Love the Other Half

The Past And It Has Secrets

          There I am. Standing here with my eyes wide open, my mouth hanging down to the ground and my heart beating so hard and fast, I felt like I was going to pass out. There is no way he is standing in front of me at this very moment.

          "Dad? Is that... is that really you or am I going crazy?" I ask the man in front of me who looks and sounds like my father. I can see tears forming in his eyes, and can see that he wants to crumble down to the ground. "It's me, Jasmine. It's me" he says to me. I look at Daryl and I can tell he is confused. I look back at my father and I start sobbing. I run to him and he wraps his arms around my body and hugs me like there is no tomorrow. I wrap my arms around his neck and cry into his neck.

          "I thought you were dead. Then Dwight told me that after everything, you just took off and he never saw you again." I say to my dad and I pull away from the hug. He looks down at me and smiles. "So I see you found him." he says to me. He points to my neck and I know that he can see the necklace. I nod my head. "You know Dwight?" I hear someone say behind me. I turn around and see that it was Daryl that had just asked. I totally forgot he was here. The second I had hugged my dad, I had forgotten that he was behind me.

          I turn away from my dad and look at Daryl. "Daryl... you have to let me explain... okay? Promise me that you'll let me explain everything to you. I'm begging you." I plead with him. He just looks at me and shakes his head. "Catch up with your pop. We'll talk later." he says to me before walking away. I let out a sigh of relief and look back at my dad. I smile at him and he smiles back.

          Dad had taken me back to his little room that he has here at The Kingdom. It wasn't big, but it was a nice little room. Dad was sitting on his bed and I was sitting in one of his chairs at a little round table in his room. "You wanna tell me about that man from earlier?" my dad asks me. I look at him and snort. "It isn't like you think. Daryl's my friend. Has been since the world went to shit." I say. I see my dad nodding. "How does he know Dwight?" I look from my dads eyes to my dads feet. I inhale and shake my head.

          "Dwight is apart of this horrible group. That kills and steals and ruins lives for their own benefit. He doesn't want to be there, but things happened and he has to be." I look at my dad and can see he is wanting me to continue. "This group, the saviors, we came across them. They killed two of my friends. They've killed more since then, but the leader... Negan. He took Daryl and I. Kept Daryl for Dwight to train and kept me for a wife." I say. My dads eyes get real angry and worried and I hate that I'm telling him this, but I have to.

          "Negan told me that if I married him, he wouldn't be too hard on Daryl. So... I did. I married him and... and let him have his way with me. Just to keep Daryl alive. Dwight helped Daryl and I escape. Daryl went back home, I went to Dwight's house. Dwight and I met up and that's where he gave me back the necklace and he had to go back because if he didn't Negan would come looking for us and they would have killed Dwight. No one knows that Dwight and I know each other. Well... now Daryl does." I say to my dad.

           I look out the window and sigh. "Dwight... tortured Daryl. Stripped him naked, beat him, fed him nothing but dog food. So that's how Daryl knows Dwight. He isn't his biggest fan." I say to my dad. He looks at me and shakes his head. "Dwight has always had a big heart and a big soul. Big souls can go one of two ways. They can get full of love or full of hate. Seems like if you hadn't showed up, it would have been full of hate." My dad say to me. I look at him and nod.

           "Dad... did mom ever tell you anything. About why she sent me away?" I ask him. He deserves to know that he has a grandchild out there. Or at least did. He looks at me and I can see the hurt in his eyes. "I saw your mother a few times before she died. Before she killed herself. She told me why she did what she did. When she told me, Jasmine... I almost killed her. I wanted to kill her. I almost called the police. Until she told me why she did what she did." I look at my dad confused.