Because Mom Wasn't Enough

Pull the note out of my throat

A/N: Hey! Sorry the last chapter was so short, here's the next one!

Jo's POV

I walked down the street, away from the west side. I had spent so much time trying to get back to San Diego, and now that I was here, I just wanted to get away. No, I don't want to get away, I just don't want the guys to have to deal with me anymore. Nothing is working out. Why did Mom have to die? Why did Vic have to be my father?

I'll stay in San Diego, but somewhere where Vic won't find me. I can't get stranded in an unfamiliar city again. I walked towards the poor side of the city. Well, the suburbs really. That's where I grew up, that's what I know. I started cutting across the park. There was almost no one there, just me and the tree. Mom used to bring me here when I was little, and always let me climb the tree. I went up to it and stroked the rough bark. I walked around it, reminiscing in old memories before my life got complicated and ruined everyone else's. My fingers ran along the aged wood, until something foreign stopped me. There was a paper taped to the tree trunk, wrinkled and torn. I pulled it off and read the words scribbled down.

To anyone reading this,

My name is Jenny. My life is worthless and everyone has suffered due to my existence. I am going to kill myself today. I will be at the bridge near the shoe factory until midnight. No one will come to stop me, I just want you to know where I will be.

Jenny

I read the letter over wondering why this girl left a note taped to a tree in an abandoned park. If she wanted someone to stop her, then this would be the worst place to leave it. The date said it was put up today. I knew no one else would see this, and turned away from the tree. I started running towards the bridge, it was eleven o'clock, and the bridge was a few miles away. There were few people out this late, and I made it to the edge of the bridge within a half hour.

I stopped to catch my breath and glanced around the old rusty bridge. It always scared me when my mom would drive over it. I worried it would collapse under the weight of the car and leave us to fall to our deaths. There was a figure sitting on the edge of the bridge, dangling their feet off the side. I could barely see in the darkness, but I could tell it was a girl.

"Jenny?" I called to her.

Vic's POV

I sighed for the millionth time today, running my fingers through my hair. I paced back and forth behind the counter at the police station. The cop was tracking Jo's phone for us. A parent should never have to go through this, let alone twice within a week. I chewed on my bottom lip, trying to keep from blowing up again. Mike yelled at me last night for being over-dramatic. But how could I not!? My daughter...alone, possibly hurt. Why does she hate us so much? What did I do to deserve this treatment from her?

"Vic will you stop pacing!" Mike yelled at me. I froze and loooked at him with a slightly disgusted look on my face. "Don't give me that look."

"Mike, my daughter hates me and wants nothing to do with me or any of us! Don't I deserve to be a little upset!?" I spat at him. He rolled his eyes and turned away from me. "What?" I groaned.

"Nothing." He stated.

"You obviously have something to say so say it!"

"I'm sick of your attitude! Jo probably is too that's why she left! You can't even keep track of your own daughter, what do you expect her to do? Then you get all emotional when you find her again. Maybe if you had been a better parent, we wouldn't have to go through this every few days!" My jaw dropped. Did he really think that?

"Mike...!" Jaime warned. He put a hand on Mike's shoulder who just shrugged him off. I turned away from him as I struggled to hold back tears, because I knew it was true. Mike may have been harsh, but he was right. The cop sighed and I looked over at him. He zoomed in on a red dot.

"What have you got?" I asked softly.

"Her phone is out of service; broked or disconnected. I can't get a current reading on it, only where it's last signal was sent from. That's what this is." He said pointing to the dot. We all crowded around the screen.

"Where is that?" I asked.

"San Francisco Bay." He said. I let out a breath I didn't realize I had been holding. I stepped away from the screen and slowly walked away from the group.

"Vic, what is it? We know she's still in San Fran--" Jaime started. I spun around and cut him off.

"No she's not!" I screamed. They all gave me questioning looks. "She's not in San Francisco, she's in San Francisco Bay. Jo can't swim!" They realized what I was trying to say and Jaime came over to me. "Jo's dead..." I mumbled.

"No, Vic, you can't know that. Maybe she threw her phone in the bay." I shook my head and turned away from him.

"Why would she do that?" I asked, more to myself. Jaime didn't answer me.

"I'm sorry, Vic." Mike said. He pulled me into a hug as tears ran down my face.

"Um...excuse me?" Said someone with a British accent. I looked up to see a blond boy walking up to the counter. "Did you say Jo? Jo Fuentes?" I nodded furiously.

"Do you know her? Who are you?" I asked frantically. He walked up to the counter.

"I'm Collin. I met Jo is San Fran and brought her back here. I was trying to bring her home, but she ran off again."

"What!? When? When did you last see her? Where did she go?" I asked all in one breath. Collin shrugged.

"We were over on the east side. We had just gotten out if the taxi when she told me she didn't want to go home. She ran the other way and I couldn't catch her. I decided to just come here and tell the police; leave it to them."

"S-So she didn't drown in the bay?" I asked. He shook his head.

"Why would she drown? We were there when someone named Danny showed up. Then she threw her phone off the bridge. I sighed in relief, but then realized what he had said.

"Danny!? What happened? Is Jo okay?" Collin chuckled.

"Jo's fine, Danny isn't though." He said casually. Was Danny dead? Had Jo killed him?

"Could you help us find her?" I asked. Collin looked uncertain but nodded.

"I'm not sure she'll go easily though; she seemed pretty set on leaving you to your own thing."

"What?" Collin nodded again.

"She heard what you said in the city. How you couldn't do this anymore or something." I was confused for a second and then remembered. She didn't understand what I meant. All I wanted was my daughter back.

"Sir?" The cop beside me said. "We can send out a search party in the morning, but there's nothing we can do this time at night." I looked outside and saw it was almost pitch black. I sighed.

"Alright...Collin, are you staying somewhere?" He shook his head. "You can stay with us if you want."

"Thanks." He said. "We look for her in the morning?" I nodded and we headed home.