Total pages in book: 13
Estimated words: 12255 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 61(@200wpm)___ 49(@250wpm)___ 41(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 12255 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 61(@200wpm)___ 49(@250wpm)___ 41(@300wpm)
“You drive her car here?”
“Yes sir.”
“Head home I’ve got it from here.” He looked down at her and then back at me before grabbing the keys from the table and leaving.
She still hadn’t said anything as yet but I could tell she’d been crying, walking over I took the seat the boy had just left.
“Why?”
Her mouth moved but no words came out; she swallowed and cried harder shredding the tissue in her hands before trying again.
“You didn’t want us.” She looked at me from beneath her lashes then.
“Are you out of your fucking mind? You want to be treated like an adult and these are the kind of decisions you make? What were you going to do Dominique?”
“Nothing I promise I’d changed my mind we were just trying to figure out how to come back I knew you were going to be upset when I didn’t come home I didn’t know what to do but I was coming back I swear I couldn’t have gone through with it.”
“You came here to kill my child give me one good reason why I shouldn’t hate you.”
“I wasn’t gonna go through with it I swear, I thought you didn’t want us.” She swiped beneath her nose as the tears flowed freely.
“Why would you think that?”
“Last night, you just left and you were so upset.”
“I told you I had some stuff to do I was right downstairs for fuck sake.”
“Don’t yell at me, don’t you see I’m scared?”
“And whose fault is that? You made this decision on your own with no thought for me, or what I might want and just because I needed one fucking night to think things over you came here to to kill my fucking kid? Who the fuck are you?”
“I didn’t mean it, I wouldn’t have done it, I just thought it was what you wanted.” I studied her for the longest time not saying anything.
“Let’s get out of here the whole damn town is looking for you I have to go let them know you’re fine.”
I didn’t say anything at all to her on the way home I had nothing to say, I’m sure she had come to her senses at some point but the fact that she’d even thought of doing it fucked with my head. I called the sheriff on the way back and let him know to call off the search I’m going to have to make it up to that fucker somehow.
Back at home I let her in the house and took her stuff.
“Did you eat?”
“I’m not hungry.”
“You have to eat if not for you then do it for the baby.”
I went into the kitchen and made her some tea and soup and made her eat. She was withdrawn and sullen but she ate while I watched.
“You ever do some shit like this again Dominique we’re through I don’t care what excuses you have you ever fuck up like this again we’re through what you were about to do is…I can’t even put it into words.”
“I’m sorry, I was just, I didn’t want to do it, I wouldn’t have done it.”
“I hope for your sake that that’s true.”
“What do you want me to do? You just turned away from me I thought it’s what you would want.”
“I would never want that; you know what I think? I think you’re a very naive little girl who wants to play house.”
“That’s not true at all I didn’t know what else to do.”
“Eat.” I made myself a pot of coffee and sat down across from her, she kept her head down refusing to look at me.
“Who is he?”
“What?”
“The kid in the motel room with you, who is he?”
“Corey?”
“Yeah who is he?”
“Just a friend from school.”
“Why him?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why wasn’t Tracy the one with you?”
“I don’t know, Corey said he’d take me.”
“Does he know what you were there for?”
“No no one knows I just told them I wasn’t feeling well and that I wanted to make sure I wasn’t sick like before.”
“Look at me.” I reached across the table to take her little hand in mine, I couldn’t help remembering the young girl I’d brought him with me, the child who’d become so ill and had depended on me for everything that first year we were together. I had too many images of Dominique in my head and maybe that was the problem, maybe I needed to see her as what she wanted to me to see, and what I so desperately wanted her to be. Only then will I be able to move forward and abandon the guilt completely.
She’d always let it be known through her actions how she really felt; in the beginning I’d believed her too young to know her mind, I’d brushed aside her attempts to get closer. Was she ready for a man like me, could she be?