My sister looked beautiful marching down the aisle and she seemed so happy. I wanted to walk her, but she insisted on doing it herself.
That was my sister.
Her dress wasn’t old-fashioned. As a secret surprise to me, and a promise to our mom, she had taken our mother’s wedding dress that she kept, and had a professional dressmaker alter it to her tastes. Tiny fabric roses lined the top of the strapless dress. They also surrounded the circumference of the entire base. I’d only seen pictures of my mother’s dress, but Mark filled me in about it right before she came down the aisle. I got choked up about it, even before I saw her. My mom would have been so proud of my sister and the life she’d made. She had a man that adored her, and had stuck by me, even when I was at my worst.
During the ceremony, I couldn’t take my eyes off of Hope. When the minister asked them to repeat the vows, I mouthed “I do” to Hope. She did the same to me. I noticed Susan staring at me the entire time and realized she must have thought I was saying the words to her. I’d ignored her for days, but she still wouldn’t let it go. It made me feel sorry for her, but not enough to care about her being upset.
After the ceremony, as we were stepping out, I was supposed to walk with Hope, but Susan threw herself in front of her and took my arm. I watched Hope’s eyes get big, and at that very moment, I realized she’d reached her breaking point. I tried to get her attention, but her hateful eyes bore into Susan.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I heard Hope ask.
“Taking what’s mine. It’s time to celebrate,” Susan spat out.
Before I even knew what was going on, I saw Hope pulling Susan away from me. “He’ll never be yours, you bitch,” she screamed.
The music finally stopped while Mark and Buffy stood watching in disbelief.
“Little girl, I don’t know what kind of crush you have on him, but I can assure you he is way out of your league.” Susan gritted her teeth and shoved Hope. I knew in that instant that things were about to get ugly. In a matter of seconds I watched as our secret unraveled in front of us.
I grabbed Hope, assumingly praying that she’d stay silent until I got her into another room. Mark and Buffy were busy at the far end of the room, but quickly saw the commotion. As the congregation surrounded them with congratulations, I pulled my girlfriend along, ducking into the room beside the one we were in.
She forced her arm out of my grasp. “What the hell?”
“Think about what you’re doing.”
Susan rounded the corner. Her eyes filled with confusion as she approached. “Look, kid, I don’t know what you’re trying to pull here. It’s obvious you have some crush on Chance. If your daddy found out he’d blow a gasket. Go on and be a good girl. Chance and I need to get some things straight.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat, preparing to watch Hope react. While wedging myself conveniently between them, Hope lunged alongside me. “I’m not a little girl.” She shoved Susan, forcing her to fall down on her ass. She arose quickly, staggering toward Hope full-force. Hope managed to yank a chunk of Susan’s hair, causing her to retreat backwards. While standing her ground, I saw a fire in Hope’s eyes. She’d held in her jealousy for days, letting it brew until she was steaming.
As the women taunted each other with words, I watched Mark hauling ass into the room and Buffy was right behind him.
Hope pushed Susan again. I could hear Buffy gasping.
“You whore! You have no idea what I can do,” Hope yelled. I tried to restrain her, but she was steady going at Susan. “You’ve been here for days throwing yourself at him like he’s a piece of meat. How pathetic are you?”
Susan turned toward me. “How do you stand living with this shit? Mark, come get a handle on your kid. I don’t have time for this.”
“Hope! Stop this now!” Mark ordered. Once he separated them, he looked at his daughter. I knew what he was seeing. The truth was written across her angry face. “What’s the meaning of this? Dammit, ever since Susan came here you’ve been acting crazy. I want the truth, Hope. What’s gotten into you?”
My stomach started to knot up, like everything was going in slow motion. Hope wouldn’t look at me and there was only one reason that would happen. She was going to tell him, and she knew I’d try to stop her. Before I could yell, scream, or grab her by the hand and run out of there, she just started talking. “I love him, Dad.”
