Past

Claire

Six years earlier

I heard the rising voices of my parents. They were once again fighting. I wish they would stop.

"Don't you dare walk away from me, James," my mom's voice filled with anger and desperation. It had happened so many times. She had begged my father even when she hadn't done anything wrong. Did that stop my father? Sometimes it did sometimes it didn't. I had grown up with this drama in our home for the last four years and it has been pathetic. The tears in her eyes as he walked out the door after the fights in the last begging him to not leave would leave her drained and weak.

My father was having an affair. I was sure of it. My mother lip's never let a secret slip about the problems between them but when their screaming voices could be heard even by the neighbors, it became too easy to know. He was having an affair with someone for the last four years because it was only since then the screaming, shouting and tears had started. I was fourteen then but they still tried to put up a front that nothing was wrong.

As if I was blind to what was happening but in the last two years my father had stopped caring. The fights had become so frequent since then that it hurt to see my mother sobbing over a man who didn't love her. Was this love? If it was then it was pathetic.

"No, Sophia!" he raged out. "I'm bloody tired of this hoax of a marriage. How much longer are you going to drag me down? I'm so fucking tired of you and your promises." His voice thundered inside the four walls of our home. The anger that resided in his voice had me stilled but with fear but more for my mother. I had seen a few bruises on her with the worsening conditions between my parents. The worry of my own mother pushed my feet to rush down the stairs to the living room.

"And what about those that you made to me at our wedding? Were they just fucking empty words?" the screaming of my mother made me realize how angry she was.

"Yes, they are now!" he screamed back as I stood there with no idea of what to do. My father's eyes red in anger while my mother's temper itself was reaching new heights.

"If it wasn't your fucking lie, I wouldn't even be with you." He didn't stop as he took step towards my mom. "You lied to me about what Evelyn told you. Do you know how much she had to suffer because of that?"

"And what about how I suffered when I realized you were cheating on me with her or the fact that you had some other woman pregnant other than me!" The truth that spilled making me freeze.

"I loved her and still do." With a finger in mom's face, he expressed his love for another woman. "And don't you dare talk about suffering. She called you to tell me that she was pregnant and what did you tell her that I already knew that. You went to the extreme telling her that I didn't want her." the angry side of a man who I called my father outgrew.

"I had to stay away from my other daughter for fucking last fifteen years," he yelled out in her face as the realization of what he said set inside of me. He was having an affair with someone for the last fifteen years.

"Like she would have let you stay. She married some other man and was freaking happy in her life but no you had to ruin it all." Mom's finger jabbed at my father's chest. It felt like he was poking an animal. "I was the one there for you when she walked away. I was the one whose heart had been broken but yet I was trying to mend yours." The way her voice rose as all the dirty laundry of theirs spread in front of me.

"Did she stayed here for you even when you told her that I had lied? Tell me did she cared about you when she left you drunk on our doorstep telling me that she can't be with you because she didn't love you anymore. If you so cared about that daughter of yours then why did she take her away from you in the first place? If you want to blame this on someone go and blame it on her than me while all I had done was being here for you sick or not even when I shouldn't have." Dad's eyes stared at my mother in anger.

"You are fucking shameless, Sophia." He roared as he held her wrist hard.

"Tell me how I'm shameless. It's you who should be shameless. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you and her. Every time she would end up on your door you would walk away with her. We have a daughter who is almost eighteen but do you care about her? Do you? She had done everything just you would become a father but all you care about her and that daughter of yours!" Their voices grew louder and louder.

"It is because she is a mistake. Want to know the truth? I hate her. If it wouldn't have been for her, my father I wouldn't have ever forced me into this sham of a marriage. She was a fucking mistake." He yelled out as I felt the ground slip away from underneath my feet. The sound of a slap echoed inside the room putting everything to silence.

"Don't forget if it wasn't because of Evelyn, you wouldn't have been drunk because she had decided to leave you. It was you who had in your drunken state confessed that you loved me and I had let you take advantage of that. Your father had only made you do the right thing when he realized you had sex with an underage girl. So go blame it on her than me and our daughter." She yelled making me see the clear picture.

"Don't you ever dare say a word against her because I swear to god if you hurt even emotionally. I would finish you. Leave you, penniless so that other woman of yours will not even look at foryour second." Dad just stood there astounded as mom threatened him.

"I should have known then it was your father who had sent you my way with those empty promises of love at least I wouldn't have to be a part of this mess you and Evelyn had created. I was just the backup plan because you couldn't have her," she whispered before turning away for him and walking to her room. I wish she would have known about it making our life easier. At least then she wouldn't have her heartbroken.

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The past.