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Chapter 10
More Heartbreaking Moments
Before Janet could lunge forward and force Jason away from Anna, Allan grabbed his wife and held her against him. He knew that her emotions were running high because of everything that had happened that night and that she wasn't in the most logical frame of mind at that moment. So anything he could do to prevent her from damaging her relationship with her daughter anymore than it already was, it was in all of their best interests for him to stop her from attacking Jason.
"Let me go, Allan! I will not have him stepping in now and trying to take your place as her father. He made his choice nineteen years ago! Make him leave now or I will!"
"Don't worry, mom. He isn't the only one leaving this house tonight!" Anna, who had since stepped out of Jason's arms, snapped back at her mother as she resumed placing clothes and other things she would need in her duffel bag. The anger and resentment in her voice was just enough to douse the flames of her mother's anger and make her wish that she had never been told the truth.
"Anna, baby...." Janet started to say but was interrupted by her daughter, who turned to her mother with such coldness in her eyes that it chilled Janet to the bone. She had done this to her daughter and it filled her with regret that a part of Anna's innocence was gone and her baby girl would never get it back.
"Don't you dare try to change my mind, you lost that right when I found out that my whole life has been a lie." She turned to Allan and her look changed to one of sadness and love. "I'm sorry, Daddy. I know I shouldn't leave like this, knowing that you have so little time left but I can't stay here in this house. I have to get away from here for a while and get some perspective on this situation or I will go crazy."
"Go baby, do what you have to do. Just let me know who you are staying with," Allan said, his heartbreaking at her wanting to leave but he knew in his heart that this might be the best thing for all of them right now.
"Allan, have you lost your mind! We can't just let her walk out of this house tonight without knowing where she is going."
"I just explained to my dad what is going on and he has agreed to let her stay in our guest room, at least for a couple of days. Just so Anna can decide whether or not she wants to come home or more permanent arrangements can be made." Brian stated as he walked back into the room and over to where Anna was standing, he reached over and gently squeezed her hand. You could see through the open door that Melanie and Hans had come upstairs, most likely to make sure everybody was okay after Janet's screaming fit.
"Thank you." Anna got up on her toes and kissed him on the cheek. It warmed Allan's heart to see it because at least his baby had one good thing in her life after everything else that had happened that night.
"Have all of you lost your minds! I refuse to let my seventeen year old daughter leave this house and if you try to leave young lady, I will call the sheriff and have him force you to come back here." Janet declared, facing her daughter, who was continuing to pack, pointedly ignoring her mother.
"Fine Janet, you want to play that game. I will just file papers in the morning that state I am her biological father and it is in her best interest that she comes and lives with me until she is eighteen years old. Besides you know Sheriff Sanders tells his family everything and at least for right now, it is in everybody's best interest, if this stays between all of us and of course Brian's father..."
"And Trevor." Melanie stated, flushing when everybody else in the room and Hans glanced over at her. Anna threw an intense glare, that would have killed her on the spot and stopped packing long enough to face her sister.
"How did Trevor find out? It is none of his business so why did you tell him something that I didn't even know yet?" Anna asked, looking mad enough to punch Melanie in the face, just like she had a few days before.
"It happened today when he dragged me away from Brian's to keep me from killing Jane and he gave me the third degree about how my attitude towards you had all of sudden changed. He also warned me not to hurt you or Brian would not be the only one to make me pay for it, so in the heat of anger, I screamed at him and told him the truth." Melanie paused and looked over at her father, who looked torn about which daughter needed him the most at that particular moment. "He cares about you, Anna and won't say a word to anybody about this, at least until you are ready for everybody to know."
At that moment, Allan had decided to bring the conversation back to Anna and where she was going to stay. Before starting to speak, Allan took a deep breath to compose himself and calm his temper down because he didn't know who to be irritated at more: Janet, who was letting her emotions take over and not her common sense or Jason for threatening to take her to court.