He clearly had blinders on. “What do you mean you love him? Honey, this is all about some crush? I get that you’ve been spending a lot of time together, and you see him as someone you can trust, but -.”
“I’ve loved him since before you even introduced us. We’d already met when I came to live here.”
I caught Buffy’s stare, and knew she was scared to death that he’d learn she was in on the secret.
“I don’t understand. How is that possible?”
Here it came. With my heart beating out of my chest, I turned to look at Hope, listening as she finally came clean about us.
“I can’t keep lying about it anymore. We’ve been a couple since the summer.”
“A couple? What…Wait a minute. You’re telling me that this isn’t a crush you have for Chance? You’re saying he’s been involved with you for months?” From the tone of his voice I knew I was in deep shit. I clench my fists together, preparing for him to come at me. After all, I’d been screwing his daughter. What father wouldn’t want to kill me?
He turned and looked at me with so much animosity. Hope wouldn’t back down though. “We tried to stop, but it only made us stronger.” Tears filled her eyes. “Dad, this isn’t Chance’s fault. It was me from the beginning.”
He pointed in my direction. “I want you out of my pool house. Do you hear me?”
I nodded, knowing that there was nothing I could do. He’d warned to stay away. “Yeah. I hear you.”
“Dad, no. Please, you can’t do this. Chance didn’t do anything wrong.” Hope was pleading, while my sister remained silent.
I felt Susan tucking her arm inside of mine. I turned to look at her, shocked she’d not gotten the hint. “You can come home with me. I’ve got a spare room, not that you’ll need it.”
I tugged out of her hold, giving her a dirty look as I backed up. “I’m not interested. Don’t you get it, Susan?”
“Dad, you can’t kick him out. If he goes, then so do I.” Hope placed her hands on her hips and waited for him to reply. He looked from me then back to his daughter.
“This is going to be dealt with before the night is over. This is not happening under my roof.” That threat was geared to me, not his daughter. He thought he could control the situation. It was obvious that he didn’t have a clue about the seriousness of our relationship.
When her dad grabbed her arm to pull her back into the next room, she retracted it, stepping away from him. “No. I’m not leaving Chance in here with her. I refuse to watch this slut try to put her claws into my boyfriend anymore.”
“Who are you calling a slut, you little tramp?” Susan added.
Buffy put her body in front of Susan’s and Mark held Hope back. “This has to stop, Susan. Leave her alone. Just let them be.”
I wanted to say something, but I was in shock. My sister had tears running down her eyes. We’d ruined her ceremony, and now she was going to start her marriage in a battle with her new husband.
Mark turned to Buffy. “Did you know?” He seemed hurt, like she’d defied his trust in the worst way possible.
Before she could answer, I interrupted. “She didn’t know. We didn’t tell anyone.”
He turned to face me. “Oh, now you speak? You promised me, Chance. You promised that you wouldn’t touch her.” The pain in his eyes ripped right through me. “I told you when she first came to live with us that she was off limits.”
“You’re right. I did promise you, but I’d already fallen in love with her.” I took a deep breath, preparing myself to be hit with a fist. “I fell in love with her the
first night we were together, and it was weeks before she moved in with us.”
He seemed so confused. I couldn’t even begin to look in Hope’s direction, after confessing that I’d loved her for so long.
He ran his hands through his hair, never taking his eyes off of his daughter. Had it not been for my being afraid he’d come after me, I would have laced my hand with Hope’s.
“I don’t understand. You couldn’t have met her,” he reiterated.
Hope interrupted, “I met Chance when I first came to see you here. Then we crossed paths again later on that day.” She shook her head. “It’s a long story. Then after that, he saved me when Rylee snuck us into a bar you all happened to be at. I didn’t want you to catch me, and when my friend refused to leave, Chance got me out of there.”
Mark’s eyes lit up. He knew exactly when it happened. He turned to me. “When the police came, they asked you questions you wouldn’t answer? Is that because you were with my daughter?”
