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Things had been a bit tense when he first came back from his out of town trip that had lasted two weeks longer than planned because of the stupid pandemic, and she was walking on clouds the last few days as things seemed to be finally going the way she’d always wanted.
When she talked with her mom about finally calling him dad, something they’d discussed before and got the go-ahead, she thought she was finally going to have the life she’d always dreamed of. Add the fact that her daddy was someone everyone at school liked and was a kind of hero in their small town, and things couldn’t be better.
She was already imagining passing by her bio dad and his kids to show off her new, better dad. But he doesn’t want me, she thought as she felt the pain again as sharp and as new as it had been a few hours ago when she heard him telling her mother he didn’t want her calling him dad.
She was too numb now to feel anything more than the pain and heartache his words had caused. Her face had burnt with shame in the first few seconds, but that feeling was soon replaced with the dread and ache she now felt. She didn’t even have it in her to wonder why no one wanted her.
Her bio dad had never been in the picture, and on the rare occasions they’d ran into each other, he’d gone out of his way to make it obvious that he was avoiding her and didn’t want anything to do with her. Asking her mom what that was about was a dead-end since the other woman always clammed up whenever the topic came up.
She’d thought for sure that things would be different this time around. Her mom had promised her that they would be. That she’d finally have a dad who’d love her and want to do things with her. A dad who would take her out for ice cream the way her bio dad did with the daughter he had with his wife.
“Connie, are you listening?” Connie turned her attention to the front of the room and smiled at the teacher before answering the question the woman had asked while she was off daydreaming. The teacher gave her a skeptical look since she was almost positive the girl had not been paying attention a second ago, but since she answered the question correctly, she moved on with the rest of the class.
Misty was a little bit flabbergasted and feeling at the end of her tether when she walked into work that morning. It felt as though things were slipping out of her hands, and she didn’t have a contingency plan in place; thinking on her feet has never been her strong suit, not for a while anyway.
She sat at her desk, staring blankly into space as the morning’s events went through her head on a loop. She was sure she knew where things had gone wrong, but getting them back on track was more of a problem. It shouldn’t be this hard, all it should take is her getting things back on schedule at home, but that was proving to be easier said than done.
She teetered on panic mode all morning and was barely cognizant enough to get her work done, but her problems were never far from her mind. She knew in her gut that if she didn’t handle things soon, her whole world would blow up in her face, and biting her nails like a fool wasn’t going to help.
Marissa had barely been home an hour when she heard her mom calling to her from downstairs. She felt the bottom drop out as she buried her head even deeper under the covers. No, she thought she had a little more time to come up with a plan. She hadn’t quite made up her mind if she should tell her parents what was going on.
There were still so many unanswered questions, but most of all, the fear of everything she’d worked so hard for going up in flames left her feeling empty and sad. But what was the alternative? If she kept this to herself, she’d feel selfish if something were to happen somewhere down the line to someone else.
She knew she was strong enough to push back against this, but what about someone who was less assertive. Someone who hadn’t been raised with a backbone? Her stomach churned at the thought of some innocent having to face this in the future because she didn’t act now.
As her mom knocked and then walked into her room, she decided that hiding time was over. She wouldn’t be the person she wants to be if she buried her head in the sand at a time like this. With that thought firmly in mind, she pushed the covers back and sat up in bed.
