I looked over at Mia as she milly rock to a country song and I laughed before glancing at Jenifer. The look of absolute disgust on her face made me almost double over in laughter.
Mia shuffled her way towards me and she grinned.
"Dude, annoying your slightly racist future stepmom is my new favorite."
I smiled at her and glanced at Jenifer. She dropped her sneers and waved with a fake smile. Mia and I waved before I turned to face Mia.
"I just don't understand why someone chooses to hate another human based on their skin color." She let out a sigh and I nodded.
"Promise to tell me if it gets to be too much and you want to go home."
"Promise," she gave me a hug.
"Now go do your bridesmaid duties."
"Yes ma'am." I nodded before going towards Jenifer for my next task.
[0]
"Why are we not talking about this now?" I heard Katelyn's voice and I stopped.
All the bride's side of the wedding party was supposed to be getting the last finishing touches added to us before the wedding ceremony in about thirty minutes. However, an hour ago Jenifer and Katelyn left and went to Jenifer's private section of the prep room. I had thought it was because they wanted to have a mother daughter moment but it progressed to sounding more and more like an argument.
"Katelyn, I do not want to do this today." Jenifer snapped and I stepped through the dividers.
"Hi," I greeted softly and the two of them turned to face me. Katelyn crossed her arms in front of her chest and glared at her mother.
"I'm not walking down that isle until you tell me who my father is." She threatened and my eyes widened.
Oh crap.
"Do not start this today. Not on this day Katelyn." Jenifer snapped before taking off her wrap and going towards her wedding dress.
The dividers opened and Olivia, the maid of honor walked in and smiled at Jenifer.
"Are you ready for this?"
"Absolutely," Jenifer smiled before stepping into her dress. Olivia zipped her up and the joyful smile on Jenifer's face brought a smile to my face.
The dress was a deep v-neck mermaid dress that hugged her form perfectly. The front was a lace fabric that wrapped around her into a low dip on her back.
She looked like royalty.
"You look beautiful." I voiced and she glanced at me with a smile.
"Thank you, Rose." She said before turning to her daughter.
"Yeah mom," Katelyn nodded. "It's a shame I'm not walking with you through this."
What?
"Are you serious?" Jenifer asked.
"As a heart attack."
"What's going on?" Olivia asked and Jenifer let out a sigh.
"None of your business." Katelyn snapped.
"Kate, now is not really the right time for this." I frowned. I understand that she wants to know who her father is but this is not the time.
"You don't know shit Rose," she snapped and my eyes widened.
"You know both parents. Knew." She corrected. "But there's this hole that I have because I don't even know who my father is. And mom know who he is. She's trying to complete this family with Charles but I still deserve to know who my father is."
Oh Katelyn.
"And you can't wait one more day Katelyn?" Olivia asked and Katelyn's head snapped towards her.
"Mind your own business, bitch!"
Yikes.
"Katelyn," I brought her attention to me. She looked at me with unshed tears in her eyes and my eyes softened before I glanced at Jenifer.
"Just tell her," I told her. "Then we can move on and everyone is happy."
"He has to," she shook her head.
"Then I'll go get him. And we will handle it from there." I nodded and stepped away from the divider and towards the door and out of the room. I walked across the hall and knocked on the door to the men's side of the wedding party.
Dad's best man, Peter opened the door.
"Rose!" He greeted and I gave him a small smile.
"Hi, where's dad?" I asked and he narrowed his eyes at me playfully.
"Are you trying to spy on us?" He asked with a smile and I gave him a polite smile.
"No, he just needs to have a chat with his daughter." I told him and I heard footsteps behind Peter. Dad came into view in a perfect tuxedo, a cup with a dark liquid hung loose in his hands.
"Rose," he smiled and I bit back my nerves.
Why is he drinking? And how long has he been drinking?
"Jenifer and Katelyn need to see you." I told him and he frowned and sipped his drink.
"Are you sure? Jen wanted to do the whole not seeing each other until she walked down the isle thing."
