The Blood We Shed

Chapter 3 - Nick

I was done. I was sitting in the hospital waiting room, hoping that my mother was okay, but in the end, she had to die.

She just died from a miscarriage, which meant me and my six-year-old brother, Nathan, were officially motherless. Nathan hugged our dad's leg, whining about something stupid and annoying.

He had no idea that we just lost our sister and mother two minutes ago. We were going to have a sister, and her name would've been Daisy Belle Valentine.

My mother was so happy when she realized she was having her third child, but now that was all gone. Our dad was excited as well and even started planning baby Daisy's room setup.

That was gone, too. Our dad wore a grim expression, but his eyes...they seemed to be filled with anger.

He was never the type of dad who got mad. He always strived to make his family happy and become successful. I wondered what was going to happen now.

I ran my fingers through my messy black hair, trying to ignore the tears in my eyes as I tapped my foot, nervous energy pulsing through me. I wiped them away with my free hand and tapped my feet on the floor, sitting on a blue chair.

I watched as our dad finally acknowledged Nathan's whines and yelled at him.

"GAH, STOP YOUR WHINING ALREADY! YOU DON'T WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE FACT THAT YOUR VERY OWN MOTHER IS DEAD?!"

I flinched at the sudden outburst, and Nathan began to cry. Everyone was staring at us, making my face feel warm. I got up and acted fast.

I grabbed Nathan's hand and stormed out of the room with him. My dad stood there in utter shock. I just ignored him and comforted Nathan as we quickened our footsteps and exited the hospital.

We sat outside on the curb for so long that my butt went numb and Nathan started getting cranky since it was pretty late at night.

Our dad finally emerged from the hospital's doors, and we got up to get in the car. The silent ride back felt like days instead of minutes. The area we lived inside in Missouri was crowded, so it took us ten more minutes than it should've taken.

We eventually arrived, and our dad disappeared into the master bedroom, his hands folded behind his back. I sent Nathan to bed, and I did the same with myself.

I woke up to Nathan's cries, which was kind of strange. I slid out of bed, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. I hurried to his room and found that he wasn't there. Worried, I went downstairs and discovered why Nathan was crying.

Almost everything was gone except for the furniture. Our dad was nowhere to be seen, and the house almost seemed abandoned. I saw Nathan through the corner of my eye and faced him.

Nathan stopped crying when he saw me and sniffled. "Where's Daddy?"I froze. There was no way we were abandoned. Our kind, fun-loving dad had probably left us alone in this house forever.

Oh gosh...I was overthinking. He would never do that...right?

I asked, "Did you check everywhere?"

Nathan nodded, and replied, "Yeah...he's not anywhere."

I sighed and within the next ten minutes, I searched the whole house, not finding him. I went into the garage and to my shock, our car was gone. The metallic red Honda Odyssey we had was not there anymore, indicating that our dad left the house with it.

There could've been a few reasons. He was either just getting groceries or finishing up with our mother's death. But her funeral already happened a week after her death, and we received/did everything in her will. There couldn't have been anything else for him to do except grieve.