The Nightmare Of Life

Chapter-17: Fresh Air

We all walk into one of the hotel rooms together. "Alright this is your room and Alicia and me will have the next room." I say with a sweet smile. Zyra and Emerald beam with excitement and run to one of the beds. Natasha walks up to me and smiles "you made the right decision, plus who doesn't like Disneyland" she says with a sweet smile, Alicia takes my hand a holds it tight. The drive took a lot out of us but we made it. "Alright its late, Ali and me are going to crash but y'all stay up as much as you want" With that Alicia and I leave and walk to our hotel room. I open the door slowly and Alicia pushes me in the room and shuts the door behind. "put the stuff down" she says referring to our luggage. "Babe?" I respond as she begins taking off her top and her bra. "Put the stuff down now" she responds her voice demanding. She proceeds to shrug off her shorts and while she is doing that I do as she asks and put down our stuff. "Strip" she says demanding. I raise my brow at her as she stands in front of me naked. Her perfect curves and her beautiful face turns me on as I shrug off my clothes. She gives me a wide smile and pushes me onto the bed. She crawls on top of me and smiles widely "I've been waiting to do this all day" she whispers in my ear but before I have a chance to respond she presses a kiss on my lips and pushes it deeper. I suddenly flip her on her back "you know how this works" she giggles as I press my lips onto hers. As I stick it in her I softly kiss down her neck and slowly trace my lips to her breasts. "Jake" she moans as I trace my lips back up her body, she lets out another soft moan as I sway to the motions. "I love you" she moans. I kiss her deeply again and keep the motion going, we pull away and gaze into one another's eyes "I love you too" she pulls me into a deep kiss causing me to let out a soft moan. I feel I am about to finish and it wills my body as I push harder and kiss her deeper. She plays with my hair as we keep the kiss. I let out the biggest moan I have ever done in my life and that breaks the kiss. Alicia laughs at me before whispering in my ear "I'm almost there, just a little longer" I smile at her and keep swaying. Suddenly she lets out a load moan before covering her mouth . I get off of her laughing. She laughs with me, her smile lighting up the room. "That was the best sex we've ever had" she says as she turns to her side facing me, I do the same and we gaze into one another's eyes. "Thank you for letting me finish" she says as she takes my hand. "Well I think the whole hotel knew you finished" she pushes me playfully "dude whatever you were pretty loud too" We laugh before pressing another soft kiss on the lips. "Jake? How are you?" I smile at her as we keep eye contact. "I'm good, really... I was worried about Em but she seems to be handling it well so I really don't have anything to worry about..." She smiles at me "Well now you have a daughter its a big deal" I take her hand and kiss it softly "correction we have a daughter" her face widens as she cuddles up to me. "I love you Jacob" I throw the covers over the both of us and softly kiss the top of her head "I love you too Ali" Before we know it both of us fall asleep in one another's arms. I wake up to an empty bed, I sit up to Alicia nowhere in sight. "This bitch" I say out load before I roll off the bed and get dressed. I walk to the other hotel room and inside Zyra, Alicia, Emerald and Natasha all sitting on the floor playing monopoly. They look up and smile when they see me. "you need to stop doing that to me" I laugh as I sit next to Alicia and kiss her on the cheek. Emerald makes a gagging face as she rolls her dice. "I don't wanna hear it kiddo you caused this" I laugh. "I did not" Emerald responds with a laugh. Everyone shares a laugh as the game continues on. "who's winning?" Zyra looks up at me with a smile "Me of course I mean who else" she laughs. Emerald playfully shoves her. "what its true" Zyra laughs. Natasha rolls her dice and lands on one of Zyra's properties with a house on it. "Oh come on" Natasha laughs as she pays Zyra. "damn girls, getting owned by an kid" I laugh. Natasha looks up at me with a smile "you would do worse" she laughs. Everyone laughs at her comment. I look at the time and realize its only 8am. "Why are we up so early its a vacation" emerald looks at me and smiles "duh we want to get to Disneyland right when it opens so we can have the best all day experience" I laugh as the game continues. The game lasts like another hour or so with the winner being Natasha. I know shocking right. We all wrap up the game and put it away before getting ready for the day ahead of us. "Nat you and the girls get the car started I need to speak to Em for a second" Natasha nods and her, Zyra and Alicia all leave the room. Emerald and I sit on the bed together. "Just wanted to make sure you were all good. The news that was dropped on you last week was a hard pill to swallow." She takes my hand and smiles at me. "Dad you've asked me this like 100 times in the last week, I promise