Page 91 of Salvation

“This is Bee’s brother, Axel,” I said, and my dad nodded, doing his best to hide the look of hurt on his face.

God, I’m such a fucking asshole. Will I ever stop hurting him?

“Well, Bee. It’s a pleasure to meet you, and you too, Axel,” he said, gently tickling Axel’s stomach.

I looked down at Bee, hoping she didn’t feel sad that she didn’t get a physical greeting, and that she didn’t feel second place to her brother. But my dad was already miles ahead of me.

“How blessed am I to havetwobeautiful grandchildren come to visit me!” he crouched down to Bee, but kept a respectful distance from her. “I already know you’re the boss here,” he winked at her. “I can see you’ve already got the same take charge attitude as your dad and Rachel. So as the boss, I’m asking your permission to invite you both inside, and spoil you rotten with hot chocolates, toys, and cookies. Would that be okay with you?”

I fucking loved my dad.

He hadn’t been perfect when I was growing up, and I often felt neglected because he was so far under my mother’s influence and lived very much by her rules. But that stint in prison had seen him become a new man. He immediately recognised Bee’s vulnerability, and her need to be included, and he played on it in the best possible way. He gave her complete control, he made her feel special, made her feelincluded, and did it all without overwhelming her.

Bee nodded her response and my dad grinned at her, standing back up and holding his arm out towards the hallway. “Lead the way, little lady.”

When my dad said he was going to spoil them, he fucking meant it!

Within ten minutes, the coffee table was piled high with crisps, biscuits, cookies, finger sandwiches and a platter of chopped fruit and vegetables. He came in a few minutes later with a steaming cup of hot chocolate for Bee, complete with cream and marshmallows, and a bottle of milk for Axel. I had to force him to accept the bottle and all but bribe him into putting milk into it, but we got there in the end.

My mother had stood behind the sofa the entire time, her face like a slapped ass, tutting with every piece of food my dad brought out of the kitchen.

“Iris won’t be happy,” she muttered when she saw the hot chocolate.

“Iris hasn’t had chocolate in over ten years. I’ll replace anything we use. These are ourgrandchildren,Becky,” he glared at her. She pursed her lips, but she nodded all the same.

My dad handed Bee the remote control and showed her how to work the TV, immediately signing up to Disney+ for her when he found out she loved princesses.

Bee clung to the remote like it was a lost treasure, and I added another brick to my resentment wall. Her needs and wants were so easy, so simple, and yet the club hadn’t noticed at all. So long as she was clean and fed, they left her alone.

They didn’t even realise she was yearning to be included.

I noticed my dad getting teary-eyed every so often, but he did his best to hide it, sniffing the tears away. I hoped they were happy tears, but I also knew there must be a tinge of sadness in there somewhere.

He had missed so much of their lives already, and he hadn’t done a thing to deserve it. I felt a pang of regret that I hadn’t stayed in contact with them, but I quickly pushed it down.

I did what I thought was best at the time, and after Dante’s threats to harm my parents the other day, I firmly believed I had done the right thing, even if it hurt them.

Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind!

I couldn’t change what had happened in the past, but I could do my best to make up for it in the future. Just like my dad had. Prison had given him a new outlook on life, and he was nothing like the absent parent I had been used to growing up. He was present. He was interested. And he was fucking sorry.

That’s all I wanted. I wanted my parents to recognise where they had failed me. To understand I had been through something horrific, and to actually show some form of fucking regret for not having recognised the signs of a groomed and abused teenager.

My dad had it nailed. My mother left a lot to be desired. As per usual.

“And how have you been?” My mother finally asked. My dad was on the floor next to Bee, driving toy cars across the carpet. He had dug through the attic, finding a bunch of toys from his childhood, and had even discovered a vintage wooden Harley Davidson model that Axel had immediately taken a liking to. He was driving it along my dad’s back, and he was trying to convince Bee to take a marker and draw roads on his shirt for Axel to drive along. Bee had laughed, an actual laugh that made my heart sing, but she hadn’t accepted the offer yet. But the laugh was enough. It was so rare, and so bloody beautiful.

“Fine,” I replied, taking my eyes off the kids to glance in my mother’s direction. She was sat on the armchair near the sofa I was sat on, legs crossed at the ankles, her back as straight as a rod. “And how have you both been?”

“Your dad has missed you,” she sniffed, and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at her. Even if I wanted to do it so fucking badly.

This was typical of her. She couldn’t resist small, hurtful digs. She reduced me back to being a bratty teenager, and I didn’t like the way I was around her.

“I’m sorry,” I murmured, even though I didn’t mean it. “I should have told you I was going away. There wasn’t a lot of time.”

“Mm,” she said, uncrossing and crossing her legs again, this time in the opposite direction, turning away from me. “Although that man of yours did send us a very abrupt text, so at least we knew you weren’t dead.”

“He did? When?”

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