Perfidy ✔[Complete]

Believe...if only you believed.

The sharp sound of my ringtone woke me up. Dazed, I sat up and looked around for my phone. I grabbed it off the bedside table in a rush. "Hello?" I asked groggily. I hadn't bothered to notice who had called me.

"Hey." The voice on the other sound was hesitant but still familiar.

"Julie? What's up?"

"Oh...you know what happened, right?" She sounded uncertain.

"No, what happened? Oh no! What did you do? Whose house are you stuck in now?" The gears in mind turned as I tried to figure out what she was talking about.

"No..not me." I could almost picture her biting her lip. "Um...the cops arrested Jam-"

"Stop. I know. If that's what you called for, bye."

Without waiting for her reply, I hung up and switched my phone off. Way to start my day, Julie. Sighing, I got up and walked to my kitchen. The news that James had been arrested was going to spread like wildfire. Everyone was finally going to know that I was right all along.

The doorbell rang, interrupting my thoughts. Confused about who could show up at my house at eight in the morning, except for James, I fumbled with the lock. I threw open the door and stared at the person before me. "Dad?" I asked incredulously. He loomed in the doorway. I was suddenly struck by James's resemblance to him. The same tall figure, with the same brown eyes and black hair, now streaked with white. A silence stretched between us until my father cleared his throat.

"April," he said, his rough voice, slicing the silence in two. "I am so sorry. I...was wrong." He stepped forward and embraced me. I blinked, not sure if I was dreaming. He pulled back and looked at me. "You've grown," he smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. I stared like I had never seen a human before. I realized my silence was agonizing and protested.

"Dad...you-" He hadn't talked to me or seen me in a year; neither had my mother. I breathed in deeply to keep myself from crying.

"No, no. It's my fault. You would never have done something like that. I also know that you wouldn't forgive me that easily." I was shocked, but I stepped back, allowing him to enter. He smiled and walked into the room. Glancing around, his gaze slid back to my face. "Nice house you've got here,"

"Well," I bit my lip. "It's technically an apartment."

"That's the April I know!" He exclaimed and sat down on the couch.

I chuckled, in spite of myself. "I'll get some coffee." He nodded and I went into the kitchen and came back a few minutes later with two cups. I saw that the living room was empty.

"Dad?" I set the cups down on the table and called his name. I walked around the tiny house and found him in my room. "Oh..sorry for the mess. I was going to clean..." I said sheepishly as I gathered the clothes.

"It's alright. It's your apartment after all." He was looking at something. I strained to see what it was. A photo frame with a picture of our family. "I missed you so much, April. And it was all my fault. Why didn't I believe you? If I had....well...we wouldn't be here today."

"Dad..it's okay." I gently plucked the frame out of his hand and led him back outside. "Let's have some coffee."

"Thanks." The color had drained from his face and he looked sick. After a sip, he said, "I got your message and I-"

"Please, let's not talk about it." I glanced at him and saw amusement dancing in his eyes.

"We have to. James being arrested makes you innocent. Why are you-"

"Asking you to stop? Because I can't hear it. I don't want to face the fact that my brother, someone I had trusted so much, someone who had been there when I had nothing, was the reason I had had nothing."

"You think it doesn't hurt me?" He asked quietly. "Knowing that all along I had believed my daughter was a criminal because my son had told me so. Knowing that I was the one who kicked her out of the house." I was about to reply, say that that was different, that that was his own kid, not an adopted one when I felt a lump in my throat. I remembered my father bursting into my room one night. I remembered him scowling at me as he looked under my bed and found stacks of money and his credit cards with drugs that I had never even seen before. I had just stared at them, astonished. I remembered his cold tone saying that I wasn't welcome. I remembered him saying that he was ashamed to call me his daughter.

A single tear rolled down my cheek and I hastily wiped it away. "It's fine. Let's just get over it." I noticed he was watching me. "What?"

He smiled. "You are so much more mature than you were before."

I blushed. Trying to change the topic, I asked, "Anyways, where's mom?"

"At your aunt's house. That's why I need you to come with me to the station house." Great, we were back on the same topic again.

"Why can't you go alone?" But I knew why he couldn't. He needed someone else so that he didn't strangle James the moment he saw him. I was afraid I would do the same. I didn't want to go, but I wanted to see him, one last time. Even if he stole money and framed it on me. Even if he produced counterfeit money and fooled my father with it. Even if he used the real money to smuggle drugs. Even though we had no blood relation, just a law binding us together in one big family. I wasn't sure if I was convincing myself to stay at home or go with my father.

"Alright," I said with a shrug. "It can't hurt." But it would hurt, seeing that face again.

My father set his cup down and announced, "We will leave in five minutes." I nodded and went to go get ready.