“I don’t want to go,” Chelsea whines as I hold both our bags in one hand and hold my other out to pull her from the love seat where she’s enjoying the last few seconds of the view.
“I know, but it’s the holidays.”
A smile twitches at her lips. “We’re spending it together, right?”
“Too fucking right. I can’t imagine I’ll be welcome at the Dunn family Christmas dinner. You think your parents will be okay with me gate-crashing?”
“He might surprise you, Shane.”
“Yeah, and he might not,” I say sadly.
I know he’s home, I’ve had messages from Mom. What I don’t know yet is if he knows, although unless he’s come home and locked himself in the house, I can’t imagine he doesn’t. This gossip isn’t contained to Rosewood High, it’s all over the town now that the kids have had plenty of time to go home and tell their parents.
The infamous Brett Dunn’s son has got his teenage girlfriend pregnant, I bet they’re all fucking loving it.
With a sad sigh and one last look at our weekend escape, Chelsea and I make our way down to my car.
The drive home is much more somber than the one here, the tension in the car is palpable and I hate that we have no idea what we’re about to arrive back to.
My intention is to take Chelsea home, make sure she’s happy before going and facing the music. I know she’s going to want to come with me, but much like the last time, I need to do this alone. She’s got enough to worry about right now, she doesn’t need my broken relationship with my dad weighing down on her more than it probably already is.
All those plans are shattered though when I pull into Chelsea’s driveway to find a truck parked in it that has her tensing in fear.
“W-why is that h-here?” she asks, her wide eyes locked on the black truck that I recognize immediately.
“Should I drive away?” I offer, not being able to get a read on what she wants me to do.
“N-no. I think it’s time to get to the bottom of this. Find out what the asshole wants. If he’s brazen enough to turn up at my house like this, then I need to find out what his issue is.”
“Okay, let’s go.”
I’m at her door before she’s even got one foot out.
“I’ll be right beside you, baby.”
She nods but no words pass her lips as hand in hand we make our way to the front door.
“Chelsea, is that you?” her mom calls from the living room and Chelsea’s grip becomes almost painful.
“It’ll be okay. I’m here, your parents are here. They’re not stupid enough to put you at risk.”
“I know, I know,” she says, blowing out a slow breath.
The second we turn the corner, my eyes lock on the man that I haven’t seen before, I’ve only ever seen his shadow behind the windshield of his truck.
He stands the second he sees Chelsea and I get a second to study him. I’ve never seen him before, of that I’m positive, but I can’t help thinking there’s something familiar about him.
Chelsea gasps despite knowing that he was here, and stumbles back a little.
Reaching out, I wrap my arm around her waist and pull her into my side.
“It’s okay. I’ve got you,” I whisper down to her as her eyes remain locked on the man.
“Chelsea, this is Greg—”
She tenses in my arms before cutting her mom off.
“What the hell are you doing in my house? Isn’t it enough that you’ve been stalking me everywhere I’ve been for the past week, now you’ve got to force your way into my home, my family?”
He swallows nervously, his lips parting to say something but no words come out. I have no idea who he is or what he wants but it’s blatantly obvious that he’s out of his depth right now.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I just… I didn’t know how to go about it.”
“Go about what?” Chelsea spits. “Thought I was grown up now so it would be okay to take whatever you wanted?” She stands forward, finding her courage from somewhere, and holds her arms out at her side. “You’re sick. All of you. The best thing that ever could have happened to me was being taken away from that place. From scumbags like you.”
“What? No, no… I wasn’t… I didn’t…”
He looks to Honey and Derek for support.
“Chelsea, sweetie. Greg isn’t one of them. He’s your father.”
“What?” Chelsea barks, her body rigid as she stares at the three of them, disbelief written all over her face.
I stare at the man she’s been so scared of the past few days and it suddenly dawns on me why he looked familiar, although his eyes are blue and Chelsea’s dark, they’re almost identical.
Holy shit.
Chelsea shakes her head.
“No. I remember you. You used to take her to her bedroom like all the others. You’re just one of them who used to fund her drug habit.”
“No, I was trying to help.”
“Help? If what you’re saying is true. You left me there. You left me with all those disgusting men who used to…” She trails off as the blood drains from Greg’s face. “Helping me would have been taking me away, feeding me, clothing me, caring for me. But you did none of that.”
“I did what I could at the time.”
“Well clearly it wasn’t good enough. Do you have any idea what it was like for me? That place was hell on earth. And you left me there.”
Guilt covers his face. He reaches up and rubs at his jaw as he tries to find the words to reply.
“I brought you food, clothes every time I came. I gave her money but no doubt she blew it all on drugs. I did what I could.”
“Bullshit,” Chelsea spits.
“If I could have taken you away, given you a better life, I would have. But I couldn’t.”
“Why? What so important you couldn’t help a vulnerable child?”
“If I could go back, I would have done things so differently,” he admits.
“But you can’t, so tell me, why? Why couldn’t you be the man that I needed?”
