Halfway There | COMPLETE ✔ + Sequel

Chapter 27 - Salvation

After finding a small patch of dirt where some the snow had melted away, we both sat on the edge of the cliff with our legs dangling. We sat side by side with our hands interlocked with one another and attempted to steal the others heat. We were there in silence, enjoying the most beautiful view we had both ever witnessed in my lifetime. Even as the day faded away and the moon rose up into the sky, the lights of the night time were just as beautiful.

"Tell me about your dad." I asked.

I almost expected him to be angry with me for ruining such a perfect moment but when he looked over at me, he only appeared curious. "I've already told you about him."

"No, not really. You told me about what he did to your mother and how he's in prison now but you've never really told me about him."

I watched as he pressed his lips together, considering whether or not this is something he wanted to talk about. "I don't really like talking about him." He said mainly to himself. I waited patiently on his decision.

"He hadn't always been a terrible person," He began, "I remember as a little kid just before Stella was born how much fun we would have together. He would always come home from work, no matter how difficult it had been, excited to see us. We would play video games together and have family dinners together and watch movies together. We were happy." He stared out at the city below, sad at his happy memory.

"Just a few months after Stella was born, I had just turned 10, he lost his job. My mother had just turned 18 when she had me and had always been a stay at home mom so she couldn't work either. She didn't know how to work. I guess things sort of went completely downhill after that.

"The whole thing was slow. For the first year he would do everything he could to find a job but it was a small town where we lived, part time jobs could only do so much. After the first year, with no luck in finding an actual job, one that he went to college and studied for, he started to drink. It started off as every once in a while he would come home drunk but before Stella even turned 2 he would come home every day with some kind of bottle in his hand and the smell of liquor on his teeth.

"This went on for years. It wasn't until I started living with my grandfather that I found out that he actually gave my mom a lot of money so she could keep our home." I wanted so badly to wrap my my arms around him and take away all the painful memories but I knew, almost as well as he did, that a hug could only do so much.

"One day," He continued, "I was about 13 years old, all of a sudden he started showing up with all kinds of money in his pockets. He wouldn't ever go to any kind of work, he would just leave the house, come back and he would have money. It didn't take long for my mom to figure out that he had met some pretty bad guys and they found work for him. Somewhere in dealing and selling drugs, he started using too.

"My mom stayed strong for a really long time. We would leave my dad at least 3 times a month but she always went back to him for some reason. She never stopped loving him and I think in the end that's what killed her... One day when I had come home from school, I saw her and my dad both passed out on the couch with needles dangling from their veins. I don't think I had ever hated my dad more in my entire life than in that moment.

"One year, just before my mom died, my dad pushed Stella down a flight of stairs for a bet. A bet." The entire time he spoke his face had been completely neutral. There had been no sign of pain as he spoke of his father until that sentence. The disgust and pain that covered his face was more than evident.

"She was in a neck brace for almost 2 weeks and I promised myself that I would never let anyone hurt her that way ever again. That's when we started fighting." I raised my eyebrow at him. He nodded his head,