Heart Key (#Wattys2016)

Chapter 20: His Daughter

Song: His Daughter

By: Molly Kate Kestner

Note: This isn't exactly what a lot of people consider a love song, but it is. It's a different kind of love, God's love. A friend of mine on Wattpad, Cookiewood22, showed me this song and it's really powerful in my opinion. If you want to listen I hope you like it. Thank you.

I wake up to feel something smacking my forehead over and over. I blink open my eyes to see Chloe glaring down at me. I blink at her a few times before sitting up and asking, "What in the world are you doing?" I ask with a yawn as I rub the sore spot her hand caused.

She takes a step back before her eyes drift to the letter on my counter. She snatches it up before waving it in my face. "No! The question is what are you doing?! When were you planning on telling me that you'd be leaving this summer?!" She shouts at me angrily and I wince in surprise.

"H-How'd you find out about that?" I stutter as she slams my letter back down on the table. "I told her." Chris says as he appears in the doorway with a small frown. He rubs his eyes tiredly and I can tell he just woke up too.

"Was that really smart?" I mutter in his direction as Chloe lets out a huff before sitting down beside me. "Why are you leaving?" She asks softly, sadly as her eyes start to tear up. I stare at her in shock for a moment. She changes moods so fast.

I pull her into a hug with a sigh before replying, "You know what it's like for me here. I can't stand the feeling of constantly being overshadowed by what happened in my past. I need to leave. The sooner the better." Her tears don't stop as I talk and she's quickly overcome with the quantity of them.

"How could you say that?!" She screams as she flings a pillow at my head. "You still have me! You have Emma, Chris, and even Taylor! We're your family and we'll help you overcome your past!" She exclaims as she shakes me by the shoulders frantically.

"How?" She freezes at my question and I raise an eyebrow at her. "How do you plan on helping me overcome my past? Why hasn't it happened yet?" I ask her and her tears increase. I watch her cry sadly. Please don't cry, not for me. I think sadly as she replies, "I'll find a way! You will overcome it and you will want to stay! You can count on that!" She shouts the last part before taking a flying leap out the window.

Chris sucks in a breath of surprise before running to the window to make sure she survived. Already knowing she did, I walk out of my room and to the kitchen. I can hear arguing coming from my dad's room and I can't help but feel a twinge of satisfaction run through my bones.

Did little ole me cause a rift in their oh so happy marriage? Whoops. I allow a smile to flash on my face for a moment as I open the fridge and pull out a tub of cookie dough ice cream. I pull a spoon from one of the drawers before jumping on the couch and eating the ice cream straight from the tub.

I flip the TV on, not really caring which channel it's on as I stare at the screen blankly. I almost doze off but a shadow falls over my head and I arch my neck back to see Chris and Taylor standing over me. "May I help you?" I ask as I raise an eyebrow and take another bite of ice cream.

Taylor frowns as she shakes her head at me and Chris flings his hand out, snatching the ice cream out of my hands in the process. I stick my bottom lip out before sitting up and turning around to face them.

"What's the big deal?" I ask as I reach to take the ice cream back but Chris quickly pulls it away once more. I watch as he walks into the kitchen to put it away before coming back in the room with a serious look on his face.

"We need to talk about what happened yesterday." Taylor says as Chris comes back to stand beside her once more. I let out a groan in response before stating, "I'm actually extremely tired of talking about what happened yesterday. To be honest, I'm over it. I got mad, I blew my little secret, now it's over and we can all go back to ignoring life's problems like the rest of the country. Yay!"

They both look less than amused at my attempt of a joke and I feel my smile slowly leave me as I let out a huff and slump back into the couch, defeated. Chris comes over and sits beside me before asking, "Don't you remember the ice cream parlor, we're going to change remember?" He's so hopeful but I feel only anger at his words as I turn to look at Taylor.

"Why don't you tell that to your sister. It's obvious to everyone she's not trying to change." The words come out harsher than intended but they come out all the same, leaving Taylor with large doe eyes as she stares at us in surprise before turning and taking off without another word.

"I was going to get to her, she can't take confrontations like that." Chris mutters angrily as he shoots me a glare. I feel a tingle of regret but it leaves as quick as it came as I push myself to my feet and start towards the door.

"Where are you going?" He asks as I pull the door open. I whip my head around to look at him, anger still in control as I snap back, "Anywhere except here. I'm tired of people constantly looking down on my choices." I can tell my words hit him hard, but I'm passed caring as walk away from the house and down the street, my phone hitting my leg as I storm off.

I don't know where I'm going or what I'm doing, but I'm sick of the questions that I've answered over and over and I'm tired of everyone trying to get me to change my mind. If I want to change it, it will change, but no one can do it for me and I'm definitely not letting someone force me to.