I nodded my head. “I found out how old Hope was after the fact. I swear I didn’t know. She was in the bar, for Christ sakes. Anyway, I knew I couldn’t let the police know that she was a minor, so I lied to keep her safe, and me out of jail. I didn’t want you to find out about that night for several reasons; one being the fact that she was your daughter.” This guy was going to kill me for sure.
Mark was so pissed that he looked to have tears in his eyes.
“I love her, Mark. I tried so hard to stay away after she moved in. I treated her like crap, and pretended that she meant nothing to me. I fought my feelings. We both did.”
He looked over to Hope. “This is why you’ve been acting so weird? It’s not because you’re on drugs?”
She nodded. “We didn’t want to tell you until my birthday, but Susan wouldn’t leave Chance alone. I couldn’t take it anymore. She’s like a leech. Do you have any idea how it felt for me to watch her doing everything she could to be with him?”
He raised his brow and looked over at Buffy. “It explains a lot, that’s for sure.”
“I know you’re upset. We both lied to you, but only because you gave us no other options. Chance and I are together, and I’m eighteen now. No matter how you feel, you can’t stop us from being together.” She was almost threatening him with it. I didn’t know how he would react. “I won’t let you kick him out of the pool house. Soon, we’ll leave for college, and you won’t be able to control us there either. Dad, I’ve spent the last couple of months trying my best to get back some kind of relationship with you. You’ve hurt me, worse than I’d ever wish on anyone, even Susan right now. You didn’t trust me, and you put yourself before me, more times than I care to count. I’m telling you right now that Chance and I are going to be together, and if you want me to be a part of your life, you won’t do anything to come between us. Like I said before, we’re sorry for keeping it a secret. We knew it was wrong, but weren’t willing to let anything stand in our way, including you.”
The man shook his head, unable to come to grips with everything. “I think my biggest problem is that you two snuck around for months. This was all going on in my own house.”
The caterers came in and interrupted us, inquiring as to when we’d be joining them. Buffy got rid of them quickly, without making a scene.
“Please say that you forgive us. Please, Dad. We’re a family now. We have to be around each other.”
“I need to talk to Chance alone.” Was all he said.
I looked back and saw the two women that I loved the most in the world standing there with tears in their eyes. My sister was never going to forgive us for this. They walked out slowly, following a very confused Susan.
Mark headed over and closed the door behind them.
“Sit down,” he ordered.
I did as he said and peered below at the floor, unable to accept that this could be the end of our friendship, if there was ever one at all.
“Do you have any of those cigarettes on you?” He asked.
“I quit for Hope months ago,” I admitted.
“Of course you did.” He shook his head and almost smiled. “You’ve really put me in a bad place, Chance. I trusted you with my daughter, and you gave me your word. Now, after all of this time I’ve really gotten to know you and accepted you into my family, you do this. I appreciated how you’re always there for Hope, but I thought you treated her like a sister. I knew that you cared, I just didn’t understand how much. Why didn’t you tell me that you’d been together? Why go along with some charade that you were strangers?” He ran his hands through his hair. “I love you like you’re my own son, Chance. I know you couldn’t have committed that crime in Pennsylvania. I may not have believed it at first, albeit I know now.”
“Mark, I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say. I should have told you. We were just afraid that you’d keep us apart. Plus you went out of your way to get me back into school, and then Hope decided she wanted to go. There was never a good time to tell you,” I admitted.
“I probably would have sent you away if I found out. God knows I haven’t been a good father, Chance. I’ve hurt my daughter, abandoned her, and lost her respect. After all this time I finally feel like we’re getting somewhere. How am I supposed to handle this?” He was trying so hard to settle this, but after Hope’s threats he knew it was out of his hands. “I should’ve known. I should’ve seen it.”
