the various chances

chapter thirty one

Lily

It was Sunday evening and as weird as it may sound I had taken a trip to a convenience store for some things. It was therapeutic but I was late. I had let Emma know that I'll be back in an hour or 2 but I was mindlessly roaming in the store, checking out new things, their prices and all and on top of that the store had a smaller section dedicated to books which took 90% of my time.

I had picked up my things, 3-4 books I found interesting and was standing beside the exit of the store. The chilly air was screeching on my skin. There was a sudden change in the atmosphere I couldn't quite pinpoint to.

Footsteps approaching stop to my side; my heart beats wildly in my ribcage about to burst out from the fear of being in danger. I turn to the voice bracing myself for the impact but the face I saw wasn't the one I had been waiting for, talk about instance as I haven't seen the face in years, the face I call my father.

Chad Sanders

The last I saw him, he was drunk with a belt in his hand, one end in his hand and other one pointed to us. He looks like old age graced him the way it should have. He looked like the hag he had always been- as my Nonna says- that cheating hag you call your father is anything but a man. Her words not mine, plus my Nonna is British, so yeah!

I never knew growing up what a father was but when I saw him I knew he wasn't one. I had long given up the fear of his gritted teeth, alcoholic smile and drunkard gait. He cheated on his wife for years, he was never there for us, he had never been with us for birthdays, and Thanksgiving, Christmas and all the stuffs the families do together.

He adored Millie yet he was not there for her, me? I was invisible to him. I hated his guts; I feared nothing he had to show me and nothing he plans to. The Lily that used to be scared of him died in the fire at her house years ago.

"Lily?" his voice says. Chill slips past my bones, a shiver of disgust almost making me clatter my teeth. I look at him, no reply just look at him as if he used my name for the first time in his life. "Lily" he calls me again.

"Miss Pierce", I gulp- "Miss Pierce."

I knew I had rubbed salt on his wound by using the second name I got from my mother. Gemma Pierce was a softie but was raised to take no shit from men. She gave me her name because her so-called cheater of a husband refused to man up a little for a baby like me. Not that I mind, also Elizabeth Lily Pierce sounds fierce, doesn't it?

"It's a little strange you are alive, don't you think, Miss Pierce?" he says with disgust laced in his voice, making sure that I felt lower. I didn't.

"got any problems, Sanders?"

He takes a threatening step towards me, "Watch your tone young lady, I am still your father."

I raise an eyebrow, clutching a little tighter to my bag, "Says who, Sanders? Because last I know you don't even happen to know my birthdate talk about being a father."

He tsks, "I am not here for pleasantries or rebuild something that I didn't want."

"Then what are you here for?" I never cared what he would feel like with my harsh tone nor did I think about how my mother would react if she were to look down on us like this. She knew he was not there; she had accepted it and moved on long ago.

He was closer to me, almost at my face. Sneering he grits his teeth, "You have something under your name that happens to be mine and I would be taking it."

His words confused the hell out of me. Never in all those years I had seen Chad Sanders as a father yet here he was claiming that I had something from him. All I had was the fact that he was my biological father. He was never there for me, not for Millie and not even for his wife. The audacity he has to show up after years thinking he could scare me to submit to him.