"I'm sure," I nodded. "But, Katelyn is refusing to walk until she finds out who her father is." I told him and he froze.
Peter looked between the two of us before looking at dad.
"You still haven't told the kid?" He asked and I looked at him.
He knows?
"There hasn't exactly been the right time." Dad muttered before downing the rest of his drink.
"Well, it's now or never. Because Katelyn is not going to walk. And if she doesn't walk, Jenifer won't walk." Peter explained and dad sighed in frustration before handing Peter the empty cup.
"I'll tell Katelyn when I feel like it." He muttered before walking past us and knocking on the door across from us.
One of the other bridesmaids opened the door and their eyes widened and the sight of dad.
"You're not supposed to be here." She warned and dad smiled before walking into the room.
"She's going to be my wife in less than an hour." He grumbled before taking a step forward.
That's when I stepped forward.
"Dad?" I placed a hand on his upper arm and he turned to face me.
"What is it?" The stench of alcohol invaded my nose and I took a step back.
He's not drunk, probably not even tipsy. But he is agitated enough that he might do something unreasonable. And if people smell the alcohol on his breath, that will be the first factor that's evaluated.
"Why don't we grab a glass of water or juice before we go in there?" I asked and he narrowed his eyes at me before removing his arm from my grip.
"I'm fine," he hissed before looking at Miranda who was at the door.
"I just need to speak to Katelyn." Dad stepped around her before going towards the dividers.
"The groom is in the room!" The bridesmaids announced and dad looked at them in annoyance.
The divider opened and Olivia stepped out.
"Please tell me you're here to handle your dramatic future step daughter." She said in frustration and dad nodded before stepping around her.
"Jen I'm coming in," he announced.
"Oh, you might as well see me. Katelyn's dramatics tends to ruin things in this family."
Ouch.
"Of course mother, I am the one at fault here. I am the the one that is withholding information." Katelyn said and her voice quivered. Her mother's words had hurt. It was evident in her tone.
Dad and I stepped through the divider and I quietly heard Olivia order the other bridesmaids to leave the room completely.
"Kate, what's going on?" Dad asked with a sigh.
"Nothing, I just want to know the name of my father and mom is refusing to tell me." She confessed before stepping into his arms for a hug. He hugged her back and placed a kiss on top of her head.
"Tomorrow," was dad's only reply.
"What?" Katelyn frowned.
"Your mother and I will tell you who your father is tomorrow. Today, I just want to have a happy day where I marry the woman of my dreams." He explained calmly before smiling at Jenifer.
She seemed satisfied with that answer and she gave him a beautiful smile. But Katelyn wasn't. The only thing she seemed to have heard was the 'your mother and I'.
"You know who he is?" She asked before stepping out of dad's arms.
"Yes, and tomorrow you will too." Dad simply replied and Katelyn shook her head.
"You don't understand," she said quietly. "Why are you keeping this from me? Why can't I just know who he is?"
"I already told you, you will find out tomorrow." Dad explained in a hard tone. "Now drop it!"
"No," Katelyn fought back.
She's stubborn. Ironically, just like her father.
"Dear God," Jenifer let out a defeated sigh.
"Is he dead?" Katelyn whispered and all eyes turned to face her.
"What?" I asked.
"Is my dad dead? Or in prison? Is he some awful criminal that you don't want in my life?" She asked before crossing her arms in a protective stance.
"Is that why you won't tell me?" She asked quietly and I felt a squeeze in my heart.
This is painful for her and her parents are treating it like it's just a dramatic moment.
"Dad, that's not why I brought you here." I spoke and he turned to look at me. The warning was clear in his eyes.
"She deserves to know and it's not right that we're keeping it from her."
"We?" Katelyn asked but I kept my eyes on dad.
"You know who he is?" She asked and I kept my eyes away from her. I silently plead dad one more time to tell her and when I got nothing back, I looked at Katelyn.
"I know who your father is." I said Katelyn and her eyes widened in surprise.
"What?"
