The Executioner

Chapter 6: Scarlett

"Your father...well he loved you two. But when your mom left, she made it clear he wouldn't be part of your lives any more. Your father had priors, and hell outstanding warrants at the time. So court wasn't an option. And Tonya knew it. She used it to her advantage." Tack explained.
They were sitting at a bar top in a diner not far from the airport. Scarlett fingered the straw in her Diet Coke, contemplating what Tack was telling her. Was her mother really that much of a bitch? That she would take a mans children from him?
Absolutely. She thought to herself with a mental eye roll. Her mother, Tonya, had made her whole life complete misery. But she had been even harder on Cam. The poor boy ran off to the military as soon as it was legal just to get away from the evil hag.
"Go figure" she murmured back to Tack, but mostly to herself.
"He was a wreck for a long time after she took you two. He wrote letters to you both, paid her whatever she asked. But she always screwed him in the end. And there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it." Tacks eyes grew softer. Scarlett could see the memories dancing behind his eyes. It tugged at her heart. All this time she had wondered why. And now she knew. She had a father that loved her. A father who had wanted her. Scarlett silently cursed her mother. The woman was nothing but a hurricane, destroying everything in her path. It had been months since she had even spoken to the woman and she was still causing Scarlett grief.
"I wish I had known." She spoke softly, the words catching in her throat. Tack went on to explain that LC had been diagnosed with lymphoma, he'd fought it for awhile but then quit responding to treatment. He'd only lasted about four months after that.
"My son, Elliot, he was real close to your dad. All this has probably hit him the hardest." Tack said staring into his mug of black coffee and toying with the handle as he contemplated his words. "I was thinking, you should talk to him. You two use to play as kids." Scarlett nodded once. "I feel so terrible." She said. She felt tears begin to well in her eyes and she turned to look out the side window in an attempt to hide them from Tack.
"Oh sweetpea, don't do that to yourself now. No sense living in the past. What's done is done. LC loved you and Cameron more than anything." She blinked away the tears and nodded.
The thought of her father fighting cancer alone shattered her heart. No, technically he hadn't been alone. But she should have been there. She should have known Tonya had hidden all this from her.
"I should have been here"
"Knowing LC he wouldn't have wanted you to see him that way, which is why he asked that the lawyers not contact you until after..." Tack words faded. "Enough of that though, let's get to the clubhouse and meet Elliot, he can probably fill you in more than I can"