Chapter 1
Everyone has a feeling they hate, or when something happens to them, they never want to relive that moment. Especially when you stand next to your mother’s casket lowered into the ground. It makes you realize your opportunities with that person are gone forever. You had your chances to love and make memories together.
With obstinate eyes glued to the wall. I waited patiently to see if my father would show up.
The day I lost my mother, I should have realized that my dad would push me aside and find himself a new bride. He pushed himself into work, avoiding me and the fact that Mom was gone. He used his excuse of work to escape reality, and one day, he showed up with a woman who could be my sister.
It’s been 3 years since we had a decent conversation. Our conversations mostly consisted of him lecturing me about my bad life choices and telling me that I was a screw-up.
“Sasha-lee Adams,” I raised my head when my name was called. “You made bail.”
The guard handed my belongings over to me and then let me go to my father, who didn’t look thrilled with me. I wasn’t surprised. Our relationship consisted of arguments and yelling at each other.
I waited for him to yell at me, but instead, I was met by silence and a furious gaze. “Let’s go,”
My gaze shifted around, taking in the nearby officers looking at my father. He felt embarrassed being an attorney who kept bailing his daughter out of trouble.
For once, I obeyed my father’s order and followed him out to his car. We said nothing to each other on the way home. He barely looked at me when we arrived home, and it started to bother me. I joined him in the kitchen, where Meredith was still wide awake, heating up our dinner.
I jerked my shoulder against the threshold. “You are not going to ask me what happened?”
My father took a moment before he answered. “I am done listening to your justifications.”
I frowned at his statement. “What justifications? This wasn’t even my fault. The guy who assaulted me should have been locked up, not me.”
“You broke his nose and fractured a rib.”
“Which he deserved,” I clarified, not batting an eyelash.
“What would you have done if he wanted to put in a claim against you?”
I shrugged. “Gone to court and defend myself as I did back at the park,”
“You are twenty years old, for goodness’s sake, Sasha. I expect you to start acting that way,”
“So, you believe that I should let a man take advantage of me while everyone turned their heads away, pretending nothing happened?”
“You should have called someone,” He insisted.
I couldn’t believe him right now. “I did, but no one bothered,” I shook my head, feeling utterly disappointed. “So many girls and women get abused by men like him. I get why no one wants to trust the system. You are supposed to take my side.”
“How should anyone take you seriously after everything you’ve done?” He almost yelled at me.
I didn’t show the hurt his words caused. Our relationship has hit rock bottom, and there is nothing left that can help fix us. I couldn’t wrap my mind around how fast he moved on after Mom passed away. I could barely get out of bed. Not only have I lost my passion, but I have also been banned for striking another player. I was lost, and he couldn’t even see it.
I evaluated my next move and was planning on just keeping my mouth shut and going upstairs to my room, but my father had other plans for ruining the night.
“Do you have any idea how difficult this is?” He questioned, looking up at me with a tired and hopeless expression. “I’ve tried to be patient with you and tried to empathize with your mood swings, but tonight you’ve only proven to me that you are irresponsible.”
“Irresponsible? Difficult?” I scoff, chuckling. Was this a joke?
“It’s not like you ever listened to me.” He remarked.
He was being unfair and delusional, or maybe even blind to see what I was going through. He didn’t understand what he was doing to me by moving on after my mother passed away and bringing another woman into our home and his bedroom.
He didn’t take time off from work or from life to cry about my mother’s passing. A woman who was his first love, wife, and mother.
“That’s why starting tomorrow, you are dropping Jonah off at school, picking him up, and taking him to practice.”
“That’s great,” I said with a laugh. “You keep on handing me responsibilities. Have you forgotten that I actually have a job?”
“This is not a discussion, Sasha.”.
“Well, you can’t force me either.” I insisted.
“If you want to continue to live here, you will do as I sa,y or you can take your things and go.” He would throw me out of our own home.
“Then I’ll leave. You’ve always wanted me to go since you brought her into your home.” I glowered at the woman who was trying to replace my mother.
“That’s not true.” He tried to assure me, but I knew better. I was fucken lost and needed his help to get me back on track, but instead, he is pushing me further away from him.
“Isn’t it? Then why haven’t you and I had a decent conversation in three years? Mom died, and our wounds haven’t even healed, and already you brought this woman into our home.” I argued.
“That woman you're referring to is my fiancé.” He urged as if it would change the way I see her.
“And I am your daughter. Your blood. Yet, you treat me as if I died alongside Mom.” I know I was stating things that should be left for another day, but I don’t see that day happening soon.
“How am I supposed to react when my daughter keeps getting arrested?” His voice became harsher and colder.
“Is that all you care about? Or is it because you are someone important and you are afraid that the people above you will say?”
“How am I supposed to enforce the law’s rules when my daughter doesn’t even obey my simple house rules, and who keeps getting her ass locked up?”
“What kind of example are you when you don’t even want to protect innocent women from men who are monsters? When are you going to give them their voice back? Or is it all about money for you, or how many lives you can destroy?”
“I care, Sasha.” He insisted.
“Not from where I am standing.” I curtly remarked.
He lowered his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose as he gave a tired sigh. “Don’t you think we've had enough of this conversation?”
“What conversation? We barely talk about what happened to Mom or anything besides how disappointed you are in me.”
He didn’t utter a word, and the silence was slowly consuming the last piece of conversation we had had in years, and I wasn’t going to let it end before it even started.
“She’s gone— Sasha, and she’s never coming back.” He spoke with such an open mind that he started forgetting that I couldn’t let go of her—not yet.
“It’s time for you to accept that and move on.” Moving on, he meant to forget about Mom and every single piece of her. Push her completely out of our lives and pretend to never have known her.
“Like you have?” My eyes snapped to Meredith, who was wearing a guilty look. “I am not going to be a part of whatever you are trying to do here.”
My father blinked, and I didn’t let him speak.
“You are trying to persuade people that we are one happy fucking family. Well, we are not. Jonah and I are barely getting by, but you two are too oblivious to the truth.”
I headed for the staircase when my father spoke up. “You’ve got a curfew starting from tonight.”
I rolled my eyes. “Do you really think your rules are going to straighten me out magically?”
“When you act 20, maybe I will treat you like an adult.”
I shook my head and kept my mouth shut. As much as I wanted to scream at him and accuse him of everything being his fault. I decided to go to my room and wanted the night to come to a rest, but I just couldn’t take this anymore. I was suddenly made the villain in this story when my father was the one who abandoned me.