"Rosalee," dad grabbed my arm and I yanked it out of his grasp.
"Let go of me." I sneered.
"Do you want to tell her?" I asked and he clenched his jaw shut.
"Right," I nodded before turning to Katelyn.
"I know who your father is," I repeated and she glanced at our parents.
"Who is he?" She asked and Jenifer let out a sigh before kicking off her shoes and taking a seat on a nearby chair her wedding dress falling around her.
"Our mothers were roommates and best friends in college. My dad was dating my mom and they were in love."
Katelyn turned her attention from her mother to me and she frowned.
"Until my mom got pregnant with me." I said before glancing at dad. His arms were crossed in front of him and he was looking down at the ground.
Coward.
"He didn't want a child. So, he thought that if he cheated on my mother, she would want to get an abortion and he would be off the hook."
"What the fuck?" Katelyn said, appalled.
"But my mother couldn't bear the thought of getting rid of me so she kept me and stayed with a cheating man." I choked out.
"She learned to forgive him and a few years later they got married." I explained before wiping a fallen tear.
"Except the girl he cheated with also got pregnant and she too couldn't bear the thought of aborting a baby." I looked up at her before glancing up at Jenifer.
Now would be the time for her to cut in. Explain her side of the story. Explain why she kept this from Katelyn all these years.
She gave me a small shake of her head and looked away from me.
Coward.
"What does this have to do with my father?" Katelyn asked quietly and I sniffled.
"Because the girl my dad had an affair with was Jenifer." I explained and her head turned to look at her mother.
"No," she gasped.
"My mom found out about you around your sixth birthday when Jenifer contacted my dad because you wanted to know who your father was." I explained.
"No." Katelyn shook her head before taking a step away from me.
"Because that would mean that Charles is my dad." Her voice shook and I nodded. Her eyes shone with tears and she looked at my dad.
"That would mean that you're my father." She quivered.
"Kate..."
"It would mean that you're my father." She repeated. Her teeth were clenched and she fought back tears.
"It would mean that you knew about me from day one and you chose to not acknowledge me." She placed an hand over a chest and took a step towards him.
"It means that when I would cry to you and beg you to please do a background check on a new name from my mom's past to see if maybe he was my dad, you knew all along that you wouldn't find anything." She glared at him.
"I'm sorry." He said pathetically.
"No!" Katelyn hit his chest.
"This would mean that on my sixteenth birthday, my wish came true when I begged the universe if I could just see my dad." She continued to hit his chest and a sob left her throat.
"It would mean that I didn't have to hate my mom all those years because I though she just left without you knowing she was pregnant." She cried.
"I BLAMED HER!" She screamed and dad reached out to touch her.
"Don't you fucking touch me." She shoved him.
"You don't get to comfort me." She said through gritted teeth as she continued to hit him.
And he let her.
"I hate you!" She screamed and I watched his demeanor changed.
He looked hurt.
"I hate you!" She screamed again before turning to her mom.
"You kept this from me!" She accused. "All those years you knew where he was and you brought him into my life and you still kept it from me."
"I-" she stopped.
Katelyn took in a deep breath through her nose and let it out in a choked out sob.
"It doesn't matter anymore." She shook her head as fresh tears fell down her face. "It doesn't matter anymore."
She turned on her heel and walked away, the door slamming behind her.
I looked at dad then Jenifer before shaking my head.
"That is not how that should've gone. It shouldn't have had been me that told her." I said before following Katelyn out the door.
It took me over twenty minutes before I could find her. But eventually, I found her sitting on on a tree branch. I was looking for her on the ground when all I had to do was look up.
"Hey," I called out to her. She looked down at me and I noticed her tear stained face.
"Will you please come down?" I asked and she looked away from me.
"No."
"I can't climb trees and I'll look ridiculous yelling at a tree branch." I told her and her mouth twitched.
Almost got her to smile.
"I'm not ready to come down yet." She said, her eyes still avoiding mine.
"Fine, I'll come up." I told her before kicking off my shoes.
