I watch the video again, Geoff had sent it to me directly and he posted it on social media just to be sure I saw it I suppose. The poor little boy, he doesn't know who I am, the only little bit of knowledge he'll have of me would be from the stories his aunts and uncles tell him. I could imagine his siblings and Reese have tried to suppress any memories they have left with me from their minds. "Why don't you call Mercy?" Lauren suggests. "Or Adam, I'm sure they'd love to hear from you." The kids have school and are off to their fun filled day while Lauren and I are here alone.
"They all hate me." I huff crossing my arms and rolling my eyes. "Every single one of them."
"Well you can at least show them you still remember who they are." She stands behind me rubbing my shoulders gently. "And they have kids now don't they? You could talk to them about that." I sigh looking down. She's right, I should call them at the very least.
"Alright," I lean back against the couch. "I'll call them." I look up and she plants a kiss on my lips.
"Thank you, maybe they'll let us go meet the kids, maybe they can meet their new half siblings." She shrugs walking off. They'd hate it if I remotely asked them about bringing Lauren out to visit or bringing my new kids out to meet them. It would be horrible, everything would be awkward and they'd just yell at me.
"Hi Mercy," I say slowly.
"Hello? Who is this?" She sounds much different than how I remember. Much more mature.
"I-it's your dad?" I question almost seeing if she can remember.
"Justin?" She furrows her eyebrows at me. "Did mom finally let you propose?" She chuckles.
"No, no Mercy this is Shawn? Your real dad?" There's a loud thud and then the sound of heavy sobs.
"D-dad?" She sniffs. "I-I miss you daddy," she cries. "When will you come visit me?"
"I don't know, do you want me to come visit?" I speak with great concern.
"Yeah, oh you'll get me meet my baby boy, and if you tell me when you're coming soon maybe Brandon and I can finally get married while you're here." She gasps.
"You're not married yet?" I swallow hard.
"I wanted my dad to walk me down the isle, I remember yours and Lauren's wedding when I was so mad at you, you told me it could be you and I walking down the isle some day and I told you it couldn't be. I wanted to make it up to you, but whenever I call mom she tells me you're not around and you're always gone when we finally think we have a date figured out."
"Mercy," I sigh a little. I have to tell her, she'll be so much more mad at me if I don't. "Now don't hate your mom ok? All she was doing was protecting you,"
"From what?" She rolls her eyes a little ending with a small laugh.
"Me." I look down. "Mercy I'm not with your mom, I'm with Lauren." I explain quickly.
"You're what?" She gasps a little. "How long have you been together?" She sounds beyond hurt and I feel horrible.
"Ten years," I look down and the other line goes dead. "Hello?" I furrow my eyebrows. "Mercy?" There's no response but the line goes dead. My poor baby girl, I just broke her.
To Shawn: forget what I said about the wedding. I'll just ask Justin to walk me down.
I let a tear slip down my cheek, I never meant to hurt her like this. "Why don't you try calling Adam or maybe even Angelina, I'm sure she'd love to hear from you." She explains trying to brighten the mood.
