Friendship And Family (Currently undergoing a rewrite. Do Not Read.)

CHAPTER 22. Clash

Agnes' POV

I took the school bus home because Mum didn't come to get me. Heading to the house, I noticed a car that wasn't Mum's, and thought that it might be her colleague from work, but it still didn't justify her abandoning me in school.

Two voices were having a ping-pong match as I got closer, and the second voice, strong and youthful, wasn't Dad's. I could recognise that of Mum even in my sleep, but it was sharper than ever. This person, whoever they were, was riling her up.

"How could you keep such information from me!?"

I gently leaned on the front door, eavesdropping on the conversation.

"I would have told you if you weren't so keen on not wanting a child!" Mum's response scared me, and I wondered what they were talking about.

"No matter what, I still had every right to know. Sixteen years, Becca. Sixteen good years! And I get to find out like this?"

I couldn't bare the suspense I was giving myself and pushed the door open. Their voices seized fire, and Mum looked horrified, as if someone just got murdered before her eyes.

"H-Honey... you're, b-back..." she stuttered, staring at me.

The tall stranger in the room stood before her, his back to me. He was wearing a brown jacket, a loose jeans, and black shoes. He was dark-skinned, and his hair was laid low. He seemed to be taking his time to turn around, making eye contacts with Mum with the way her fearful eyes kept darting between my eyes and his, communicating a silent language only they understood, one that was forbidden to the ears of a third party.

"What's going on here...?" My eyes also darted between the two of them. I didn't want to assume what the problem was, but it was obviously a grave one, and I couldn't help my mind from wondering. I'd heard sixteen years, and a child. Had they committed a crime since way back then? Had a truth surfaced from the past that could get them both a life sentence? No, Mum was incapable of committing a crime, even as little as accidentally running over a lizard that was crossing the road.

The stranger seemed to have come to a conclusion to ease his burden by dropping the weight in a third ear as he made to turn around, almost as if he didn't want to, while Mum kept biting her lower lip in disagreement, shaking her head slightly and moving her fidgeting hands in a circular motion on the front of her maxi pencil skirt.

"Agnes..."

I froze like a fish in a deep freezer the moment I saw his face. "Stay away from me." I semi-circled him to reach Mum, not letting even as little as the tip of the nail of his middle finger, from the arm he held out towards me, touch my skin. Mum wrapped me in her arms, confused at my reaction.

"I didn't mean to scare you the other day. I just wanted to get familiar with you," the psychopath said, and I wondered what business he had with me.

"Were you stalking my daughter?!" Mum yelled at him, pulling me impossibly closer to herself.

"Our daughter." His voice was low, yet filled with anger, and his eyes held a lifelong pain.

"W-What...?" I didn't need to struggle out of Mum's arms because they fell in defeat after the psycho let out those haunting words. My head was faint and heavy at the same time, as if a big block of ice had dropped on it.

"Agnes, Agnes, listen to me..." That was Mum.

"Don't put so much pressure on her." It was the psycho.

"Do not tell me how to act with my daughter!" That harsh response came with a sharp sound, like a slap on a bare skin, probably the back of the psycho's hand.