"Okay, since I seem to be the only adult in this room, who is thinking clearly, we are going to do this my way." Before Janet could start to speak, he continued with what he was going to say. "Anna, you will go with Brian over to his house and stay in the guest room. I have a few ground rules though which I am sure Janet and Jason would agree with, if they were acting their ages instead of like toddlers fighting over a toy." Allan had to ignore the twin glares he was getting from his wife and Jason. He could also see out of the corner of his eye Hans trying to fight the urge not laugh at his comments. He faced his little girl and her boyfriend, who were both starting to turn pink in embarrassment, having a pretty good idea what he was about to say, his voice was firm and no nonsense. "First, I don't want the two of you to even think about sharing a room and if you are alone in a room together, the door is to stay open at all times. Second, if your dad is working a night shift at any time while Anna is staying there, you are to stay in your separate rooms. Third, this is only temporary until more permanent arrangements can be made here in the next day or two by me, her mother and Jason."
"Allan, he has no right to have a say in anything!!!"
"That is enough Janet!" Allan uncharacteristically snapped at her, having had enough of her ranting and raving. Her feisty and stubborn attitude was one of the things he had fallen in love with when they had first met nineteen years earlier but for right now, it was working his last nerve.
Jason, who was getting ready to respond to Janet's heated comment, decided that it might be in his best interest to keep his mouth shut because Allan looked like he could strangle somebody in that moment. That was the last thing either one of his daughters or Brian needed to see. Besides the other man, despite the very obvious pain and emotional turmoil he was in, seemed to be the only one thinking clearly about what was best for the daughter he had loved and raised as if she was his own.
Janet stormed out of the room and down the hall into her bedroom. She slammed the door so hard that it shook the walls of the house and knocked all of the pictures out of place. Allan turned to go after her but not before going over to Anna and hugging her, who returned it. He kissed her on the top of the head, before lifting her chin up and had her look up at him. She had tears in her eyes and he had fight not to shed some of his own as Allan stared down at his baby, who had grown up too quickly to suit him. He had to fight the emotions that felt like they were literally choking him and his voice was rough with them as he told her what he was feeling in that moment.
"It is killing me to let you leave this house tonight but I know that this what you feel you have to do. I know that you are very angry with me and your mom right now but remember that we do love you, baby girl. I am so sorry that I didn't tell you about my condition before tonight, I just didn't know how to tell you because it tears me apart to see you cry. I love you very much, Anna and it didn't matter to me that biologically you were someone else's child because in my heart, you were mine from the first moment I held you. I want you to remember that always."
Allan kissed her again on the top of her head and hugged her tightly to him before placing her handing her to Brian, who held her as she sobbed in his arm. He went to the doorway, glanced back at her one last time and went to deal with his very angry and emotionally upset wife.
Jason reached over and picked up the duffel Anna had since finished packing and carried it out of the room, motioning for Hans and Melanie to follow him. The door was left open as per Allan's rules and with which Jason whole heartedly agreed with.
When they were alone, Brian held her against him and let her get everything out of her system. The day had been an emotionally trying one all the way around, starting with his mother's memorial service and ending with heartbreaking revelations that would make even the strongest of people break down. She had been there for him through all of the craziness that his mother, her mental health and suicide had caused and now it was his turn to return to favor.
"Why is this happening, Brian?" She asked him quietly, laying her head against his chest and letting the feel of his heart beating calm her down.
"I don't know but I promise you that I am not going anywhere. You were there for me when everything starting going crazy in my life and I am going to do the same for you. I care about you too much to let you go through this alone."
"Thank you. I don't know how I am going to make it through this without you."
"You won't ever have to find out. Now let's get over to my house so we can get our showers and get some sleep. Thank God tomorrow's a teachers workday and we don't have to go to school. We can sit down, after you get a good night sleep and figure out what you are going to do next."