“Keeping us apart wouldn’t have changed how I feel about her. Please give me the opportunity to show you. Let us be together with your blessing. She’s given me my life back, Mark. When I moved here, after losing so much, I just wanted to give up. Hope changed that. She changed me,” I admitted.
“So, you’re asking for my permission to date my daughter, after you’ve obviously been together for the past seven months?” He asked.
I took a deep breath. There was no turning back. I had waited so long for this. “Yes.”
Mark didn’t say anything. He just stood there looking at me. Just when I thought all hope was lost, he extended his hand to me. “Fine.”
As shocking as it was, I made it a point to keep my smiles to a minimum. “Thank you.”
“I’m doing this for my daughter, and my wife. Buffy would never forgive me if I sent you away.”
That was the truth. My sister would have given him a hard time about it. Through thick and thin she always had my back.
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry I lied. I get that you’re angry with us, probably mostly me. It’s understandable. I’ll prove to you that I can be someone she can count on.”
“I’ll hold you to that, Chance. She’s my only daughter.”
It was another promise that I intended to keep. “As much as I’d like to carry on this conversation, I think I’ve taken up enough of you wedding. It’s time for you to get back to your bride.”
Yes, I was trying to get out of being alone in a room with Mark. His kindness only went so far, and after he’d sent me away before, I didn’t want to risk pissing him off.
Once I’d made it back into the reception area, I spotted Hope. On my way toward her, Susan stopped me. “So she’s the girl? She’s the one you’ve been seeing?”
I never took my eyes off of Hope when I answered. “Yep. She’s the one.”
I have no idea how Susan looked when she was speaking. My gaze was fixed on the most beautiful woman in the room. “I’m sorry for throwing myself on you. I assumed she was being a teenager.”
“Thanks for that.” I glanced at her for second. “If you’ll excuse me, there’s someone I need to attend to.”
I couldn’t wait to have her in my arms out in the open. In front of her father, and everyone else in the room, I marched right up to my girlfriend and planted a kiss on her lips. She was mine, and I wanted everyone to know it. This was the moment we’d been waiting for, and finally it was happening.
Hope pulled away and wiped the lip-gloss off of my mouth. “You made it out alive.”
“Only because my gi
rlfriend threatened her father.”
“I did what had to be done. He’d just overreact anyway. Besides, we’ll be living together soon enough at school.”
“Are you ready to start the new chapter of our future?”
She smiled and rested her head on my chest. “I’m ready, as long as I’m with you.”
I placed my lips against her forehead. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
In that moment nothing else existed except for the two of us. We had so much to be thankful for.
“Now that we don’t have to hide, I almost don’t know what we’ll do,” she admitted.
“Well for starters, we need to talk your dad into helping us get an apartment within the next week, because I’m not spending a single night without you in my bed.”
“We could even share a room to save on cost,” she suggested.
We both laughed. “Yeah. I’m cool sharing my space with you. I’ll even promise to put the seat down.”
“How mighty kind of you.” She rest wrapped her arms tighter around me.
“I know it was yesterday, but happy birthday, baby. I hope you got everything you wanted.”
“I did,” she said as we swayed to the music.
Epilogue
Three months later …
I woke up on edge, considering that I’d waited for this moment since the day I’d been kicked out of my last college. To be able to play baseball again, in front of a stadium full of people was quite an achievement. For me, it was much more. This wasn’t about becoming a famous ballplayer. It didn’t have anything to do with chasing my dreams.
It was about freedom.
Two weeks ago I was visited by several FBI agents. You can imagine the panic of seeing them sitting on my couch waiting to interrogate me. The look on Hope’s face made it even worse.
It took five minutes and one phone call to confirm that I’d been at practice, in front of forty-eight men, all day long. Once they knew my alibi was rock-solid, I was informed of another attack at Penn State. The murder was exactly the same as my friend’s had been. This most recent victim was raped and left in a ravine, this time with a note stating that they would never catch the assailant.
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