My Best Mistake [#1][#WATTYS2016][COMPLETE]

thirteen*

[chloe]

I should have known that I would never be able to keep the truth hidden from people, least of all my father. He may not have given a shit about me but he had a way of turning up when I least wanted him to be there and he had a way of finding out things which, in reality, were none of his business.

My father, as far as I was aware at least, was supposed to be in New York until the end of the week. He had told my mother that he would be finalising some deal which was going to branch his hospital out further afield—though I am almost certain that, while he may have been finalising that deal, he was also probably fucking some twenty-something year old at the same time.

He didn't exactly keep his affairs a secret. And, more than once, I had caught the woman leaving the house in the afternoon while my mother had been in the kitchen preparing dinner for the evening. She knew what was happening but, since she didn't even love my father, she couldn't have given a damn what he was doing in their marital bed.

But, if there was one thing which my parents did have in common, then it was their ability to make my life hell. I had never planned on telling either of them that Matthew was the father, not only because the both of them hated him and had constantly warned me off going anywhere near him, but because of the stupid agreement which we had with each other.

I knew that he would waste no time in telling my mother and I also knew that the both of them would drink to my stupidity later on this evening. It was something which they had done since I was old enough to be considered a failure to the both of them. They would drink to celebrate whenever I did something which they didn't approve of, and they would cry when I actually did something which would warrant them being proud of me.

"John. I think that you had better come with me," my father instructed but, from the tone of his voice, I knew that he was speaking to John as his boss and not as his friend. "You, Chloe, have got some serious explaining to do."

"Dad, please. I swear that I was going to tell you." I had always been a convincing liar and, despite my father claiming that he was the human lie detector, he had never been able to figure out when I was lying and when I was actually telling the truth—lying was the only reason I had managed to remain under the same roof as my parents for the last year and a half.

"I don't give a shit, Chloe. Your mother asked you and you refused to tell us." My father's tone was hard and cold, his eyes were void of any emotion, and his hands were clenched at his sides. So, despite the lack of expression, I knew that he was pissed off with me and that he wasn't going to let this drop. "I am so disappointed with you. Even more so than when I heard from Jason that you didn't want to go to college."

"I have always been so good at disappointing mother and yourself, so why the fuck would I stop now?"

"I thought that there was some hope you. That, if you went to college and studied to be a doctor, then I would actually be proud of you. But how wrong I was." I wasn't even offended by the criticism. It was difficult to be offended when he has never actually had a good thing to say about me, and when he has never even been proud of me, not matter what I did.

Jason was the one who was proud of me. Jason was the one who was always there for me. Jason was the one who became my father-figure and loved me unconditionally, even when I pressed every single one of his buttons and got on his last nerve. It has always been Jason and, regardless of what has happened between us or what will happen between us, it is always going to be Jason who loves me and gives a damn about me.

"I also thought that you had learned your lesson with Matthew. After the way he treated you and walked out of your life," I heard my father mutter under his breath. But I knew he had said it deliberately loud enough for me to be able to hear what it was that he had to say.