Shattered By Broken Dreams

“Do your parents know you’re here?” Harley asked.

“No” he shook his head and looked back at her.

“What made you come?”

“I have some questions” he was nervous, but so was she.

“Ok, ask away” she smiled.

“Why didn’t you want to keep me?” and he hit her with the big one straight out of the gate.

“I did want to keep you, more than you could ever know, but I was young and couldn’t afford to raise a child. Giving you up was the hardest thing I ever did.”

He fidgeted with the rings on his fingers before asking her his next question.

“What happened? I mean with you and my dad”

She stood up and excused herself for a second. When she came back she had a beer in her hand and handed it to him. “You look like you could use this”

“Thanks” he said and took the beer from her.

“Your father was and remains to this day the love of my life and that is no lie. I loved him and he told me he loved me too. I was dumb and I believed every word he said and let him string me along for months until I just decided that he didn’t love me, he only loved the idea of getting away with sleeping with someone else.”

“Who is that?” he asked pointing to a photo on the wall behind her. She turned around to see which photo he was pointing at and smiled.

“That is my daughter, Jaylen and that’s Jason, her dad and my husband.”

He got up off the couch and walked over to the wall where the photo was hanging. After taking another look, he looked back at Harley. “I have a sister?” he asked.

“Yes, and if you stay a little longer, you can meet her. She should be home from school soon.”

“How old is she?”

“She just turned 16” Harley smiled.

“Does she know about me?” he asked

“Yeah, she does. I never kept you a secret from her or Jason. I wasn’t ashamed of you, Blade.”

He nodded and looked at the rest of the photos on the wall there was one that caught his attention and he couldn’t take his eyes off it. “How old was she in this photo?” he asked.

Harley got up off the couch and walked over to where he stood. “She was 10”

“Why didn’t she have any hair?” He looked at Harley and waited for her response.

“Jaylen has leukemia”

“Wow”

“Yeah” she nodded. “She’s ok now. We have our days, but she’s tough like her dad”

“You aren’t tough?” he asked

“Me no, I’m a big softy. I can cry at the drop of a hat.”

“Must have been hard, having to deal with a sick kid,” he said looking back at the photo.

“At first it was, I blamed myself and told myself I was being punished for giving up a baby. I kept telling myself that God wasn’t going to find me worthy of a second chance and let me be a mother, but she wouldn’t let me be sad. Jaylen never once said the words why me, she’s the strongest person I know. I think you’ll really like her.” She smiled.

He picked up his beer and took a sip and walked back over to the couch. There were more photos on the table and he took a look at each one.

“Do you want to stay for dinner? It’s pizza night! Jaylen’s favorite”

Before he could answer there was another voice in the house. “Honey?”

“In here, Jason!” Harley called out. Jason walked into the living room with his daughter following behind him. Blade didn’t need to be introduced.

“You look just like Zacky” Jason said looking right at Blade.

“Well, he is my father” Blade replied.

“Mommy, is that him? Is that my brother?” Jaylen asked

“yeah” Harley nodded on the verge of tears.

Jaylen smiled and ran over to Blade. She hugged him tightly, but he just stood there not knowing what to do. Melody was 16, but Jaylen was so tiny compared to her and he supposed that was an attribute of her illness, but Harley was petite so some of it had to be her genes.

Jaylen looked up clinging to him. “Do you like Pizza?” she asked with the biggest smile on her face and he couldn’t resist her.

“I love Pizza” he smiled.

--

The Mansion

“You!” Johnny said pointing at Matt who was standing in front of his wife kissing her while she sat a top the kitchen counter. Matt slowly pulled his lips away from hers and turned his head to see Johnny pointing at him. He kept his hands on his wife’s waist while he waited for Johnny to say what he had to say.

“You son of a bitch!” he shouted. “How could you go behind my back?”

Matt nodded. “Ok. so, I take it you saw Jonnie”

“You motherfucker! You knew she was here and you didn’t tell me! What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Matt bit his tongue if anyone else had called him a bitch and a motherfucker they’d be missing their front teeth right about now, but for the fact that his wife was sitting there, he kept his cool.

“Nothing is wrong with me and I planned to tell you tonight at dinner”

Johnny threw his hands up in the air. “Oh yeah how? Hey Johnny your daughter is living with my son and I just signed her to a record deal, could you pass the mashed potatoes? Give me a fucking break Matt”

“Get over it Johnny, she’s 23 years old” Matt said.

“Get over it? I don’t tell you how to raise your kids; don’t tell me how to raise mine. You’re supposed to be my friend, you prick!”

Matt braced his hands on the counter and lowered his head so Johnny couldn’t see him fighting back a laugh.

“Just because you have muscles you think you rule the fucking world! Jonnie is my daughter, not yours so get over yourself King Kong”

Matt pounded on his chest and growled at Johnny and he ran out of the kitchen for his life. Matt stood there holding his stomach roaring with laughter.

“That was mean” Sydney said laughing right along with him.

“Yeah, whatever. Where were we?” he asked putting his hands back on her hips and bringing his lips back to hers.
--

Brian’s place

Stormy and Brian slept most of the afternoon and it was he who got up first. He walked out of his room and went to check on his daughter to make sure she hadn’t snuck out of the house. He peeked in her room and she was napping with her ipod playing in her ears.

After closing his daughter’s door he walked over to the kitchen to make coffee and that’s when he heard her screaming.

“DADDY!” The sound of her screaming for him made the hair on his arms stand up. He dropped the coffee pot on the counter and ran into her room and right over to her bed. She was still screaming. He grabbed her up in his arms. “Make them stop” she screamed. “Daddy, they’re hurting me!”

“No, baby it’s over. It was just a dream.”

“Help Me,” she cried shaking in his arms and he couldn’t get her to calm down. “Make it stop,” she begged him like she was begging for her life.

He held her close, but she wouldn’t stop shaking. “You’re safe now. I promise”

She sobbed against him and he knew that this was bigger than he was. She was going to need help and help that he wasn’t going to be able to give her. As soon as she was calm, he was going to call Dr. Mark.