broken // branded sequel // heathers au

eleven

JD's POV

"Elody?" I asked my sobbing teenage daughter. She looked up, scooted away from me and put her back to the couch where she pointed the gun at my head. "I'm not scared of you, Elody." I told her.

"What?" She asked me.

"I am not scared of a gun to my face. I am not scared of the thoughts you're thinking." I elaborated. Yet, I didn't move closer to her. I didn't want to frighten her.

"It feels so good in my hands." Elody said, her face looking confused as she stared down the length of the pistol and into my face.

"I know, El. I understand how it feels." I sighed, allowing myself to sit more comfortably. This would take a while. "It feels powerful to hold a gun, doesn't it?" I asked her.

Elody nodded, her hands shaking the gun. "I want to kill you." She told me.

"I want you to tell me why." I said.

"You've hurt my mom for long." She spoke, her voice taking on some confidence again.

"I know that. I've hit her and I've held her captive in my love for twenty-five years." I swallowed the lump in my throat. "Worst of all? I've hurt our children to hurt her. I shot your sister. I've hit you." I added.

"But not Auden." Elody mumbled.

"No, I've hurt Auden. I've been unkind to her until I got to know her better. I realized how much like Giselle she was." I sighed.

"And that's why you don't love me." Elody cried.

"I do love you, Elody. You're my daughter. You remind me so much of your mother." I said to her.

"And that's why you hurt me." Elody replied.

"It isn't." I told her.

"Then why did you hit me?" Elody asked me.

"Because you hurt your mother with what you said." I explained, running a hand through my hair.

"It's okay for you to hurt her!" Elody shouted at me, her face scrunching up again.

"It's not." I said. I felt the need to tell her things I've never told anyone else. "Do you know why I hurt your mother, Elody?" I asked. She shook her head no. "It's because she's the first person to love me unconditionally."

"So?" Elody asked.

"No one loved me until I was seventeen. I never learned how to love." I admitted to my daughter, who's eyes softened. But only for a moment.

"Mom tried to show you how." Elody told me, standing up on shaky legs. "Giselle did too." She added.

"I know that now." I said, standing up too. "I should have been better to the both of them."

"If you've known that, why haven't you done it!?" Elody shouted, once again pointing the gun at my head.

"Because it's hard to admit when you're wrong." I said quietly, my head falling down. Elody let out a strong sob as she pulled the trigger, shooting the wall behind me. I straightened and saw she had shot a photo on the wall.

It was of Giselle, smiling on her eighth birthday. I remember that day. I remember what that photo was used for. It was used for the announcement that a young girl was found dead in Ohio. It was the night that Veronica and I fled. I was so cruel to her that night.

But Elody couldn't have known that.

I looked at the glass that shattered around Giselle's face. Veronica and I were in this copy, the glass was broken all over us.

Elody pushed past me and went to the wall to look closer at her sister's face.

"I hate you!" She shrieked. "You took everything from me before it was even mine!" She cried, punching the photo with her opposite hand. Elody screamed as the glass she had shot through stabbed her hand. She cursed loudly as I pulled her away from the glass.

"Elody!" I shouted, wrapping my arms under hers as she fought me.

"Auden!" Elody yelled for her twin. "Auden! Help me!" She shrieked, Veronica and Auden came barreling into the room to see me holding Elody in a full Nelson. A hold I learned in prison.

"What are you doing!?" Veronica shouted at me. I shook my head and tried my hardest to block her out as I reached my hand to Elody's neck, felt along the tendons and pressed. Just as quickly as the pressure arrived, Elody fell limp.

The gun in her hand hit the floor with a dull sound as Elody dropped from my arms with a thud.

"What did you do!?" Auden asked me, feeling to see if Elody was breathing. I already knew she was.

"I just put her to sleep. She'll be okay." I said, sighing as I lifted Elody up from the floor.

"Put my daughter down." Veronica told me.

"Our." I said, moving to walk past her.

"What?" She asked me.

"She's our daughter." I elaborated. "And it's about time that I acted like I was any sort of parent." I added, leaving the room as I carried Elody to the car.

"Where are you taking her?" Veronica asked me. I didn't realize she followed me outside.

"We'll be back soon." I said quietly, closing the passenger side door where Elody sat.

"Jason Dean, tell me where you are taking her." Veronica demanded of me.

"She made me realize something." I told Veronica. "Elody made me realize that neither of us have done much parenting since Giselle died."

"What?" Veronica asked. I pulled my wife close to me.

"I have to fix this." I told her, kissing her head and turning to get in my car to drive Elody somewhere. I needed to explain some things.