Song I recommend for the chapter: That Home by The Cinematic Orchestra
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"What the hell do you want?" I demand.
"I told you I was coming back to talk to your mother," my father says with a smile. His smiles were not normal, each one made me cringe.
"I thought we told you to stay away from us," I say back.
"Now you know I can't do that, I'm your father," he goes to put his hand on my shoulder but I step back. "Is your mother home now?" He asks.
"It doesn't matter if she is or not," I snap.
"Honey, who is it?" I hear my mom yell from the dining room. Great.
"Ah, so she is home," he smiles again.
"You are not going to talk to her," I say before he can step inside.
"Allis, why didn't you-" That is all that she manages to get out as she steps in the entryway to find my father standing outside. "Why are you here," she says as more of a statement than a question. I can tell she is at a loss for words just like I was when I first saw him again. She gently pushes me aside and steps in front of him.
"It's been so long," he whispers and steps towards her with open arms.
"Don't you dare touch me!" She yells.
"Look," he begins. "I've come to make things right, with you and the kids."
"You will never be able to do that with any of us. I will never forgive you and you have no right to see either of the children," she snaps.
"I don't expect you to forgive me right away, but let me show you that I've changed," he says calmly. How is he always so calm? He was much more different than he used to be.
She laughs. "You couldn't change if you tried."
He sighs before speaking, the first sign that he's showed of impatience. "A few months after I left, I was sent to a rehab center and became clean of alcohol. I have been going to counseling ever since and I have even been told that I changed. My therapists knew all about my horrible past and they told me that I was a different man. I realized how horrible I was to you guys and I know I could never take that back, but I want to try to make it up to you, to all of you." I didn't believe a single word he said. "I even have papers to prove it to you," he continued as if he read my mind.
"Why do you think you would ever be allowed to see the kids after what you did?" My mother asks after a moment of silence.
"I have joint custody," he says as he pulls out a folded piece of paper from the pocket of his jacket. "Obviously it's not up to me to see Allison since she is 18, but I am allowed to see Bradley. I went to a judge personally and he said that as long as I was clean and if all of my therapists said I was better, I could still have custody of him." He hands the paper to my mother, who is now shaking. "I had to prove it to him that I was better and he signed off on it. There's nothing you can do to stop me from seeing him, it's right there in ink. So you might as well trust me and let me prove to you that I'm better."
I felt sick to my stomach and I'm sure my mom did too. The fact that he still had a share of custody of Bradley horrified me. He shouldn't even be able to come within 50 feet of us. I don't care how much "better" these people thought he was. They didn't know him.
As my mom reads the paper over and over again, a few tears slide down her face. A moment later, Troy walks in.
"Who's this?" My father asks, eyeing Troy up and down.
My mother wipes her eyes and hands the paper back to him. "This is my boyfriend," she says in a calmer tone than I had expected.
I can see the anger on my dad's face, but he slowly calms himself down and stops himself from doing anything. "Well, what do you say?" He asks with a smile.
"Well since I don't have a choice, you can see Bradley once during the week and every other weekend. I'm not sure what Allison will do but I will let her decide. As for me, I've already moved on so I want nothing to do with you," she answers.
My head was spinning and before my father could look at me again, I ran up the stairs as fast as I could. I barged into my room and fell onto my bed, soaking my pillow with tears. Luke must have heard me or my mother told him where I was because about a minute later, I saw him come into my room. He locked the door and walked over to lay next to me. He took me in his arms and I began crying even harder into his chest.
After a few minutes, my tears slowed and I finally heard him speak. "Are you ready to tell me what happened?"
I sighed deeply and wiped my cheeks before I began. "Basically my father still has joint custody over my brother. If I wasn't 18 then he would have custody over me too," I say before I continue to cry. "I don't know what I'm going to do, I can't just let Bradley go with him alone," I sob into his chest once again.
"Hey, we'll figure it out, okay?" He says and kisses the top of my head as he squeezes me tighter. "Just calm down, it'll all be okay."
But this time it wouldn't. It wouldn't be okay.