I am okay... I am happy to know the truth and I am happy you are my dad. Now lets go have fun!" I kiss her softly on the forehead. "Okay kiddo. Lets go" she hops up but before she opens the door she turns towards me "Are you okay? this was a bombshell on you too" I stand up and give her a wide smile "honestly how it happened was messed up but you being my daughter is the biggest blessing in my life so I am just fine kiddo. In fact we should start life fresh starting now we move on and live our lives as father and daughter" She looks at me with a huge smile "Deal! I love you dad" We pull one another into a quick hug "I love you too kiddo now lets go have a fun day" she smiles and opens the door. We walk to Natasha's car. We took her car because it has the most room. we all cram into her car and away we go. We get to the theme park in record time with only a few minutes to spare. The line is huge. We all get out of the car and stand in line together. It takes roughly a few minutes to get inside the theme park. "Emeralds eyes light up as a massive smile creases on her lips. I'm happy my little girl can experience Disneyland for the first time. "Alright what do you want to do first go see an attraction or go on a ride?" I ask Emerald who for a moment just stands there but she looks up and points at a water ride. "I knew it" I laugh. "All good to go on a ride?" I ask the group. Everyone nods in agreement and we walk to the line and luckily its not that big. After I want to say ten minutes we are boarding the ride. Emerald hops in the front then its me and Alicia and behind us is Zyra and Natasha. We all hold onto the side rails and the ride begins. We start floating, the water slowly drifting us around a couple of corners. Suddenly it switches to tracks and we are now getting pulled up. This ride is pretty tall as we suddenly stop at the top. "Oh hell no" Natasha laughs behind me. Knowing Natasha she has a fear of heights so this must be so much fun for her. Suddenly the ride moves again, the drop coming up shortly. Down we go as everyone screams with Emerald raising her arms in the air, we splash at the bottom drenching us. The ride ends after that and we all get out dripping from the water. "Good thing my phone is water resistant" Alicia laughs as Emerald grabs my hand and practically pulls me to another ride this one a roller coaster. The rest of the day is crazy fun as I went on almost every ride here with everyone here. We went to see many Disney themed attractions and more then half the day went by already as I spoiled Emerald. She's walking around with a massive stuffed Stitch. I tried to spoil Zyra but she kept telling me that being here is good enough for her. Alicia and Natasha have been having so much fun as well in fact they've been on the same ride three times together. We are now sitting on a bench relaxing and eating our ice cream cones. "Today was so much fun thank you Jake" Natasha says with a sweet smile. "Of course. It was overdue honestly and its some much needed fresh air in all honesty right kiddo?" Emerald looks up and smiles "Sure can we go on the water ride again?" Emerald responds with a smile. "I'm beat but you go ahead take Alicia with you" Emerald smiles and grabs Alicia and Zyra's hands and practically pulls them away from us. Alicia gives me a mean face jokingly. "She seems happy" Natasha says as we sit there together. "She is." I respond. Natasha shifts her attention towards me "What was this trip about really? Was it the fact that Emerald has never been or is it the fact that everything has happened so fast and you feel you owe it to her to do these kind of things together?" I look at her and sigh "I'm that readable huh?" she laughs at my response "maybe a little but its my job so" I look at her and share a laugh "well its a bit of both honestly. I feel that Emerald has been through so much over the past few months and she needed this fresh air and so did I. She's my daughter now so I need to keep my promises and I promised her that I would take her here this summer and with school coming back in a month now's a good time. Plus you and Ali have been through some shit as well and needed some fresh air as well so I call this trip therapeutic for everyone" she takes in my words and smiles. She looks away for a moment taking in the scenery "So? What's the plan when we get home?" I look at her and for moment don't say a word but I know what the plan is and I do believe its a good plan. "Well. I'm thinking that Em and I are going to look at abandoned buildings together and get this club rolling. As for Ali and I, I have no clue but one thing I do know is she's happy and that's all that matters, what about you?" She smiles at my response. "Well I start my job on Monday and I'm so excited. I found out yesterday that I can skip my intern year because of my nursing experience so I will be starting as a resident, other then that I don't know. I've been having a good time living with you and Alicia. It's given me a new perspective on life." "Well that's good Natasha, I'm really happy for you" "Thank you Jake." We