Safe In A Stranger's Arms

Chapter Forty Five

Justin's POV

The epitome of destruction was standing right in front of me. Even though I could clearly see him with my naked eye, I couldn't believe it. I didn't want to believe it. Somebody I barely knew, barely spoke to, barely seen made all the anger bleed into my body and rush through my veins in a speed I couldn't even control. His dark eyes looked into mine and all the flashbacks came back to me. He was a failure of a father and just the fact that he had that label made me want to rip him into pieces and take back all the cries I waled out for him.

No, he wasn't even my father. He didn't deserve that label, nor did he earn it. Biologically, he was but besides that, he wasn't shit to me. He was the ground that I walked on, stepping over it absentmindedly just like he stepped on me when I was a kid and left me as if I was dust in the wind.

"Happy eighth birthday, Justin!" My beautiful mother exclaimed.

I rubbed my tired eyes as I pushed myself off the bed. Mom was standing over me with a small cupcake in her hands and a cheap camera in the other. I smiled at her as I reached over to pick some icing off the cupcake with my finger. "Thanks, mama!" I exclaimed as she snapped a few photos and gave me a hug.

My eyes caught Dylan who was leaning on the door frame of my bedroom with his Superman pajamas on. "Happy birthday, loser! I'm still older than you," he teased as he walked over to us.

"Dylan, be nice to your brother," my mom warned as she handed me the cupcake.

Later in the day, my friends from elementary school came over with their parents to celebrate my birthday. I was so overjoyed. I was around my friends and my family and there was nothing that could ruin it besides one thing. One person that wasn't there. It felt like a puzzle with a lost piece. Useless. I needed him to finish the picture but he wasn't there.

As everybody was laughing and eating the cake, I walked to the front door and pushed it open. I sat at the steps and waited. I waited and waited and I swear, I saw the sun setting in front of me as I continued to let the cold cement that I was sitting on numb my ass. Suddenly, I heard the door open behind me.

"Justin!" my mother shrieked as she stood next to me. I didn't have to look up to know she was looking at me in disappointment. She knew exactly what I was doing because I've done it before and that was just one of those times. "Why aren't you inside? I was so worried."

"He's not coming, mom...is he?" I murmured as I played with a small pebble that was laying on the ground next to me.

"Oh, sweetie," my mother whispered as she took a seat next to me. She put her arm around my shoulder and pulled my head into her chest. I closed my eyelids as I let the tears free fall from my eyes and roll down my cheeks. "I'm sorry."

"I hate him," I whispered.

And I still did. Nothing he could say could make me change the way I felt about him. He left not only me but Dylan and my goddamn mother who needed him the most. We were at the brink of sleeping on the streets because he didn't support us but thanks to grandpa who was owning the hotel back then, he took us to his place in Vegas and we were fine. Ever since that birthday, I despised him. I didn't even know his name but I hated him more than words could ever describe.

But there he was, standing in front of me with his dark eyes and smug grin and I couldn't do anything besides wiggle my wrists in between the ropes. I swear, I actually would have killed him if it wasn't for the fact that I was tied up. I wanted to spit on him, yank his hair out, knee him in the stomach, uppercut his face. I wanted to let out all the rational anger that I was holding in for almost my entire life in a matter of minutes and the fact that I simply couldn't made me even more upset.