Camp Camp: Someone who cares (Dadvid) BEING RE-WRITTEN

Chapter Twenty Three: Too Little, Too Late

Guess who doesn't know how the law works! This guy! Also I should put a TRIGGER WARNING here because there's suicide in here.

"I'm sorry," said Chirag, twiddling his fingers sheepishly.

"What?" Max asked, bewildered.

At the beginning of summer, he would have never thought that he would be standing at the front of a courthouse with the man he thought was his father apologizing to him. Chirag's trial was the first out of the three and went surprisingly smoothly. The underlying fear Max had about his parents roaming free and that he would be taken back had subsided.

Max was the main witness to the trial which was apparently an easy job. So easy that Chirag's lawyer had his hand nervously running through his hair for the majority of the case. So easy that the other main witness, Chirag, admitted to his own crimes and why he did them. So easy that he didn't have to say much at all because Chirag had said what Max going to but more.

For weeks, Max was anxious about being a witness in Chirag's trial since he was the closest he had ever had to a father before David. Out of the three parental figures, Chirag had been less of a dick but not without his moments. He was surprised his face didn't have a permanent mark from how often he had been stricken on the face.

His whole life he was punished for being born, a mistake he wasn't even allowed to take back. Chirag hated him with a passion. Max always felt it. He also knew that Chirag always pitied him like a dog abandoned by its owner.

Although an apology was much fucking deserved, it was too little too late. Eleven fucking years of nights he would go to bed with a new bruise from that man who didn't deserve a justification behind why he was so hateful. All he got to show for it, besides the occasional care for other harm from Matha, was an apology after he was sentenced for two years in jail.

"I know it's too late for that but I truly am," he explained. "I should have treated you like my son, not Gene's son."

"You think?" Max spat lowly.

He immediately recoiled when Chirag's jaw clenched in a familiar wave of anger before exhaling deeply. Luckily Gwen and David were hovering behind him protectively.

"And I also shouldn't have punished you for things you couldn't control. You didn't cause Matha's affair, you were just a product of it."

Again, he was speaking the obvious. It took him long enough to figure that out. That realization ten years earlier would have been nice and would have saved a lot of scarring.

"I should've actually cared for you and I hope your new guardians give you what you deserve."

Chirag smiled at David and Gwen but he still had one burning question.

"Then why the fuck did you hurt me?" Max asked, his voice rising slightly. David gently put his hand on Max's shoulder only for it to be shaken off. "Why didn't Gene cop anything?!"

It wasn't fair! He didn't ask to be born and was still treated like shit! Everything they did to him was because of Gene and the one person who could have helped him make his life worse! He didn't only use the same tactics as Gene and Matha to harm him, but he taunted Max with a life he could have had with him.

In some ways, the apology made everything worse because now Max knew that Chirag knew what he was doing but didn't stop anyway. He knew Max didn't deserve Chirag's anger towards him and yet he still carried on. Hell, he even convinced Max that everything wrong in his life was his fault.

If he wanted a son so bad he could have gotten one. Instead, he pushed Max away and crushed his spirit.

"You think I didn't deck him once or twice? We've had full-on fistfights! I won most of them," he gloated.