notice the girls walking back drenched with smiles on there faces. "That was so much fun dad" Emerald laughs. "I'm glad, ready to go home?" she nods with a drozy look in her eyes. We all walk out of the theme park a few minutes before it closes and walk to the car. Once we are all inside the drive back to the hotel is a breeze because before we know it we are inside relaxing in our perspective rooms. Alicia and I lay there together side by side looking at the ceiling. "What a day" she says with a smile. "Yeah it was fun" We turn and face each other "I love you Jake" "I love you too Alicia" after a few more moments we both fall asleep. We spend the rest of the week at Disneyland, riding rides together and exploring what the city has to offer. It was a really good bonding experience for everyone. Of course we drove home Saturday night and its now its Sunday morning, Emerald is asleep with Zyra on the top bunk. I reflect on the whole week and how the whole time Emerald has this smile on her face, she was so happy she forgot about all the drama and just was a kid for the first time all year it feels like. I check my phone its 7am. Slowly and quietly I sneak out of bed and leave my room to Natasha sitting at the dinning room table sipping her coffee. She looks up at me and smiles. I grab my coffee and sit in front of her "So? Tomorrow's the day. How are you feeling?" she looks up at me with a sense of nervousness in her eyes. "you know great" she says quickly. I laugh at her and put a comforting hand on hers. "You are going to be fine I know it" she smiles and sips her coffee. "yeah, yeah, you're right" she responds, nervously taking a sip of her coffee. "So is today the day? Building searching with Em?" she asks clearly trying to change the subject. I sigh and give her a knowing nod "yes I have quite a few tours set for today, which reminds me I need to wake her up because we have a tour in an hour," I push myself up and smile at Natasha "rest today and don't worry about tomorrow. You're a badass remember that" she gives me a wide smile as I leave back to my room. I walk up to the top bunk and gently shake Emerald. She groans in response. "come on kiddo we have a tour" she sits up and looks at me, her hair a complete mess. "fine" she snarls as she slowly crawls out of bed trying not to wake Zyra in the process. I help her down and she walks to the bathroom grabbing her clothes in the process. After I want to say 20 minutes she walks back out wearing a pink skirt with a white t-shirt, she is holding the brush in her hand. She looks up at me with a sly smile. "will you brush my hair please" she asks is a sweet tone. I grab the brush and escort her out of the bedroom and we walk to the couch. I sit and she stands Infront of me. Slowly I begin to brush her hair. Speaking of her hair its down to her lower back now, its beautiful and very healthy "Kiddo can we talk?" "Mhm" I take a deep breath as I continue to brush her hair. "I just want to know if singing is what you want to do. It was brought to my attention that I am dropping a lot so we can make this club a reality and I am only doing it because of you. So I need to know if you are serous about it." she doesn't respond for a moment before slowly turning towards me. "Yes I am. Singing makes me happy and its something that I really want to do and it helps me battle all of my emotions..." she pauses for a moment and sighs "when I was in the hospital the only thing that kept me going was every night when I was alone I would sing to myself. It kept me confident and it kept me from being sad... I know what you gave up for me dad and I'm sorry." I take her words in as she turns around. I continue to brush her hair "No need to apologize Em, I'm happy to do this for you. You have a beautiful singing voice and I want the world to hear it" she doesn't respond as I finish brushing her hair. Once I finish she faces me and smiles "you are the best dad anyone can ask for I love you" I give her a bright smile and gently kiss her forehead "I love you too, now get your shoes we need to go" She dashes to the room and after a few moments she walks back out. "have a good day guys" Natasha says with a smile. "thank you" Emerald responds before we leave. I didn't bother to wake Alicia because last night she told me that I should do this alone with Em because its a great bonding moment for the two of us. we walk towards the mustang and get in our perspective seats. "So we have three buildings today. If you really like one you need to let me know so we can act on it. Even if its the first one." she smiles and puts on her seatbelt. "Dad?" she asks as I back out of the parking spot. "What's up kiddo?" she smiles "for the past couple weeks you have been calling this a club and that's not what I wanted. I wanted a restaurant with live music kind of thing." I look at her for a brief moment and smile. "well kiddo I can do you one better. I was thinking of doing a club where the only music is live music so that way people can showcase there talents and I was also thinking that we could start a band together. You be