Rebecca watched her husband stand up from the couch slowly.
You could cut the tension in the house with a knife.
Rebecca looked at her son as he stepped backward as his father walked toward him.
She stepped behind him to keep him in place, and Chase looked up at his mother with wide eyes that were terrified.
"If you're going to call somebody out like that, You have to be able to back it up," she said as she pushed her son forward slightly.
"Chase," Colby said, grabbing the little boy's attention, "Where do you want to have this conversation?" He asked
Rebecca watched her son walk toward the back garden quickly. He slid the sliding glass door open and looked at his father.
"Take it easy on each other, please," Rebecca said to her husband and her son.
"MOMMY!" Sawyer yelled, grabbing her mother's attention, "Come play with me" she held the controller in the air, and Colby nodded as he walked out the door after his son.
Colby closed the door behind him and watched his son stomp around the yard angrily.
"Why?" The little boy turned to face him with tears falling freely from his little eyes
"Buddy," Colby shook his head as he walked toward his son slowly, "You don't understand.."
"Why did you leave me?" The boy questioned as he wiped his eyes quickly
"I didn't leave you" Colby shook his head. "That was never my intention and never what I wanted to happen. You were too young to understand at the time, so mommy and I just decided it was best to tell you that daddy had moved back to the states."
"She told me you were in jail" Chase nodded, "she told me you were in trouble."
"When did she tell you that?" Colby took a step forward
"Last year," he said, "She said you were in trouble, but I couldn't tell Sawyer."
"Your sister is too little to understand" he shook his head
"You left us," he said once more
It broke Colby's heart into a million pieces.
"Chase.." As he moved toward his son, he said, "I didn't leave you; that wasn't what I was trying to do. I promise you."
"Explain," the little boy folded his arms across his chest "explain it to me," he said, and Colby laughed slightly to himself with a shake of his head. "Why are you laughing?"
"Because you act just like your mom when she argues with me."
"She says I act like you when I argue with her" the little boy nodded
Colby sat on the lounge couch and stared at his son in silence. He knew this moment would come, the moment he would ultimately have to tell him the truth of everything that went down, but he didn't expect it to happen for another nine years.
"You want to know the truth?" Colby questioned, and the little boy nodded. Colby thought back on that day. "Do you remember when your mom brought you here?" He asked
"She said we were visiting Nan, but we never went home again" Chase nodded
"When you two were here, I was still home in Iowa," he stated, and the little boy looked up at him. "You don't know half of the stuff that went down before you were born, and that is a story for another time... but all you need to know is it was bad. Your uncle Brandon was not a nice person. He was a very mean and spiteful person."
"Mom says we don't talk about him" the little boy shook his head
"He's like Bruno," Colby said. "We don't talk about Bruno," he said, and the little boy rolled his eyes.
"Sorry, your sister is making me watch that movie every day" Colby shrugged. "Brandon wanted to hurt your mom, he wanted to hurt me, he wanted to hurt you.. and you and I both know when it comes to you and your sister, your mom will die to protect you," he explained. Chase nodded "the same goes for me; I will die to protect my family, and when Brandon broke into our house that night, he was hoping to find your mom. He was so confident that he would find her that he brought a gun to kill me because he knew I wouldn't let him get to her without a fight. He was going to try to hurt me, and I had to protect myself; and one thing that you will learn about me as you grow up is I don't care how big or scary the situation is; if your family is in danger, you do whatever it takes to protect them"
"So you killed him so he wouldn't kill you?" Chase asked, and the little boy nodded. "Why did they send you to jail because he was gonna hurt you, and you were protecting yourself?"
"That is the million-dollar question, bud" Colby nodded. "Some people in that town had it out for me from a long time ago, and they were going to take any opportunity they could get to punish me, even if it wasn't fair."
"I don't like them" Chase shook his head as he folded his arms across his chest.
"That makes two of us, kid," Colby laughed.
"I'm gonna be a lawyer when I get bigger," he said, "and I'm gonna sue them," he said
"You're going to sue them?" Colby asked, "For what?"
"They took my dad away," chase stated "they took my dad away from me, and I needed him" his little eyes began to fill with tears.
Colby grabbed the little boy quickly, pulling him into his chest, and held him tightly.
"I'm here now; that's all that matters" Colby kissed his son's head. "Your dad is here, and he's not going anywhere."
