Chapter 20

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Melissa's Fathers POV

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Anger pulsed within me as I watched my daughter run out of the town hall.

I wanted so badly to follow her, make sure she was okay. But I had to deal with the situation first.

Deal with the people who now had some nerve to look smug.

His sons ran out to follow their sister, their friends following closely behind.

My ex wife and her husband coming to stand next to me, both with glares in their eyes and snarls on their faces.

They too were pissed.

Three other people stood with us, a woman and two boys who looked to be twins.

But I didn't particularly care, as flashes of Mel in the hospital flashes in my head.

I still remember getting the phone call. It had been the first time hearing my daughter had a part time job.

I hadn't even finishes the call before running out the office, not caring about anything else but my daughter.

I would never forget what I saw that day, lying in her hospital bed was his princess, his baby girl the girl who loved playing dress up with her brothers despite their obvious distaste to the game. She had been hooked up to so many machines she looked broken.

I knew then I had failed as a father, failed to protect her.

She had woken up soon after he arrived, screaming and sobbing. She had looked so vulnerable and small in that hospital room.

I had tried so hard to make it better. Going through physical therapy with her, I took time off work and opted to work from home in those months.

Even after her wounds healed she had still been suffering, waking up screaming every morning.

Mel had become paranoid always looking over her shoulder. Even after the other kids had been arrested.

She was terrified of every little thing, and no amount of therapy was helping.

It had been my own separate attempt at helping her heal by moving to this town.

A new start.

I had hoped she would finally be able to breathe. And she would be closer to her brothers. Support.

But it had all crumbled when he went back to work after the move. His boss kept adding paper work after files to his desk and he found himself drowning in work.

And then the issue of my ex wife started, and I hadn't wanted to believe the woman who had once been my best friend could do that to me.

So I ruined the relationship I had slowly been building up.

And now Mel had to deal with this putrid town.

But I was determined to not let her deal with it herself. She had only herself to rely on for too long and I want to make it right.

"What..." I began to say but my words got strangled in my throat "what gave YOU the right to dig through my daughter's past?"

I was trying hard not to beat some to a bloody pulp.

"I-I... Fuck" the woman spluttered "I didn't know" she chokes out.

"Are you all so sick, and twisted you'd purposely go out of your way to bring up something so traumatic?" I asked furiously.

"Did it ever occur to you to maybe mind your own fucking business?" I continued.

"That maybe not everything is so black and white. For FRICKS SAKE! She's a teenager!"

"I just wanted to protect you Train Tristan" she begged the two boys behind me.

And I turned to them with rage. To see the anger in their eyes , buy I also saw the sympathy the understanding and I snarled at the two.

"What the Frick do you know about this?" I demanded.

They only shook their heads. Refusing to meet my eyes as they focused on the pastel woman.

"It was never yours or the town's job to do so" Train stated coldly.

The woman sobbed "your mother..."

"Don't..." The one twin said with a sneer "bring our mother into this"

The other twin shook his head "I get it, your cautious, you're scared, more so your angry but that gave you no right to take it out on Melissa, shit happens, either let it define this town or move past it but don't you dare try to define someone else with it" he said softly, but anger still evident before he and his brother left leaving us to deal with the rest.

"Now let's talk about what all this is about, shall we?" Derrick asked, his voice cold and distant.

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