the singer of course ill be the guitarist and we can find a drummer and whatever else we may need. We could be a cover band and only sing all of your favorite songs. How does all of that sound kiddo?" She looks at me wide eyed with a huge grin on her face. At first she's speechless "I... I would love that dad and I could play the piano too. Lets do it!" her smile radiates the room as the drive continues. "Wait do you know how top play piano?" she looks at me and smiles. "yeah well sorta I watched a lot of videos when I was in the hospital so many that I feel as soon as I get in front of a piano I should be a natural" We come up to the first building, we are forced to park on the street as the building is located downtown and has two buildings on each side of it. "oh no" Emerald says. I loo at her and smile. "Don't like where its located huh?" she gives me a nervous nod. "okay kiddo its out then onto the next" she smiles at me as we leave. I sent a message to my agent and away we go, after i want to say twenty minutes we arrive at the next location and this one is actually in a pretty good spot. It's a massive building with the nearest building being four building down. Its located on the outskirts of town but not to far from everything. Emeralds eyes light up as we exit the car. The exterior of the building could use some work as the paint is fading but overall nothing a little remodel wouldn't fix. A tall brown man with short spiked hair and light brown eyes wearing a blue suit walks up to us with a smile. "Ah you must be Jake and this must be Emerald, I'm Damen your sales agent" he says in a sweet tone as he offers me his hand. I shake it "yes that's us. Sorry for bailing on the first building." He shrugs "all good I expected it, personally I don't like where that building is located. shall we see the inside?" I look over at Emerald and she gives Damen an excited nod. He gives her a warm smile and pulls out the keys. The front door is actually a really nice dark oak wooden door. He opens it and moves out of the way letting Emerald and me enter first. The first thing we see inside the building is white flooring that's not to bad, the second thing we see is the building is separated into three rooms. "good size, what do you think Em?" she walks around taking in everything, suddenly she stops and looks up at me with a smile "we could put the stage over there, then over here we could put the bar over in that far corner so its obviously noticeable and I'm thinking a bunch of booths facing the stage, hmm, oh the bathrooms in that far corner. I mean we would have to tear down all the rooms and remodel from there" I look at her wide eyed "Kiddo slow down the building isn't ours yet but I'm guessing we don't need to look at the third one" she gives me an excited nod and runs up and hugs me "this is the one dad" she smiles. After she lets go I look at Damen and smile. "We'll take this one" he smiles "alright this building is 250k but since your kiddo is very creative ill bump the price down to 100k that way you can afford to do all the renovations. Follow me and we will get this place signed over" I look at Em and smile. "Stay here kiddo and scope out the place. Remember this is all for you so design it however you want" she gives me an excited nod as Damen and I walk out of the building and towards his car. "You have an amazing kid dude" he says in a sweet tone before he retrieves something from his car. "Thank you I appreciate that" He smiles and walks up to me. "here is the title, now since I reduced the price its going to show in your records that you are delinquent but don't worry about that I will have all of that cleared up in a couple weeks." I look at him curiously. "Thank you for that by the way." He smiles and hands me a pen to start signing all the paperwork. "of course" "why did you do that for us?" for a moment he doesn't respond to my question. Finally after a moment of silencer he sighs. "I lost my daughter a few months ago to cancer, and when I saw that massive smile on your little girls face it reminded me of her. I felt that if I can help you guys in a way I'm helping her out" I look down for a moment and sign the last paper. "I'm so sorry Damen. How are you holding up? and if you don't mind me asking what was her name?" He sighs and looks up at me. "I'm okay, my wife and I still have each other and we know that she is in a better place, and no I don't mind at all her name was Kiana" "that's a beautiful name Damen" he gives me a weak smile. "thank you, now how do you want to pay?" I pull out my check book and write up 100k. He takes the check then hands me the title. "Its all your Jake, here are the keys, any questions for me?" I take the keys and smile "yes, how would you like to come to the grand opening?" he looks at me and for a moment doesn't say a word but a subtle smile creases his lips. "I would love that and so would Kaitlyn. Thanks Jake. Anyway I need to go have another viewing but I hope all goes as planned for you" with that he shakes my hand and gets in his car. After a moment I walk back inside the building.

