Alex actually got out of the truck before Angel did. Angel sat there debating if he should call her. She’d said she couldn’t be texting. Were they at the movies or something? He let his head fall back and groaned. Alex was right. How stupid was he? Breakfast and then a movie? That was practically a date!

~*~

Sarah

The remorseful expression on Sarah’s mom’s face was not what Sarah had expected when she dropped the news about her dad looking for her. Luna’s expression only got worse as Sarah filled her in on everything Sydney had told her he’d said.

With her heart beating wildly, Sarah kept waiting for her mom to interrupt her and tell her it wasn’t true, but she didn’t. Instead, she brought her hands to her mouth and shook her head.

“It’s not true, is it?”

Her mom motioned for her to take seat at the kitchen table where she sat, but Sarah refused. “No, first tell me if it’s true,” she asked, her heart rate spiking as the feelings of betrayal sunk in.

Had her mom really made such a selfish decision and kept it from her all these years?

“It’s complicated, Sarah.”

“What’s complicated?” Sarah demanded, the warm tears blurring her eyes. “Either you lied to me or you didn’t.”

“I was protecting you, honey. Sit down and I’ll explain.”

Sarah stared at her mom, remembering she’d decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. She tried her hardest to compose herself because there was still the possibility that her mom did have a good reason for depriving her of the opportunity to knowing her father without at least giving her the choice. Maybe all those years as a child she’d secretly wished her father would magically appear and save her and her mom from their struggles were not all for nothing.

She took the seat across from her, almost afraid to know the truth. What had her mother been protecting her from that was so bad she was probably never going to tell her about it if she hadn’t found out on her own?

Her mom reached out for Sarah’s hand, and Sarah gave it to her, needing to feel the comfort of her touch. She began telling Sarah about growing up in a slummy neighborhood, her domineering stepfather, and how she’d become rebellious and reckless at a young age. She met Sarah’s father at a club she wasn’t even supposed to be at because she was underage—a minor even. But in that neighborhood, just like all the liquor stores that sold alcohol to minors, the clubs were known to let underage girls in as long as they dressed the part and at least looked older. Her mom had said she and her friends did, so they easily got in.

“It’s also why, when I first met your father, he wasn’t aware of how young I was. He was twenty-two, and I wasn’t even seventeen at the time. I lied and told him I was eighteen. He bought it, and we started seeing each other. I had to be sneaky because my parents, but especially my stepfather, would never allow it. There were also things I didn’t know about your father. He dealt drugs and had been in a gang for years. Before I found all that out, I thought I was in love, and we became intimate. Months later when I confided in my mom that I was pregnant and wanted to keep you, my stepfather had your father arrested for statutory rape. It was only then that everything about his past surfaced. He had arrest warrants for things he’d done years earlier: theft, burglary, and vandalism. I knew then he was the not the kind of man I’d want in my life or yours, and I was actually glad he went to jail, though I did agree to sign paperwork stating that it all had been consensual.”

She took a deep breath and then a drink from the tea she’d been sipping on when Sarah first approached her with the news of her father looking for her. Suddenly Sarah needed something to drink too. As much as she felt better now that she knew more, she was still trying to make sense of it all. Her mother could’ve still told her the truth.

Sarah stood up, unable to sit anymore, and told her mom she was getting water. Her mother seemed grateful for the break. On her way back to the table with her bottle of water, Sarah’s phone rang. She sent it to voice mail when she saw it was Angel. No way was she interrupting her mom now, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to explain it to him quickly. She’d just have to call him back when she and her mother were done.

Setting the bottle of water back down on the table, Sarah remained on her feet, feeling too antsy to sit as her mother continued. Basically, her mother’s stepdad had told her the only way she could continue to live with them was if she gave up the baby for adoption because they couldn’t afford another mouth to feed. Sarah’s mom refused and moved out when Sarah was born. A few months after Sarah was born, her father, who was now out of jail, tracked her down at her friend’s house where she was staying temporarily. He wanted to be a part of her and Sarah’s life, a fact that had Sarah suddenly choking up again.

“I knew it was a bad idea to continue with him. He lived a dangerous life, and I didn’t want any part of it, but he promised me he was straightening out. He’d been out for months and since then had found a job doing construction. He even had his own apartment and wanted us to come live with him.” Her mom shook her head with a puckered brow. “I was young, naïve, and desperate. I knew I couldn’t stay with my friend much longer. Her family had agreed to let me live there just until I could get set up at a shelter for teen moms. Living with him at the time seemed like a better alternative, so I agreed.”

What her mom told her next broke her heart. After only a few months of living with him, she found out that not only was he seeing other women on the side but he wasn’t actually working and he was still dealing. When she confronted him about it, he asked her if she really thought he could afford all the things he’d been buying her and Sarah with a so-called construction job—one given to someone just recently released from jail. As for the other women, his only response to her mother had been that they meant nothing to him. Then he was arrested again.