“Your mother was my student. Admitting you were mine, it would have exposed our affair and I couldn’t risk my career. It was the only thing I had.”
Shaking her head, Chelsea rubs her hands over her face.
“Your job? Your fucking job. You left me there, knowing exactly what she was doing, what the men were capable of because of your fucking job,” she screams, her body visibly trembling with her anger. “Those men they…” She shudders as the memories hit her. “You need to leave. You need to leave and never come back. I’m not interested in anyone who could do that to me or any other child. Not doing anything makes you as bad as them. No, do you know what, it makes you worse. You actively left me there. Left me there to be neglected and abused. You’re a fucking monster, just like them.”
“No, Rose, please.”
Rose?
“That’s not who I am. That girl, that one you abandoned, is long gone. I’m no longer that weak and vulnerable child that you forgot about. My name is Chelsea, Chelsea Fierce and I will not forget about all of that, everything you have done or failed to do, just because you’ve now decided to try to make amends for all your wrongdoings.
“I don’t need a father. I’ve got the most incredible parents now who have given me everything you failed to. You’re too late. I don’t need you.”
The tension in the room is heavy as they continue to stare at each other. The weight of Chelsea’s words pressing down on all of us.
“You’re right. About all of that, you’re right. I just needed to…” he sighs. “I needed to see you. To know that despite all my mistakes that you survived.”
“Yeah, I survived. I’m fucked-up beyond belief, but I survived.”
Both her mom and dad gasp at her words, both of them obviously wanting to argue but wisely they keep their mouths shut.
“Please, R—Chelsea. I need—” She cuts him a scathing look and he backs down. “O
kay, I’m going to go. I’m going to leave this here, just in case you ever want to reach out, even if it’s to yell at me. I’d really like to get to know you, if you’d ever consider giving me the time of day.” He drops a business card on the table. The room is so silent the sound of it hitting the glass is like a gunshot through the house.
He turns to Honey and Derek. “Thank you for allowing me to do this, welcoming me into your home. I know it’s more than I deserve.”
With one last look at his daughter, he walks from the room and soon after the house.
The second the front door slams. Chelsea breaks.
The three of us rush to her, thankfully I get to her before her parents and gather her up in my arms as she cries.
I move us to the couch and sit down with her on my lap.
Glancing at her parents, I find a similar look of guilt on their faces that was on Greg’s not so long ago.
They think they did the wrong thing. And although I understand, I can’t help but think that it needed to happen.
He’s been weighing on Chelsea’s mind since she first saw his truck, she needed to know the truth, no matter how painful it might be.
Long agonizing minutes pass as we all wait for Chelsea to calm herself down.
As I rub my hand up and down her back, her mom goes to make us all some coffee.
Eventually, she pulls her head from the crook of my neck and wipes the tears from her cheeks.
“I’m sorry,” she says weakly.
“Oh, sweetie. You’ve got nothing to be sorry about,” Honey soothes.
“I should have told you about him following me.”
“He told us before you came back.”
“Is he really my father?”
They both nod. “Yeah. It seems that he’s been looking for you for a while. I know it’s easy to say, but I really do think he wants to try to make amends.”
Chelsea blows out a shaky breath.
“You have no idea what it was like,” she says quietly. “The things I’ve told you all, they’re just the tip of the iceberg.”
“We know, sweetie. And we won’t tell you what to do here. If you decide to never see him again, then we’ll respect your decision, he will too. He just had to try.”
She nods, holding me a little tighter as she falls silent once again.
“I hate that he can take me right back there as if it was yesterday.”
No one speaks. Not a single one of us can take any of that away, make it any better. Although I really fucking wish I could.
After long excruciating minutes, Honey attempts to lighten the mood with a subject change.
“Did you two have a nice weekend?”
“Yeah, it was amazing,” Chelsea says.
“I’m glad you’ve sorted things out.”
“We have. This is it now, right?” she asks, her big eyes looking up at me.
“It is.”
“Well, welcome to the family then, I guess,” Derek says, lifting his mug in our direction.
“We’ll leave you to it.”
Derek and Honey take their coffee and close the door behind them.
Chelsea snuggles back into me and breathes me in. The move, the knowledge that she feels safe in my arms like this makes my chest ache.
“I love you, Chelsea,” I whisper into the top of her head.
“I love you too.”
39
Chelsea
I can only assume that somehow Shane managed to carry me out to the pool house because when I wake a while later, that’s exactly where I am.
Thankfully, the second I crack my eyes open, I find him sitting beside me playing on his phone.
Reaching out, I place my hand on his thigh and squeeze.
“Hey, how are you feeling?”
“I’m fine,” I say, although the memories of what happened when we got back here aren’t far away, nor are the images of my past that I try to keep locked in a little box in my head.
“You don’t need to put on a brave face for me, baby.”
“I know. I just… I don’t know what else to do right now. Talking about all that, it just makes it all come back… even after all this time, it’s so raw.”
