Healing Hurts (Anakin Skywalker)

Chapter 10

Crunch.

Crunch.

Havena kept her eyes on the cereal bowl in front of her, focusing solely on her breakfast rather than the man at the table in front of her. She stayed silent, practically shrinking herself each time she felt her father's eyes on her. If he noticed he still hadn't said anything. Though, to be fair, Havena still hadn't spoken to him, either.

After all, what was there to say? He made it pretty clear at the hospital that he didn't want to speak to her. Instead, he'd spent his time drowning his sorrows with alcohol every night - can after can, and bottle after bottle. He still hadn't returned to work, though Havena figured that was probably reasonable. His wife had died; surely the man deserved some leave to process everything.

Havena wasn't sure he deserved anything after what he'd said to her on the night that her mother died. Every time she looked at him she could hear his hateful words spewing at her from across her mother's pale body, each one stabbing into her chest like a knife. And then she saw his new signature black eye, courtesy of her Uncle Noah, and part of her felt satisfied in a way. She couldn't deny that he deserved it, that was sure.

Crunch.

Crunch.

"Could you chew quieter, please?" Robert's now raspy voice rang out, "I'm trying to read."

Read. Yeah, right.

He never read the newspaper before her mother died. And Havena knew he wasn't reading it then, either. He was just staring at the pictures, running his eyes over the words, and quietly ignoring her while he enjoyed his morning coffee.

But at least he spoke to her.

She knew she couldn't ignore or avoid him for much longer. Eventually, they would have to talk. They had to, right?

But why should she want to talk when he'd denied her of fully saying goodbye to the woman who raised her?

Because he's your father, she thought to herself quietly.

"Right... sorry, Robert."

"Don't call me that." He snapped, sitting his coffee cup down on the table with a low clink. "I'm your father and you'll address me as such."

Havena glared at the bowl in front of her before scooping another spoonful of cereal. "Oh, really?" She gaped, tilting her head as she looked at the man in disbelief. Before she could stop herself, she felt the anger begin to boil up. "I hadn't noticed that much in the past 2 weeks or so," she quipped, taking another bite of her cereal. This time she basked in the crunch it made, especially since it filled the silence between them.

"Quit with the snarky attitude." He looked up and glared at the girl in front of him. "You know how hard it's been. At least I didn't run away from my grieving family for over half a week."

She scoffed. "Haven't you? You've barely said 5 sentences to me since mom died. I'd say that's pretty bad, too."

The room grew quiet. Havena felt the atmosphere grow heavy once again, but shook the strange feeling off as the tension began to rise. She stared her father down expectantly, feeling the rage begin to set in. When he didn't respond, she took that as a sign to continue.

"You- you abandoned me! You scapegoated me! You didn't even let me say goodbye to my own mother. You do NOT get to tell me that I am a horrible daughter for leaving to stay in a space I was actually welcomed in for a few days. Not after the way you treated me!" Havena's tone grew louder and more harsh with each sentence, initially with an air of disbelief and slowly shifting into one of anger. "You have not done anything lately to warrant me calling you dad. Nothing!"