Thomas

"But there are things that need to come out of the dark now. For us to heal, we have to identify the scars."

Hearing those words, I knew that this would be the conversation. The one where we told the story from both our sides. I wasn't ready to share mine and frankly, I didn't know what to say. Both of us had our scars, deep and painful inside of our hearts. But sharing them now felt too sudden...too fast.

Yet, looking into my son's eyes that were no longer guarded from me with hate or fury, I felt like I owed this to him. I wouldn't let him down ever again and I might as well make my first step forward.

"Dakota...I know I hurt you. A lot. I should have been there but-"

"Why weren't you then?" He interrupting, cutting to the chase. Biting on the inside of my cheek, I released a sigh and ran my hand through my hair in frustration.

"Because I was too caught up in the career aspect of my life to tend to my family," I said in one quick breath. I'd let it out, admitted what Dakota already knew aloud. A small smile came on to his lips as I'd said this. He was happy - for the first time, I agreed that I'd been a total jerk.

"I shouldn't have neglected you. And I blame myself for being the reason why all our lives are screwed up now. Maybe if I hadn't...if I could go back and just change-"

"But you can't dad." My teary eyes met Dakota's sad ones as he gave me a humourless smile. "That's the cold hard truth."

Dakota was right...the emotions that reflected across his face proved that. Our lives would never be the same again.

But maybe...

Maybe we could pick the pieces that fell apart. Maybe we could put them back together again.

Oh, how I wished we could.

RATE THIS CHAPTER!

Author guidance for This exercise

This is a closed collab so only CassandraMorrow, trish and I can post. Authors please post a description of your characters somewhere where everyone can see preferably here.

Dakota- A 15 year old boy with black dyed hair, dark hazel eyes, and a huge void in his heart. He mainly keeps to himself unless talking to what few friends he has, and contains quite the temper.

Nadia - 17. Cinnamon colored hair and bright blue-green eyes. Tall and skinny. The only Christian in her family, Nadia often feels as though she must be the "family glue." As a result, she feels the need to bury her emotions inside herself and be completely strong.

Thomas - A 36 year old divorced father with dark brown eyes, sandy blonde hair accompanied by a pale complexion and a rather tall and muscular figure. Though he puts on a rather strong and intimidating demeanor, he's a broken shell of a man as Thomas blames himself as the reason for why the family has broken up. Rich and living a luxurious life, he's still not happy with what he's got and secretly hopes things will change.

updated Nov 26 '11 by myimmortal220