. Madelyn, you're the only one that can do it. That is, if you're a match" She drops on me.

"Okay. Let's go" I say without thinking.

***

I start grabbing things and throwing them into my suitcase.

"You can't be seriously considering this" Chris says to me.

"And why the hell not?" I ask.

"He abandoned us. He knew we existed and he did nothing. He didn't check to see how we were doing. I know for a fact he didn't because if he had, he would've seen what she did to you daily. Either that, or he saw what she was doing to you and didn't care. He could have saved you from so much."

"But he's our father."

"He lost that title when he left us."

"We don't know the whole story" I retort.

"Either way, he was dead to me the second he left." Chris storms out of my bedroom door.

Cole comes into the room next.

"Are you guys taking turns trying to talk me out of this?" I ask.

"No, I just wanted to come and talk to you." He pauses and watches me go to my sock drawer and just grab a handful of socks, "Madelyn"

"What?" I toss the socks in my suitcase.

"Can you just stop for five seconds?"

He grabs onto my shoulders and stops me.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" He asks me.

"I have to at least try, right? He's my dad." I say, more questioning that stating.

"You have to do what you think is right"

"If your dad was in the same position, would you give him a kidney?"

"I would've given him anything he needed"

"Okay" I say to him, "Okay" I say again, but this time to myself.

"What do you need me to do before everyone else and I go to pack our bags?"

"Pack your bags?" I ask.