Chapter 13 #2
“Watch your tone Melinda,” she stated gruffly drawing herself up to her full five-ten height. “I’m still your mother and you will respect me. I will not have you speak to me like that you little ungrateful bit…”
“Jennifer!” Dwight shouted at her drawing everyone’s attention to him. “Shut up.”
“How did you…” Mel asked looking between them. “Oh my god, please tell me you don’t actually know her.”
“Oh he knows me honey,” Jennifer stated with a grin. “Knew me really well, didn’t you Dwight?”
“Shut up, if I’d known that you were her mother…”
“You’d what?” she countered. “Call me up for old time’s sake? Still nice to know that after twenty odd years you remember me.”
“I think I’m going to be sick.” Mel groaned covering her face with her hands. How the hell could Dwight, a man she admired and liked, have ever been with her mother?
“No, I would have made sure you were as far from her as possible,” he stated. “I was stupid twenty-four years ago but I sure as hell am not now.”
“Twenty-four?” Mel said glancing towards him. “When?”
“What?” he said confused.
“You said twenty-four years, when was the timeframe?”
“I don’t know, we met at a New Year’s party, spent a few months together, why?” Dwight asked.
“Holy hell Mel,” Tate said catching on. “Oh man,” he added laughing. “Sorry I know it’s not funny but Mel; you’ve got to admit it is kind of in a way.”
“What’s kind of funny?” Dwight stated.
“That you’ve spent the last five years with Mel and it’s entirely likely that you’re her father,” he told him.
“Good lord,” Jordan said with a slight smile.
“Is it possible?” Dwight said turning towards Jennifer.
“I suppose so, can’t be sure though,” she said with a shrug.
“I can’t…” Mel stated feeling herself about to hyperventilate. She got up and dashed out of the room. She heard Jordan, Tate and Dwight call out to her, but she couldn’t stop. She felt the keys in her pocket and raced towards her car.
It’s not possible, she told herself as she drove without knowing where she was going. There was no way Dwight could be her father, but yet, her mind started playing all the similarities between them. The hair color, eye color… No, a million people out there have green eyes and auburn hair.
It wasn’t only that though. His chin and nose matched hers as well as their foreheads…
Stop it, she ordered herself as she turned off the car.
She glanced up surprised to see where she was as she turned off her phone.
She didn’t want Tate tracking her signal right now.
She just wanted to think. To figure out why her mother was there and whether it could be true that she’d been around her father for almost six years without knowing it.
Mel opened the door and headed towards the far side of the playground abandoned years ago by the kids of the town after the new equipment had gone up in the park.
She climbed the wooden structure and searched for the initials Tate carved into the top railing and sat down, resting her arms on the top board as she let her legs dangle over the side.
It wouldn’t be horrible if it were true, if Dwight really were her father, but she couldn’t let herself hope or dwell on it because in her life the likely answer would be no.
∞∞∞
“All this time?” Dwight stated staring at Jennifer. “All this damn time you knew there was a possibility that she was mine and you said nothing? You knew where I was, one little phone call, one test and we would have known.”
“By the time I knew she was coming you were engaged, what should I have done, Dwight? Show up at the church declaring you the father?”
“It was before even I met Lori, she would have understood when we first started dating. And don’t try to use her as an excuse.
If Mel was born in October, we weren’t married until the next year so that wouldn’t have even been a possibility.
When I heard that her mother had up and left the night that she turned fifteen I wanted to find you and kill you myself.
Knowing that there’s a possibility that she’s mine…
I swear to god Jennifer if she is, I will make you pay for everything you’ve done to her,” he raged glaring at her.
“She’s landed well for herself; she’s lucky I stayed as long as I did.”
“You self-centered bitch,” Tate said stepping forward. “Why did you bother keeping her at all? You could have handed her over to social services when she was born and she’d have been better off.”
“Because she brought in money for me, you’d be surprised at how much a single kid is worth on a tax refund.”
“Get out,” Jordan seethed.
“Sorry, I’m not going anywhere.”
“Yes you are or else I’ll have your release revoked and you’ll be back in jail serving out the rest of your sentence. The way I feel right now I’ll damned well make sure that they add on another twenty years.”
“There’s one way to make me disappear,” she said with a glint in her eyes.
“Always about the money for you, isn’t it?” Tate spat at her. “Your daughter is beautiful, brilliant, and the most amazing person I’ve ever met, and you only cared that she brought you money. Do us all a favor and go and die you cold-hearted bitch.”
“Here,” Jordan said ripping a check off the register he always carried. “That’s it. That’s the last penny you’ll get from me and Mel, ever. Come anywhere near her again and you will be in a jail cell unless I kill you first.”
Jennifer glanced at the check then slid it into her bag before she walked out of the room.
“You think that’ll be it?” Dwight stated.
“Hopefully for a few years at least. I expected her to come back before now I just didn’t expect the bombshell it’d drop on all of us,” he said staring at him.
“Jennifer, Dwight?” Tate said raising an eyebrow. “Really man?”
“I was dumb, thought I was a stud I suppose. Then I saw her with another man and realized I was being played and ended it. If I’d known she was pregnant, that Mel…we need to find her because I need to know.”
“So will Mel,” Jordan stated. “Any idea where she is?” he added to Tate.
“I can check,” he said heading to the computer. “She was headed somewhere but she’s turned off her phone.”
“Where would she go?” Dwight asked the two. “If Mel were this upset about something where would she go?”
“Home?” Jordan suggested. “The office would be too crowded right now, but she might go home.”
“No,” Tate said shaking his head. “She needs space to think, to process. She wouldn’t want to do that at home; she wouldn’t want her being associated with your place.”
“Then where? The only other place Mel feels completely secure at is at a pool table. There are a million places where she could go play,” Jordan stated.
“Let’s try a couple,” Tate said heading to the door. “The burger place, the one back home, Frank’s…those would be the most likely spots she’d go.”
“Mind if I tag along?” Dwight inquired.
“Might not hurt,” Tate admitted.
They headed to the two haunts and after leaving Frank’s with Arthur in tow, they weren’t sure where to try.
“Tate, you and Mel were always sneaking off together, where else could she be?” Arthur asked.
“We’d just hang around the apartment mostly. If I couldn’t find her there and Jennifer wasn’t around, she’d be…hell, the playground.”
“What?” Jordan said not following.
“The old playground. It was on the edge of town, and I knew if she wasn’t at home and the paper hadn’t been picked up it meant Jennifer had been gone again. I could always find Mel there.”
“Wouldn’t it be a bit crowded and odd for her to be there now?” Dwight stated.
“No one uses it anymore, not since they put up the new stuff at the park, it’s more central than the playground was,” Tate said heading towards the car.
They pulled up five minutes later and saw the Jeep but not her.
“Look stay here,” Tate said jumping out first. “I know where she is. Jordan, I know she’s your wife man, but she’s my best friend and I have experience helping her deal with shit when it comes to her mother. I can handle this better than you can.”
“Just bring her back to us Tate,” he conceded knowing Tate was right.
“They’re just friends, Jordan,” Arthur reassured him as Tate walked away quickly.
“I know, I’ve watched them for the last six years. I know they’re just friends but she’s my wife and I hate that I can’t make it better.”
“And that it’s possible that Tate can?” Dwight asked. “She loves you Jordan, just like you love her and though I may have thought it strange that you two got married at the time, I’ve seen that for myself. If she is my daughter I can say I’m glad that she found you.”
“Jennifer?” Arthur said turning towards Dwight with a dubious look in his eyes. “Really?”
Dwight and Jordan laughed before explaining that he’d just asked the same thing Tate had.