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“After that, she accused me of cheating and went through press photos of games and events, circling ones where there were women next to me. It became a scandal after Bill’s divorce circus, and although I had ammunition to fight back with—stuff that was true—I didn’t want to do that to both of you, so I cut a deal and the divorce went through.”
“Holy shit,” I gasped. “She sold her story, though.”
Clearing his throat, he picked at the arm of the chair he was sitting on with the hand that wasn’t holding mine. Not once had he dropped it, almost like he couldn’t.
“Yeah. She intended for it to be a lot bigger than it ended up being, but my lawyers stopped it. We didn’t want both of you growing up under that cloud.”
I remember a time shortly after the divorce when she’d come home screaming and raging about him, but Hayden had built us a fort in his room, so I’d gone there to watch The Goonies and had only seen a small part of her meltdown.
So much had happened recently, there’d been so many life changes and things happening that I needed time to get my head around this information.
I hadn’t ever hated Dad, I just hadn’t understood the situation because I was so young. Over the years, I hadn’t tried to understand it either, I’d just put it to the back of my mind and created a judgement because of it.
I had a rough grasp of psychology, and knew that a child’s mind processed information in a different way to an adult’s, and not dealing with big things that happen to us as children, can have a big impact on adults and their way of thinking—which was exactly what I’d done.
That teamed with the taunting and bullying at school had made me look at a drama as the truth, without even thinking about the possibility that it wasn’t what it seemed.
Something that people would be doing right now about the story that Missy and Cam had sold about Kip and me.
Maybe in a way, my parent’s problems had clouded my judgement as an adult, and I’d looked for the wrong things in life until Kip. Well, I hadn’t actually gone looking for him, I’d just landed on him and then been unable to shake him, but still.
Looking closely at me, Dad asked, “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking,” I mused, “that I probably should have spoken to you way before now. I made a judgement as a kid and then locked it all away. I’m also thinking that it’s ironic that I’m in a similar predicament right now and that people—adults—will be doing the same thing about me. It’s kind of karma-ish and ironic, isn’t it?”
Dad’s expression turned from intrigued to pissed in a blink. “They’ll find out the truth, ladybug. I’m going to make sure of it.”
Waving my hand dismissively, I continued, “I know that. You, Hayden and Kip have this.” My tone was confident because I had no doubts about it. “It’s just ironic, really. I’m also thinking that I owe you a huge apology. I shouldn’t have believed rumors and should have opened up to you about it all, especially once I became an adult and could have reassessed it with a more mature mind. I’ve hurt both of us. I’m so sorry, Dad.”
When I looked at him, he looked close to tears. “No apology needed. You were a kid, just so long as you know that every minute we’ve ever spent together meant everything to me, and you and your brother are my world, and you’ll never be too old for me to fight your fights.”
I smiled thinking back to the fun we’d had with him as kids, and we’d had a lot. In fact, come to think of it, he was always there, taking us on vacations, bringing us to games, doing fun things with us.
Taking in a shuddering breath, I squeezed his hand. “I’ve spent a long time trying to prove how strong I am, but I can’t say I’m not relieved to have you guys fighting this battle for me.”
This time when he grinned, it was slightly evil which made me laugh. “Oh, we’ll fight it alright.”
Life is almost like a football game. There are players, a ball, an objective and you have to get to the right place to win it. I’d been running and running, trying to get closer to the goal, but now I had a team around me who were going to work with me to get us there.
And we would… even if one of them played soccer.Chapter 9KipThe words of that damn article were still haunting me nine hours after I’d read them.
I was currently sitting in The Kraken with Hayden and Jason and we’d been joined by some of my teammates – Will, Stan, Craig, Arron, Paul, Ashton and Leo. I recognized a few Sounders players who were coming through the door at that moment, and knew they be joining us soon.
