We Come Alive 5

Lessons

The following day, all the local high schools had a half day of school since all teachers had meetings for the remainder of the day. Since they still didn't have a baseball coach at Grand Ridge, those athletes were out for the day.

Instead of just going back to sleep or hanging out in his and Ricky's shared apartment, Jacob got a ride to right outside Dallas and went to visit his dad's house. He was currently sitting in the living room telling his dad, Spencer, and step-mom, Elisa, about the most recent events in his life.

"Who set her car on fire?" Elisa asked in a hushed voice, rocking Jacob's step-brother, Lucas, in her arms. Lucas only being over one years old.

Jacob shrugged his shoulders as he stared blankly at the ground. "I don't know. Nobody knows. They checked the surveillance videos and it was a car of people with masks on. Nobody knows who they are."

Spencer shook his head in disbelief, listening to his son speak. "Your mother,...she...always knew how to get herself into some trouble."

"Got herself fired too." Jacob informed, slightly snickering at the memory of his mother crying in the rain. "I got some cool pictures of me and my friends posing in front of her burning car." He laughed, looking at his dad while he could hear his step-sister Demi playing in the next room.

Spencer tried to scold Jacob, but cracked a smile himself. "You're something else, son."

Jacob shrugged his shoulders, looking down at his lap as all joy slowly left his body. "She always says I don't know the real story of what happened. You know...with you two. I just know the surface of what happened that day."

Hearing that, Elisa got up with Lucas in her arms. "I think me and the kids will go to the park." She said in a rushed tone, leaving the living room as fast as she could.

Spencer sighed heavily, crossing his arms and looking at Jacob sitting in the chair adjacent to him. He shook his head, thinking about what to say to his son, his first born, his long-lost son.

"I'll tell you this," he begun, "it felt good to finally find you again, to know she finally lost this dumb battle between us."

Jacob didn't utter a word, just listened to his father for the story he's been looking for his entire life.

"That day...I came home and your mother...," Spencer took a deep breath, making eye contact with Jacob, "she was crying in the kitchen, sobbing. You were watching tv in the living room, coloring in this coloring book I got you. You loved it." He chuckled softly. "I'll never forget, you were coloring this dinosaur orange. You never got to finish. Ever." He whispered the last few words. "I went into the kitchen to talk to your mother and she was holding a pregnancy test. I told her to take one since she'd been showing some symptoms. I didn't know what to do. Of course, I was excited. But I couldn't understand why she was crying."

Spencer slowly made eye contact with Jacob again. He uncrossed his arms and put his hands flat in his lap. "She looked so shocked to see me. Instantly, I knew why she was crying when she started apologizing over...and over...and over again. That wasn't my baby. A apology turned to an argument. I asked her why did she do this? Why did she have to break our family? She's never given me an answer. How old is Melanie? Thirteen?"

"Fourteen." Jacob corrected. "She's fourteen."

Spencer nodded his head. "Fourteen years. She's never answered my question. But she told me that she was moving in with this man and taking you with her. I wasn't going to just come home from work and lose my entire family." He confessed. "There's no way in hell I'd just let her take you. The man ended up never wanting anything to do with Melanie and your mother so...that went to shit. Anyway, so we kept arguing in the kitchen, just screaming at each other. Then, you heard us yelling and she screamed at you to go to your room. I told her to stop yelling at you and she slapped me. We were having a screaming match in the living room, you were crying at the top of the stairs."