Shadow of the Day (Wolf Moon Sequel)

Chapter 22: Ego Bruiser

Ivy POV

My father. The guy who walked out on my mom before I was even born. The guy who never stuck around, who never called, who never once cared about me or mom, was standing on my doorstep, asking to come in.

I slammed the door shut in his face, locked it, turned around and stalked back up the stairs.

Whether the guy was my father or not I wanted absolutely nothing to do with him. I've been fine my whole life without him and I sure as hell didn't need him now.

"Ivy!" Lila called after me but I kept going. I got upstairs, went straight into my room and slammed that door shut as well.

There was a long silence while I just sat on my bed, fuming. Impossible. There was no way it was him. It just couldn't be. How would he find me anyways? How would he know who I was or what my name was or anything

Lila came up to my room not too long after, knocking on my door hesitantly. "Ivy? Can I come in for a second?"

"Fine," I grumbled, lying flat across my unmade bed. I couldn't exactly say no to her. It was hard to stay mad at her, even though she seemed to be keeping secrets which she never used to do.

She cracked the door open, peeking in cautiously before she walked in, and I had to strain to hear her footsteps. She was quieter than a cat and it was just a tad unnerving sometimes.

She sat down next to me, legs folded Indian style and came right out with a question I didn't want to answer.

"What are you going to do now?"

I stared up at my ceiling, at the dusty blades of my fan and the brown ropes hanging from it to turn it on. What was I going to do now? If he wasn't my father it was simple; pretend none of this ever happened. If he was my father though...then what?

"I don't know," I said honestly, staring at the fan still. "Got any ideas, Watson?"

"I do, actually," she leaned over me, looking at me upside down. "First things first; we need to find out if he's telling the truth or not."

"And how do you propose we find that out?"

"Paternity test?" she said in a obvious tone.

"Oh. Yeah."

"After that, we can figure it out from there. It all depends on whether he's being honest or not," she continued.

"Okay, but how are we going to find the guy?" I asked, "I did just slam the door in his face."

"Yeah, and I re-opened it and got his number," she waved a piece of paper in front of my face.

"Ah," I said dumbly.

"Next issue. Do you want to find out?" she asked, chewing her lip as she sat back.

I let out a breath. "I don't know. This just...I don't know."

"Take your time to mull it over; he said he isn't going anywhere for a long while," she said gently. "But if I were you, I'd want to take the test. Just in case. I wouldn't want to keep wondering 'what if?'" she slid off my bed. "I think I'm going to make dinner."

"I'm not hungry," I said quietly, closing my eyes as I got comfortable, sliding under my warm blankets. Sleep was the perfect escape.

"Okay. Well if you need anything just holler," she said uncertainly before she left, closing my door with a quiet click behind her.

I lay there for a long time, eyes open, unable to sleep as my mind swirled around all the possibilities.

This was impossible. How the hell was I supposed to decide whether I wanted that man in my life now, after all this time of him never being there, if he even was my father.