"That sounds good to me." Anna pulled away from Brian, grabbed her jacket, that she pulled off when she had thrown on her bed earlier, took his hand in hers and they left the room. They met Jason, Melanie and Hans who were waiting downstairs for them and all five of them left the house. When they got next door to Brian's house, Jason handed Anna her duffel bag, hugged her and spoke softly to her.
"I'm sorry you had to see me argue with your mom like that. If after a good night's sleep and you still feel like you need to be away from home, call me and your dad and I will come up with something."
"Thank you, Mr. Tay... " She paused before looking up at him, very obviously torn as to what to call her biological father now that the truth had come out. "Do you mind if I call you Papa? The term Daddy belongs to someone else but I feel I should call you something besides Mr. Taylor."
"I would be honored to have you call me Papa, "Jason said, kissing her on the forehead "You're right, the term Daddy belongs to Allan and it always will. I'm not hurt that you want to continue to call him Daddy because he deserves it. He is a better man than I could ever be and I will be forever in his debt for being there when I was being too much of coward to stand up to my father."
"Thank you, Papa. I will call you and Daddy to let you both know what I have decided to do after I get some rest and everything calms down." Anna turned to look at Melanie, who had been quietly watching her father and sister talk. "I will call you too and we will talk then. Even though you have been nice to me over the last few days, we still have too many things that you have done to me to discuss before we can even begin to heal from the damage that has been done. You are my sister but until we can talk about this and see if we can work things out between us, I don't think I can completely trust you not to hurt me, Melanie."
"I understand."
Anna and Brian went into the house while Hans walked over to his car and leaving to go back to his apartment. Melanie got into her father's car with him and watched him for a minute as he gazed at both houses, a look of longing in his eyes.
"You wish you were the one in there calming Mrs. Meyers down, to be the one to hold her and comfort her as everything falls apart around her, don't you Daddy?" Melanie asked.
"Yes, I do and it is because of my own stupidity that I am not the one in there with her."
"If you would have had the courage to tell Grandpa where to go and what to do with himself, would you have just left me with mom and forgotten about me for the family you really loved?" She was fighting tears, her heart filled with fear at what her father's answer to her question was going to be.
"Melanie Leigh, don't you ever think that again! Do you know that you are the only good thing that came out of my marriage to your mother, even when you pissed me off so bad I could have strangled you, I loved you? I had an idea why you were lashing out at Anna and everybody else the way you were up until recently but I couldn't say anything and risk Anna's true paternity being exposed. You, Janet or Anna didn't deserve the ridicule and stares that would have caused by some of the more judgmental, hypocrites that live in this town ." Jason stated, reaching over and hugging his daughter.
"Daddy, I have another question about something else."
"What is it?"
"I have feelings for somebody who makes me want to be a better person and has no problem with telling me when I am acting like a selfish brat but it is completely inappropriate for me to be with him right now. Would you get mad if when the time was right, I decided to be with him?"
Jason had to fight not groan in dismay at her question because he had noticed the chemistry between his daughter and her bodyguard but he also knew that sometimes love happened when you least expected it to. With someone that you ordinarily would never see yourself being involved with.
"I don't know how your mother is going to react but if you will wait until you turn eighteen in February, I will not say anything if you and Hans decide to start a relationship."
"Thank you, Daddy." Melanie said, sounding excited and happy, as she gave him a hug before sitting back down and putting her seat belt on. She couldn't wait to tell Hans what her father had said and hoped that he felt the same way she did for him.
"What did he do now, Bridget?"
"Oh Hans! Please help us!" The desperation in her big blue eyes tore him up inside to see it. He had failed to protect her before but this time, things were going to be different, that sorry sack of garbage wasn't going to get the opportunity to do this again.
"It's okay, sis, I'm here. Let me take Stephanie from you so we can go inside and I'll take care of you. I promise you, Bridge, he will never hurt you or Steph again."
I am so glad for the responses to this story so far and the experience and confidence in my writing that I am getting with each and every day that I do this. Thank you to the people that have reviewed my story so far, your kind words have been greatly appreciated.
