Forever is Perfect

Chapter 44

LONDYN POV

At dinner with dad we didnt really talk much until after we ordered our food.

"You know, you don't have to do this." he reminded me, "I mean, your mom could be the one to tell you."

"No no. I want it to be you." I enforced.

"Its just, it happened before I met her. So she's really the only one who knows." he took a sip of the beer he had ordered.

"You know enough to hold it against her." I spoke without thinking, "But I know its something thats hard for her to talk about."

"okay." he cleared his throat.

"So can you just say it? And I can get the details from her?" I requested.

"I've been trying to come up with the words-"

"How bad can it be?" I squinted at him.

"Its really bad." he restated.

"You're stalling." I glared at him.

"Well well well." An unfamiliar voice snarled as a man approached our table. "Aren't you... Derek? or something.. the one that ended up with Onika?"

"I'm not fighting you again." Dad glared at the man.

"Either you and the bitch broke up, orrrr you're cheating on her with someone better." The guy presumed. "Finally come to your senses?"

"I'm trying to have a peaceful dinner with my daughter." Dad was getting pissed.

"Would've never imagined your kid this old, but now that I think about it.. she is just as fine as her mother." he looked me up and down predatorily. "You legal yet?"

"Dad?" I crawled away from him.

"Londyn go to the car." He handed me the keys.

I ran out and sat in the car to wait for him. Eventually he came out and got in, the ride was silent until we pulled into the garage.

"Who was that man?" I asked without looking at him, still a little shaken up.

"Your mom's ex." he sighed.

"When are you gonna tell me the big secret? Its obvious he knows it too." I said through my teeth. "Stalling has gotten us no where.. just say it flat out, like you said, I'll go straight to mom for questions."

"Fine." he nodded and turned off the radio. "Your mom had two kids before she and I ever met."

"What happened to them?"

"Sh-she killed them." he turned the car off and opened the door, "That man back there, was the father to one of the kids."

"H-how.. th-that can't be true... Was it an accident?" I couldn't process my thoughts.

"I think this is the part where I hand it over to your mother." he suggested.

I walked inside stiffly, like a zombie. Mom was in the kitchen but she immediately followed me up to my room.

"Why'd you do it?" I asked her, not looking her in the eye quite yet.

"Jayden.. he had really bad asthma." she kept her distance, giving me space, "It was a terrible snowstorm.. the heat wasn't working so the cold was making his asthma worse. Thembi had borrowed the car where his inhaler was... the ambulance was stuck in the snow... I-I couldn't watch my baby suffer. He was going to die, and I could tell how much pain he was in."

"How'd you do it?"

"I told him how much I loved him, and I told him that the only way I could make his pain go away was to put him to sleep.. but that he wouldn't be able to wake up from this sleep.. he'd sleep peacefully forever, and he wouldn't have to deal with asthma anymore-" she began crying but kept relaying the story, "So held him in my arms, and held a pillow over his face and sung to him until his heart stopped beating."