Just a Dare

Chapter Nineteen

"Melody..." Daniel Scribner murmured, taking a small step toward where we stood. His eyes were locked on his youngest daughter, a relieved smile pulling up the corners of his lips.

I looked at my girlfriend, who, for her part, looked as if she'd seen a ghost. I reached over and took her hand, giving it a gentle, reassuring squeeze, before looking back at the man who had left her hurt and confused for her whole life.

I saw her free hand slowly move up toward her neck out of my peripheral vision and knew instantly what she had reached for: the locket. She clutched it as if it were her lifeline.

My eyes narrowed at Daniel, anger beginning to surge dangerously within me. "Who the hell do you think you are, dropping out of nowhere after eighteen years?" I shouted at him, my face starting to flush from my fury.

He seemed to have just noticed me, his eyes reluctantly shifting from Mel to me and widening in surprise. I was glad the bastard noticed me, because I had a hell of a lot to say.

"Do you even realize what you've done to her?" I demanded, motioning to Melody.

Carol and Rachel exchanged bewildered looks, but I couldn't give two shits about them right then. All I cared about was making sure Daniel Scribner understood painfully well what kind of hell he had put Mel through by taking off without a word.

It was hard to believe that less than an hour ago, I had actually been sympathizing with the heartless asshole. What possible excuse did he have that made his disappearance okay? Nothing about the situation was okay. Melody's face clearly expressed that much.

"She had to grow up fatherless!" I exclaimed. "Do you know how hard that is on a child? You left her before you even got to know her!"

Carol, who, up until that point, had remained in stunned silence finally spoke up. "Trey, while I'm sure that Melody appreciates you defending her..."

"You should probably leave," Rachel finished for her, not unkindly. She was Melody's sister, after all: disgustingly polite to the last breath.

I was still blindingly angry, fully prepared to continue lashing out at her father until I was blue in the face, but I did not want to disrespect Melody's mother and sister. I looked at Melody for any signs of hesitation. If Mel needed me, nothing would make me leave, respect be damned.

It was an alien thing to me - loyalty - as well as the urge to defend another person outside of my own flesh and blood. I didn't know what had come over me that led me to actually want - no, need - to protect Melody Scribner, but I was grateful for it.

Because while Mel was a strong person, one of the strongest people I knew, I had come to realize over the past two months that she had always been so busy trying to save everyone else that she completely overlooked the fact that she needed to be saved, too. She had emotions that could just as easily be hurt as anyone else's, cuts that would bleed just as red as the next person's.

She had a good, honest, caring heart that was unbelievably resolute but could be broken, because she wasn't invincible. She was human. And humans, she had taught me, even the strongest, were all equally as fragile.

And it was because of that fragility, despite her best efforts to hide it from everyone, including herself, that I knew I needed to protect her now. Because, as sad as it was, it had dawned on me that if I didn't, no one would. And I couldn't bear that for someone as good as her, no matter how much I didn't deserve that goodness.

"Are you okay?" I murmured to her, ignoring everyone else in the room.

No one else mattered but her.