Firewall {One Direction a.u.}

Chapter 43

"Well damn, pigs must be flying because the last person I thought would show up is sitting right in front of me." Eric, Stephen's father, gives me his classic smirk while chained to the table where he is sitting.

I roll my eyes and let out a calming breath. "Hi." I respond, not really knowing how to start.

"What the hell are you doing here?" He questions me to start the conversation.

Interlocking my hands and leaning on my forearms, I start saying what I have been thinking for a while now. "You promised me. You promised me before you left the hospital room that you would take care of our child. How could you do this to him? At what point, if you didn't get caught, would you have stopped?"

"You should be thanking me." He states aggressively back at me, clearly getting defensive.

My jaw drops in pure shock. "Thanking you?! Did they not get all the drugs out of your system or something?"

"I gave you the out you wanted. You got to move on and start a life for yourself out of this place, Morgan. I know you did. You moved to England, finished college, got a nice job-"

"And then was forced to come back here because you are an inconsiderate asshole. He is your son and you treated him like shit." I interrupt him.

"If my parents didn't kick me out, it would have been different."

"Why did they kick you out?" I ask, genuinely curious. Previous to this, I had no idea he didn't leave on his own accord.

He rolls his eyes and scoffs. "Because of Stephen."

"That doesn't make sense. They bribed the judge for you to keep him and then wanted him out?"

"He started to look like your family and they hated that." Eric says as he crosses his legs with a shrug.

"Stephen can't help that! It's no excuse to kick you two out." Feeling myself getting worked up, I talk another calming breath. I then realize I'm not here to talk about his parents. "I really don't care that they kicked you out. Honestly, you deserved it but it doesn't excuse the fact you kept my son in a drug house for most of his life. You could have surrendered him to my family and we wouldn't be in this situation."

He shrugs and sits back in his chair. "You don't understand the stress of taking care of a child on your own, and I stand by that. Right now you have your family helping you and have no idea what it takes to be a real single parent. I'm sorry I put him in a bad situation, but I made the best of it for him."

"I would have known the struggles of being a single parent if you didn't take him away from me before he was even born. And the fact he never had birthday or Christmas presents is okay with you? The fact he is so smart yet you refused to put him in school or get him someone to help with that? That's making the best of it for you? I'm not stupid. Drug dealers and suppliers make a lot of money, so what did you do with it?" I take a pause, faking thinking. "Oh that's right, you spent it on prostitutes that were constantly around our young son."

"Did you just come to yell at me?"

"No," I say with the shake of my head, "I came to make sure this was real and to let you know that you will never get custody of Stephen again. Even though you have years left before you're out and he'll most likely be over 18, I needed to come here to put my mind at rest that he's in my care until then. You took him from me once, I'm not letting you do it again. When he turns 18 I'll give him the option of knowing you, but that's up to him. I can't believe I trusted you." I finish, getting up and walking out.