Above & Beyond ✔

15. A Runaway Girl

I was utterly shocked. My heart beat so fast in my chest that I started feeling dizzy. While leaning on the wall behind me, I took a breath as deep as I could and released it slowly through my mouth. My brain tried to digest everything, yet none of it made sense.

"Jen..." Dean was already in front of me. He extended his hand to touch my arm but I shrugged him away.

I looked up when heavy footsteps echoed from the stairs, and there I was, face to face with my father, James Adrian. The father I loved dearly. The father who I wished had given me more of his time. The father to whom I was still harboring my tiny hope to save our little family from breaking up. The father who cheated on my mother with a family friend.

My old man stood with his hand holding to the banister, looking defeated. His work attire was disheveled, and a few top buttons were missing. His hair, which had always been neatly gelled, was now all over the place. He stared at me, waiting with anticipation. He was probably expecting me to scream and attack him, as daughters should when they found out their dad had seriously fucked up.

But I stayed rooted to my spot. Stupefied.

"Jenny," my dad's voice croaked.

"Is that true that...the baby is...was yours?" I asked, my voice foreign in my ears.

For a second I hoped he would deny it and tell me that I heard it wrong, that it was just a misunderstanding, that what Dean had said to him was all just empty accusations. But he didn't. He nodded a few times as he rubbed his face roughly with his hands.

My heart was cracked.

"Why?" I whispered.

"I'm sorry, baby."

With shaky legs, I walked up to him. "I'm not asking you to apologize. I'm asking you why you did that to Mom? "

"Go on, tell her, James. Tell her that you're a selfish bastard who can't keep your dick in your pants," Dean spat.

"Shut up, Dean!" My voice trembled, holding my anger. I tilted my head to him and growled, "You knew it all this time, but you didn't even have the guts to tell me."

Dean looked taken back. "Jen...I was just trying to protect you."

"Protect me?" My voice was an octave higher. "Protect me from what?"

"From this!" he shouted back, waving his hands in exasperation. "To keep you out of all this fucking mess!"

"How is keeping me from the truth going to protect me? What do you think I am? A five-year-old?"

"It was supposed to stop before it went this far. But he's a fucking liar who can't hold his end of the deal!"

"That's not completely true!" my dad asserted. "You know it's more complicated than that."

"A deal? What deal?" I looked at Dean then at my dad, but both men were too busy shooting daggers at each other.

"You've agreed to leave her alone, no matter how fucked up it was," Dean growled. "I've reminded you once, I will break your face for real next time."

Next time? Did he–? No!

All of a sudden, everything made sense now: Dean being all weird, the mysterious fight, and my dad's bruises. "It was Dean, wasn't it? You didn't fall on the bathroom floor. Dean hit you!" I said to my dad.

My father dropped his head and sighed. "Yes."

"He deserved it," Dean snarled.

"I can't believe you lied on my face," I hissed, "both of you!"