Stay Courageous

Chapter 35

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Stella's POV

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"Dad?" It was the Wednesday after our trip to the mall, and I'd finally found the perfect chance to ask my dad about the things my mom had said. We were both just chilling out on the couch, I was doing my homework and he was watching a boxing match on TV. We were the only two in the apartment since Ms. Nancy and Nick were still at work and Max was still at football practice.

"Yea, kiddo?" He addressed me at first without looking away from the TV.

"Can I ask you something?" It's about mom," I said it a little hesitantly. His expression darkened.

"What about your mother?" He still didn't take his eyes off the television.

"Just some things she told me about you..." I said with even more discretion. My father turned off the TV and threw the remote across the room. Thankfully, it only landed in a pile of clean laundry that Ms. Nancy had set on the floor.

"Good God, what has that woman told you now?" He practically yelled as he turned to face me, throwing his hands up in the air dramatically. I swear, my parents can throw tantrums better than a three year old.

"Calm down!" I was not going to start this conversation off on the wrong foot. "It's nothing I believed, I just want to ask you a few questions before court day, that's all," I gulped when he didn't respond. "Why exactly did you and mom get divorced?"

"Stella, I know you were little, but couldn't you see that we were always fighting? Our marriage wasn't working! I couldn't live in a house with a woman who was always cursing at me in front of my children and throwing things around the room when she got mad," I glanced at the remote that he'd just chucked into the laundry pile. "Why? What did she tell you?"

"Well, she said that she had Nicholas and me, and then you said you wanted a divorce because you only wanted her," I looked away, "to have her babies."

"OH MY GOD IS SHE STILL USING THAT CROCK STORY?" My dad stood up and it looked like he was going to break something so I screamed at him to calm down and threw a pillow from the couch in his face. He caught it and took a few deep breaths before continuing. "And I suppose she told you I forced her to move here? How her whole family lives out in California and she can't go back to them because they hate her now? All because of me, right?" I nodded slowly, even though I hadn't heard the part about her family living in California. "Look, Stella," my dad sat on the couch again and placed one of his big, strong hands on my knee. "Thalia, your mother, she," he ran his other hand through his hair as he thought of the words, "she was crazy about me when she met me. I came from a rough neighborhood, I didn't have the best reputation, and she was entranced by the fact that she was dating 'the bad boy,'" he paused to make sure I understood. "Her parents, they hated me. They said it wasn't good for Thalia to be hanging around me. They threatened me, told me I couldn't keep seeing their daughter or," I saw his Adam's apple move when he gulped, "or else, basically." He probably didn't want to get into those details, thinking I was too young. I didn't really care, I just wanted to know what happened next.

"I told Thalia that if she wanted to keep seeing me, we had to go away. Far away, where her parents couldn't find me. She told me she was in love with me, and would do whatever I wanted, so we left. We left Palm Beach, California to go all the way to the east coast in Sandhills, Georgia. You follow me?" He raised hie eyebrows at me as he questioned.