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Chapter 12

Over the past few days, my father and I had only exchanged a few muttered greetings to each other. Devon was staying the night and sleeping on the couch in the living room because he didn't trust my father alone with me.

"And you trust me?" I snorted.

"I do," Devon muttered into his cup of coffee.

"Why? If you weren't here, I'd pounce on him in an instant," I scoffed and poked angrily at my scrambled eggs.

"Are you trying to get me to stop trusting you or do you just want me to stay for another week?" He smirked.

I flicked a piece of bacon at him and muttered, "Maybe a little bit of both."

At that moment, my dad walked in.

"Good morning, Mr. Reed," Devon nodded.

"Good morning to you as well, Devon," He replied then nodded in my direction. "Natalia."

I kept my eyes on Devon's mug as I nodded in responce. "Drew."

Dad made himself a plate and sat down across from me. I immediately grabbed my plate to leave but his voice stopped me.

"Wait," Drew said quickly, standing up. "Don't leave."

"Why not?" I growled, but Devon caught me by the sleeve and sat me down, mouthing "Hear him out".

"I'm so, so sorry about everything I've done to you. I wish I could turn back the clock and gotten help sooner but I can't. Because of myself, I lost a child. I don't want to loose another because I don't have the nerve to confront her. I know what I did was horrible. Unforgivable. But I want to build a relationship with you. I know it will take time, and it'll take a lot of adjustment for the both of us, but I don't want to give up on you.

"I remeber everything I said to you back then. Scenes of how I treated you and your brother play over and over in my mind every waking minute. I see myself killing my own son every time I close my eyes." He paused, collecting himself.

"Please, let me be your father, for once in my life."

I stared at the man in front of me. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I saw him, not for who he was then, but for who he is now. As much as I didn't want to, I believed he was change. I got up and walked towards him slowly and I threw my arms around him.

"I'm so sorry Nate," He whispered in a hoarse voice.

I didn't say anything, just cried into his shoulder.

After my father and I were on level ground, we discussed how we would handle mom. She hadn't been home all week but I'd called her and confirmed that she would be returning tonight. My father's state and actions were the cause of my mother's current condition and we weren't sure how she would react to him being here.

"I'm not positive how she'll take it, but it won't be good," Dad sighed.

"Agreed," I nodded.

"What do you think, Devon?" Dad asked.

"Well, I think that you should probably wait until most of the alcohol is out of her system before you let her see you. Wouldn't want her going pyscho," He shrugged then, realizing what he said, quickly added a, "No offense," before becoming very interested in the wood of the table.

My dad snorted into his cup and looked to me. "What do you want? I'm sure you don't want to have two parents that went pyscho," He said, casting a look at Devon, who reddened.

"I think we should do this gently. We want to upset her as little as possible," I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. "Maybe she should be at home and you come in after. Knock on the door with flowers or something."

"Good idea sweetie," Dad smiled.

I bristled. "If you don't mind, could you, uh, not call me that. I'm not really ready. I'm willing to try and build a relationship with you but the past didn't vanish in an instant," I said lightly, wincing at how dumb I sounded.

"I understand completely," Dad smiled weakly, obviously a bit hurt. But he could have expected for everything to be normal, did he?

"So, when?" Devon asked, breaking the awkward silence.

"Tonight," My father and I said unison.

"This is gonna be fun," I sighed.

I'm super sorry that this is so short and really suckish but I just wanted to get another chapter out. I'll try and make the next one more interesting and a bit longer. Thanks for hanging in there!