He slides down until he’s lying on his side facing me.
“You know you can tell me anything and I won’t think any different of you, right?”
I nod, the size of the lump in my throat making it impossible to say any words.
He reaches out, wrapping his hand around the back of my neck and squeezing possessively. I love it so much, a smile starts to twitch at my lips.
“So, you were called Rose?” Hearing the name makes my spine stiffen. I always hated it. I don’t think I’ve ever been as happy as the day my parents told me that I could change it.
To me, Rose signaled someone who was weak, defenseless, and that wasn’t who I was by the time Honey and Derek took me in. I was stronger, braver, I could look after myself to some extent. I was fierce. Or at least I wanted to be. Finding out that was their last name was the first time I realized that I was where I belonged.
It didn’t take me all that long to settle on a new name. The second Chelsea hit me, I knew it was right. Chelsea Fierce was the perfect name for the new me. The girl who took no shit, gave zero fucks and got everything she wanted.
It was great until I realized those things didn’t really make me happy. I isolated myself from everyone, put walls up even with those who were meant to be my friends. I see that now, and I vow to never allow myself to fall back into that old life. I’ve got Shane now, and hopefully a real friend in Rae. Things are definitely looking up.
“Yep. That’s what the woman who pushed me out decided I should be called. She probably couldn’t spell anything longer.” It’s meant to be a joke, but the expression on Shane’s face tells me he finds the whole thing anything but funny.
“It’s pretty, but I can’t imagine calling that. You’re definitely a Chelsea.”
“I agree. Although I didn’t lose it completely. I’m now Chelsea Rose. I figured that my past was always going to be a part of me, so I may as well embrace it to some extent.”
“Although it’s horrible, hearing just some of the things you experienced makes me feel murderous, it did make you who you are. And I, for one, think you’re pretty incredible.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
We stare at each other for the longest time. No words are said, they’re not needed. That connection I craved is right there, and it’s everything I need.
“Are you hungry?”
“Is that a serious question?” I ask with a laugh.
“Your mom came down to ask if we wanted to join them for dinner. You were asleep, so I declined. Thought we could order pizza or something. What?” he asks when I fall silent.
“I kind of fancy going out. We’ve been inside the whole weekend.”
“Okay. What do you want to do?”
Thirty minutes later, we’re both changed and heading out of the pool house.
We embark on the long walk from my parents’ house to the seafront. The sun is setting, casting a stunning orange hue all over the bay as the moon makes an appearance for the night.
We stop at a diner and order takeout slices of pizza. We steered clear of Aces end of the beach, knowing the chances of bumping into someone from school would be high. I don’t want to avoid them really, but equally, I want to keep Shane to myself while I can. I’m not ready for our weekend to be over.
“How are you feeling?” Shane asks once we’ve both finished eating.
We’re sitting on the sea wall, our legs dangling over with the sand below, watching the waves crash in.
“Honestly, I have no idea. I always assumed that my dad was just some random guy who donated his sperm. I didn’t think I had a father, as such, let alone one who was present in my early years.”
“Did you mean what you said about not wanting anything to do with him?”
Did I? I think ba
ck to what I said to him and I wince. My words might have been true, he shouldn’t have left me there, but now some time has passed, and I feel less ambushed by the whole thing, I know that the situation probably wasn’t that simple. Things rarely are.
My biological father taking me in his arms and carrying me away from hell was a fantasy I had many times as a child. I imagined him being some wealthy businessman who desperately wanted me but for some reason couldn’t get to me. It was one of the stories I formulated in my head to escape my reality. Sadly, that one, nor any of the others ever materialized and when I was taken away, it was by the state and I was dumped in some kids home, not a wealthy man’s penthouse.
I sigh. “I don’t know.”
Reaching over, he takes my hand and lifts my knuckles to his lips.
“Well, whatever you decide. I’m here for you.”
A sob erupts from my throat without warning.
“Chels?”
“I’m okay. You just really don’t know how much that means to me.”
I wipe away the tear that drops before he notices and breathe in a deep breath.
I don’t deserve this. I don’t deserve him. But fuck, I’m going to do everything I can from now on to keep him.
“I can come with you, it might soften the blow,” I offer as Shane puts his sneakers on the next morning, ready to go home and face the music with his father.
“No, it’s okay. Just be here waiting for when I get back. There’s a good chance I’ll need you.” His eyes darken as he says the words and my insides clench with desire.
As much as I hate it when he argues with his dad, I can’t deny that it fires him up in the perfect way and I do love helping to take his mind off it after.
“How do you want me?” I say in what I hope is a seductive voice.
“Hmm… in my jersey with nothing beneath.”
“Done. Message me when you’re leaving.”
Standing, he stalks toward me. “I’ve changed my mind. I think I’ll stay and take that right now.”
“As much as I want to agree. You need to do this. The last thing you want is it hanging over your head during the holidays.”
FIERCE: A High School Enemies to Lovers Romance (Rosewood High Book 4) Page 32
