After being disowned by her family, Paris and her daughter Luna moved across the country to start a new life for themselves with the help of Paris' older brother Dallas. Six years later, she returns home after recieving an invite to an old friend's...
The sound of the slap is still echoing around my parents' yard as everyone stands silent in complete shock of what I've just done. Even I am surprised at my own actions as I could have never predicted myself brave enough to stand up to Nate, let alone to do that violently.
"What the hell Paris?" Nate seems to get over his shock much quicker than anyone else as he grips my arm tightly, bringing me back to the situation that I was in all those years ago before I had Luna. Thinking of my daughter snaps me back to reality and I will the tears threatening to fall from my eyes to stay rather than letting Luna witness this situation.
I told Luna the minimal details about my relationship with Nate so she knows that Jake isn't her real father but she thinks of him in that way and that thought makes me smile. Luna's acceptance is the main reason that our relationship has progressed to this point. She has always seemed to understand that my past and my life before she was born is a sore subject, which makes me wonder if Dallas or Joanna have said something to her about it and told her not to bring it up.
"Nate, I assume?" Jake's words make Nate's grip on my arm loosen just enough to allow me to escape his hold and I send my fiancé a smile to express my gratitude. "I'm Jake Mitchell - Paris' fiancé and Luna's father." He extends his hand to Jake for a handshake, a gesture that would appear to be completely sincere and friendly if it wasn't for the harsh glare concentrated on the other man. Nate does except the gesture, albeit extremely reluctantly. "I've heard a lot about you from Paris, Dallas and Joanna."
"All good things I hope." Nate smiles in Jake's direction and I am surprised at the amount of will power it takes to restrain myself from either laughing or trying my best to beat the crap out of him. Although the only reason I try my best not to is because I have no way of knowing which reaction I would have and I doubt my mother would appreciate a bloodied up Nate lying on her porch.
"More like no good things Nate." Dallas steps in before either myself and Jake react and it is only when I turn to look at him that I notice he has Luna in his arms and she is watching our exchange closely, her eyes fixed on Nate's as if she is trying to figure out who he is to cause such a reaction from her parents and uncle. "You know none of us think anything good about you. We haven't in a long time, ever since we found out what you were doing to my sister behind our backs."
"Who's this we that you keep talking about since your parents and Adelaide don't seem to care about what I was doing." Nate smirks in my direction and I finally realise the gravity of him being here as it obviously means he was welcomed into my parents' home despite what he has done to me in the past. "They invite me over every week for drinks since I'm part of the family, given that I'm the father of their granddaughter. I don't think they'd do that if they thought so lowly of me."
I can't stop the tears from building up in my eyes as Nate's words really sink in to my mind - my parents couldn't care less about the abuse I went through at his hands, as long as their precious, perfectly crafted reputation remains intact.
Jake notices my drastic change in mood as he automatically wraps his arms around my much smaller frame and pulls me to him, shielding my view from Nate. Once I'm confident that Nate can no longer witness the pain that he has caused me, as that would be considered as a win for him in my mind, I let myself cry over my memories of the part of my life that I spent with him for the first time since it ended all those years ago. I allow myself to cry and finally decide to allow myself to let out the pain and misery that Nate has caused me since I was the scared fifteen year old that fell in love with the fake persona that he created.
I continue crying as I am escorted to the front seat of Jake's car and he buckles me in while Dallas settles Luna into the backseat. The tears only stop when we are outside the town and beginning the long journey from South Carolina back home to Ohio.
This trip, no matter how short it was made, has shown me that I don't need the acceptance of people who will always find something negative about me. I now know that even the people who are supposed to love you unconditionally can find a condition to put into place - and that's okay because you don't need them in your life if they can change their opinion on that. I have now learned that family can be changed and you don't need your parents to be a part of that if the only thing they bring is negativity. Your real family can be the people that you surround yourself with and that can be better than anything else.
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A/N: I know this story is very different to my other ones and has a pretty anticlimactic ending but this is the first story that I have written which I have put my feelings into so I connect to it much more than any others.