My dad and I were at the building for at least a couple of hours after he bought it just going over a bunch of things like seating and what we are going to serve, the design of the state and so on a so forth. We got home I want to say 20 minutes ago. Nat and Zyra are out shopping according to Alicia. I am now sitting on the couch just thinking about today and how exciting it was and how exciting its going to be once its complete. I haven't really had a chance to think about much over the past few days because it feels like everything is happening so fast between what happened between Jake and me, the trip and now the club. I feel its all happening to fast. I am so warped in my mind that I don't notice Alicia sitting next to me. I shake out of my trance and look at her. "Are you okay kiddo?" she asks in a sweet tone. I shake my head and it seems like she catches on because she stands up and gently grabs my hand. "Come with me" I look up at her but follow her just as Jake walks up to us "What's up?" he asks looking at us. "nothing we just need to do a little girl talk, you wouldn't like it" he chuckles and rolls his eyes. "alright have fun girls" he laughs before walking to the kitchen. Alicia gently pulls me into her room and shuts and locks the door behind her. "Alright, spill" she says suddenly catching me off guard. I look at her confused "what?" she walks over to her bed and sits down patting next to her. After a moments hesitation I sit next to her and we lock eyes. "I've known you all your life I know something is wrong. You're hiding something so spill" I look at her and that's when it all hits me, a heavy weight on my heart causing a tear to fall down my cheek. "I..." I wipe my face just for another tear to fall down. "I'm lying to Jake... he asked if I was okay and I said yes but I'm really not. Jake is my dad or has always been my dad and I really don't know how to react and I-I feel so selfish because he is the one who got... raped and here I am crying. I-I have so many thoughts that hurt me like the fact that I am an inbred child, I never knew my parents and the biggest thought I have is Jake has sacrificed so much in his life just for me and I feel so bad because he deserves to be happy too and then this was dropped on him... It all just hurts and I don't know what to do about is, I don't want to hurt Jake so I fake being happy so he's happy. Its not that I'm not happy I-I... I" I break down crying and fall onto Alicia's lap. She gently strokes my hair. "Honestly I don't know what to do" I cry as my face is now covered in tears. For a little while Alicia doesn't respond and just holds me letting me cry. "Honestly Em there's nothing you can do. This news was a bombshell and it affected everyone but you and Jake the worst. I guess the only thing you can do is try and live your life and try not to thing about it as much and don't get me wrong that's going to be insanely hard but I believe in you" she pauses and sits me up. She wipes my face gently with her hand. "You don't need to worry about Jake, he doesn't think of the things he did for you a sacrifice. That man loves you Emerald and he would do anything for you because you make him happy he tells me that all the damn time. Yes you are no longer his little sister, you are his daughter but he still loves you the same. Yes he was raped but you shouldn't feel selfish because Jake pushed that down already. That's all in the past Em." she pauses once again and gives me a weak smile as we continue to lock eyes "Em, everything you are feeling right now is completely normal but here's what you need to tell yourself when these thoughts come back, you tell yourself that you have the best dad in the world, a man that would take a bullet for you, it doesn't matter how we got here all that matters is how we move forward, the love you both have for each other is unbreakable. Emerald you are a very special little girl, you are not an inbred just a normal little girl that had something really bad happen to her but if you just push through I promise you will have an amazing life. So dry those tears kiddo and live your life." I look at her and for a moment don't say anything. Finally we pull one another into a warm hug. "Thank you, I really needed that... I love you mom..."