We all sat at Mr.Ricci' s dining table in silence.
I wanted Jonah to man up and speak up first. I wanted him to admit how much of an asshole he was for leaving my sister pregnant.
But, of course, the cowardly bastard acted like he didn't know why I had shown up at his house.
" Well, are we going to sit here all night or what," Mr.Ricci looked exhausted and it made me feel a bit bad that I had woken him up from sleeping.
Seeing that Jonah wasn't going to speak up, I did.
" So, I have a sister and she is a sophomore at our high school. She met Jonah over the summer and I guess they dated for a while. Even though my sister expressed she was not comfortable in doing anything with this piece of - ," I cleared my throat as I remembered that Jonah was his nephew.
"He basically threatened to go out with other girls if she didn't give in. My sister found out she was pregnant after he decided it would be smart to not use protection. When she told him the news, he abandoned her. And now apparently, he has his claws in another girl," By the time I finished explaining, I felt that same anger I had felt earlier bubbling inside me about to spill over and cause havoc.
The look on Mr. Ricci' s face was one of disgust. In what seemed like a flash, he had stood up and grabbed Jonah by the collar of his shirt with an aggression I didn't think he had inside of him.
Jonah's face paled as it looked like he was running out of oxygen. But before he passed out, Mr. Ricci let him go.
" You are just like your father! I thought taking you out of that environment of constant parties and separating you from him would teach you to be more responsible. But I was wrong. You are no man, you' re a cowardly piece of shit. I'm going to make sure you take some responsibility and stay involved in the life of that child!" Mr. Ricci was fuming and even though it was definitely not the moment, something in the way he overpowered Jonah was appealing.
He was nothing like the man I thought he would be. It made something flutter within me when I realized he was on my side and not on Jonah's.
"Elijah! She's lying! I never slept with her sister. But I have heard of her. She's a whore! Sam just wants to claim I'm the father because she knows I have money. Her family comes from nothing and she knows damn well that she can trap me with these fake claim. She has spread her legs for the whole school so I'm surprised she doesn't already have 5 kids. Or maybe Sam chose me randomly because she can't remember who the last guy she slept with-" Before he spout more lies, my hand connected with his face as a loud slap echoed in the room.
I knew my sister. She wasn't like that and he had no right to utter those lies especially after putting her through hell. And yeah maybe my family wasn't the wealthiest, but we weren't cold hearted monsters like he was.
"You stupid bitch! Get your hands off me!" Jonah looked like he wanted to hit me back if it hadn't been for Mr. Ricci holding him back.
Not wanting to stay around for any more bullshit that Jonah wanted to spew, I grabbed my phone off the table and walked towards the front door.
I could hear someone walking behind me but I was no longer in a mood to be civil.
If Jonah dared say shit to me again, I would pummel his face in.
" Reagan wait!" I heard Mr. Ricci's voice calling after me.
But I didn't even want to talk to him anymore. I was afraid he would see the tears pooling in my eyes. I was hurt, not only because of the disgusting remarks Jonah had said , but because that was the man who would be the father of my sister's baby. I just couldn't see what Sam had seen in him. Sure he was good looking but that was all there was to him. Now she had to deal with that monster for the rest of her life if she decided to keep the baby and that broke my heart for her. She deserved so much more. Her baby deserved so much more.
I quickly got in my car hoping to get away and just as I though I had succeeded, Mr.Ricci knocked on my window indicating he wanted me to roll it down.
As much as I wanted to drive off and disappear, I couldn't.
I would have to face him again tomorrow at school so there was no way to really avoid him.
I slowly rolled my window down but kept my head down so he wouldn't see the tears.
"Reagan," he said softly, much more different than how he had spoken to me in the beginning of the night, " I'm really sorry about Jonah. He has a lot of issues and I really thought that having him move in with me would ground him but I can see now, that that hasn't helped. I know you're probably scared and angry, which is understandable. But even if Jonah isn't physically around, I can make sure that your family gets the money they need to raise the baby."
Money? He thought we wanted money?
Maybe he was like his nephew after all.
We didn't want money. I wanted Jonah to step up and be a father to the child he had created with my sister.
Not having a dad growing up sucked and I didn't want that baby to feel that same emptiness that my sister and I had felt our whole lives. I didn't want that baby to grow up questioning if there was something wrong with them that would make their own dad leave. I didn't want that baby to constantly wonder what it would have been like to have had someone show up to the Father's Day celebrations at school. I would not allow that baby to go through what Sam and I had gone through and here he was offering us money.
As if money was going to replace a father figure.
"You can keep your money, we don't want it." Before he spoke again, I rolled up the window and started the car.
I turned on the radio to the highest volume possible to drown out his voice from outside the car.
Pressing my feet on the pedal, I drove away into the night wondering how awkward shit would be at school tomorrow and how complicated our lives had just gotten.