I attempted many times and failed. And at some point, Katelyn got annoyed or tired of me being pathetic and she pulled me up.
"Okay," I breathed out before sitting down next to her and she shook her head.
"I don't want to talk about it."
I nodded before handing her a pack of tissues.
"We don't have to talk." I replied and she wiped her face.
We sat in silence for a good ten minutes before she looked at me.
"When did you know?" She asked quietly and I let out a long breath.
"Sometime during the week after prom. I overheard my dad on the phone talking to your mom." I told her and she let out a single, dry chuckle before chucking her napkin at the ground.
"Which explained why you avoided me so much."
"I didn't know how to be normal after finding out. I wanted to tell you but it would've have been wrong of me to do so. Dad was the one that should've told you." I told her and she shook her head.
"But he didn't. Even after all this time you were the one who told me."
"I was." I nodded.
"God, how could he not tell me?" Her eyes welled with fresh tears.
"Because he loves you." I replied without missing a beat.
"He's genuinely afraid that you will hate him and what he did. So he avoided telling you." I told her with a confident nod.
"Okay, you're just saying that to make me feel better." She shook her head. "I don't think you know what it's like to know that someone didn't want you in their life."
I almost laughed.
"Katelyn, the reason my father wasn't in your life was because of me." I told her and she glanced at me in confusion.
"Why would you say that?"
"Because it's the truth."
"When your mom contacted him on your sixth birthday, I was about seven ." I told her and she nodded.
"When my mom found out, she planned on leaving dad. And he was fine with that because he wanted to move to the east coast and be with you and Jenifer." I explained and her eyes clouded with confusion.
"What?"
"But on a hot summer day, my mom decided to take us to the beach. One last family trip before they signed the divorce papers. On our way back we stopped for gas and that was the end of her story." I swallowed feeling a golf sized lump in my throat.
"Now, I was without a mother and my father couldn't leave me. He was stuck with me. " I told her and her eyes widened.
"He still wanted to move but he got cowardice and he moved to Florida instead of North Carolina where your mom was. I don't know if he wanted to wait until I got older, but that's what happened."
"I was the reason it took so long for him to be in your life." I told her before wiping away the trader tears.
"He fell out of love with my mom and he was in love with yours. He wanted to have a family with you, but he got stuck with me."
Which is why he never loved me. He didn't want me when my mother got pregnant with me and when she died, I was the one to blame. His heart hardened because his plans were ruined.
Not because I took the woman he loved away, but because I was preventing him from going to her and their child.
Katelyn and Jenifer.
"Why would you say that?" She asked in shock before placing an hand on my arm. "Why would you think that he doesn't love you?"
"Because just like you never had a father, I never got a dad." I told her.
"The other day, I was rummaging thorough the garage and I found a box filled with your life accomplishments." I smiled. "Your bad elementary school arts, your swimming trophies, pictures of you growing up."
"He didn't even show up to my high school graduation." I told her as more teas fell.
"Everything about me, good or bad was picked at and criticized by him." I told him.
"During the first few months of me meeting you, he made the threat of sending you to boarding school to 'straighten you up', but he was never going to do that."
He just wanted to make sure I knew he had the power to do so. That I shouldn't get too attached to you because those two parts of his life were not meant to collide. And I was the reason it did.
He said that to make sure I knew, that he had the power to take away anything that he didn't want in his life. He might've said Katelyn's name, but he was referring to me.
"Rose," she said quietly and I shook my head before wiping my eyes with a tissue.
"I'm okay, now. I've come to terms with it and I realized that I don't need his love and acceptance to be me. To be lovable." I told her.
"He loves you, that's why he restrained from telling you. I don't know if that justifies his actions or not but that's not up to me to decide." I told her.
"All I know is, we might have the same father, but we don't have the same dad." I told her before looking down at the ground.
"Because neither my dad or my father would've delayed his wedding to find me." I pointed ahead at my father searching around the venue.
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Part 2 coming soon.
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Coming up: Charles Thorne is a little less of a butt?