Too Many Secrets

Chapter 20

My heart drops. He's here. What if he doesn't like me? What if he forgot about me? What do I call him? He is my biological father but I don't know him enough to call him that.

Cole walks over to me seeing my stress. He crouches down to my height and puts his giant hand on my shoulder.

"It's ok. Don't stress yourself out," he says. How did he know I'm stressed? Am I that easy to read?

We walk out of the office together. I look back and see Jake still sitting in the office. The room is so big it even makes Jake look small. It's a big brown themed room with a huge desk in the middle. There is a painting of a man on one of the walls but I have no idea who it is. The room feels darker now, despite the bright light bulbs on the ceiling. I look at Jake and his jaw is clenched, his hands are in fists, and if I'm not mistaken, Jake looks stressed too. The most intimidating man I've ever seen is stressed about seeing his father. Now I am even more scared.

Cole puts its hand back on my shoulder, snapping me out of my trance. We continue walking down the long hallway. I have never felt so small. The ceilings are so tall it's like they never end. On both sides of me are the doors to my brothers' rooms. Each door is pretty big too. They are white and perfectly clean. The moldings on the walls are beautiful. I have never paid such close attention to the stunning details of this house.

Once we reach the stairs I hold onto the railing, scared that I might fall down the stairs from my worry. As my left foot meets the last stair I look up. I turn my head towards the entrance of the house and there he is.

He is incredibly tall. He has grey hair. It's kind of long, similar to the boys' hair. Even through his suit I can tell he is also very muscular. He has small wrinkles on forehead and thick eyebrows over his big brown eyes.

"Skylar, you're here," he says with a huge grin.

He opens his arms for me to come into his embrace. I look at Cole for help and he notices my discomfort with the situation. I think my father also saw so he quickly put down his arms. Instead he comes over to me and puts his large hand on my arm. I wince quietly as if his hand burned me. There was a flash of worry in his eyes but he pretends not to notice.

"Do not touch her," Cole announces, in his scary voice. It's rarely used, but when it is, it is terrifying.

"I'm so happy you are finally home," he smiles at me. His teeth are perfectly white and straight. I smile back at him politely, not knowing what else to do.

"Bill," Jake says coming down the stairs. His name comes off of his tongue like poison. I guess his name is Bill. Bill's features turn hard and stern immediately. He looks angry.

"Now is that the kind of respect you treat your father with?" he asks Jake. I have never seen anyone question Jake's authority before.

"You do not deserve that title," Jake bites at him.

"I'm here aren't I?" Bill answers.

"After two years!" I hear another voice, that I recognize as Dylan, shout from the top of the stairs.

"Come, let's go to the kitchen," Cole says to me, gently pulling on my wrist.

Once we get to the kitchen I have a million thoughts racing through my mind. Why hasn't he been here in so long? Jake told me a little, but I didn't know he left them alone for two years.

"What did Dylan mean by that? Has he really not seen you guys in two years?" I ask.

He takes a deep breath before speaking. "Yeah, he hasn't, but that's not the whole story. He has been on a business trip for a while. He is not the emotional type of guy."