Look After You - A Justin Bieber Love Story

Chapter Ten - Like Keeps Getting Better (In Both The Literal And Sarcastic Way)

“Dad?” I say feebly, not trusting myself to say anymore.

My mother raises her head and stares at him like she’s trying to grasp the fact that he’s really here.

Benji gets up of the floor and comes to me and wraps his arms around my waist and buries his head in my top. I wrap my own arms around his shoulders and pull him closer. He’s never met the man who’s sitting at our kitchen table before.

“Yes Bonnie, it’s me” and that’s all I need.

Along with the sound of his voice came thousands of memories and the tears began to fall.

“I don’t… understand” my voice broke at the end and I felt Benji starting to shake in my arms and I know that he’s now crying too. He never holds out long when I start crying.

“I know this is a shock but I can explain everything” my father said as his own eyes began to brim with tears.

I nod my head, not really knowing what else to do. I unwound my arms from Benji and took his hand, guiding him into the hallway.

“Fabian?” I say softly.

“Hmm?” he looks up at me.

“Come on” I reach my other hand out to him, “dad’s gonna explain.”

A fresh wave of tears brimmed in his eyes, but he took my hand and we made our way back into the kitchen.

Fabian sat on one side of mother whilst I pulled a chair out and dragged it so that we’re all looking at my father. I pull Benji into my lap and let him rest his head between my neck and shoulder.

“Jerome, please” my mother says so quietly it’s like she didn’t want to make any noise at all.

It felt strange hearing her say my fathers name again.

My father sighed, the focused his eyes on the back of Benji’s head and smiled softly. It looks a little lopsided due to the scars covering the left side of his face, but it made my heart ache and remind me again how much I’ve missed it.

“Eight years ago I was positioned in Egypt, making peace with the locals and helping them in their civil war” my father began, “everything was going very well, until two days before we were due to come home.” I felt my mother stiffen beside me but she didn’t say anything. “The town we were staying in got attacked. Somehow they had managed to get their hands on bombs and were dropping them from planes. I managed to escape on a boat with my friend Stan, but I wasn’t conscious. He had carried me onto the boat and somehow we got away. When I woke up the second time though, off the boat and in a straw bed, I couldn’t remember where I come from, why I was there, what had happened. It was not until yesterday, when I found out that everyone had assumed me and Stan had dies in the bombing. Stan in fact had died on the boat I was told, his injuries were too server. For the past eight years I have lived in a little town in Turkey, under the care of the local people. Without their help I would have died just like Stan. For a further 7 years I lived with no recollection of my past life, just a gold band” he lifted his left hand, still bearing his wedding ring, “that told me I was married, but that’s as far as knowing anything went. When my memory started coming back, I almost lost it. I could finally remember I had a family, a beautiful wife with two children and one on the way when I had left but it didn’t take me any closer to home. I couldn’t recall where we lived or how I was going to go back home. It was out of pure luck that I stumbled into the embassy on the day that the American minister for Turkey was present. We got in contact with the army base over her and after a few hours I was informed of my name. and just like that everything came back to me and I was on a plane home. I got here about an hour ago and your friend Summer opened up and told me where you were.”