We all looked around to see who would answer the door. Jacob finally got up to answer it. I just sat there waiting to start eating.
Justin didn't even care and started eating anyway to which Jason slapped him upside the head for. "But I am hungry!" Justin whined when Jason glared at him.
Jacob came back with a confused face. "Um there's no one there," he said taking his seat beside me again. Ok? "Can we eat now?" Justin asked already holding his fork in his hand.
"Sure," Jason said. The first five minutes were completely silent with only the sound of the forks clinking and chewing. I kept looking up at my dad to see that he was hardly eating at all. I don't blame him, this is really awkward.
"So Lisa-"
"It's Annalisa to you," Justin interrupted I lightly kicked his leg from under the table and he rolled his eyes. "Right, sorry," he said. "Why do you really want to be here?" Dylan asked staring at our dad before he could ask his question.
I almost choked on my food. Any blunter and he could kill by touching him. "What do you mean?" Dad asked.
"I mean, don't you think this is a little random, and late might I add?"
Everyone looked towards Dad. I saw him visibly gulp. "It is because you wanted to, right?" I asked looking at him. He looked at me. He almost seemed hesitant to answer. "O-of course I want to be here. I came here because I want to be in your lives again."
"That's what you have been saying since you got here," Dylan said.
"It's true!"
"Well, I don't think so," Justin intervened.
"Okay, okay. can we all calm down?" Jason said as Dylan and Justin were getting agitated. "Look, Jonathan, I think we can all agree that you owe a pretty big explanation," Jason said. Dad sighed. "I don't even know where to start," he mumbled running a hand through his dark hair.
"How about when you stopped being a father. Or was that too long ago to remember?" Justin asked glaring at him. No one said anything. At this point, we were all done eating except Dad who barely touched his food.
"You won't understand. I-its complicated."
"So you're saying there is a reason why you acted the way you acted?" I asked looking up at him. "Yes...and No," he said looking down. "That doesn't even make sense," Justin mumbled. "I mean there was a reason that I turned the other way when your mother was abusing you, but at the same time my pride got in the way," he said.
"Must be one huge pride," Dylan laughed bitterly. "So what's the reason?" Jacob asked. Dad opened his mouth then closed it again. "I-I can't tell you guys."
"You have got to be kidding me," Dylan said throwing his hands in the air. "I knew this would be worthless," Justin said about ready to leave the table when Dad stopped him. "Wait, there is a reason I can't tell you. I would if I could," he explained.
"Yeah, I am sure. It's like you would eat the cake if you could, you would go to the shop if you could, you would tell your children the real reason why watched them get abused if you could. Cause that's all in the same category right?" Justin said. By the end of it, he was fuming.
Jacob was about to carry him outside if he had to. "No, I am fine," Justin said sitting back in his chair just when Jacob was about to grab him. "I am really sorry you guys had to go through that at such a young age-"
"Well sorry doesn't cut it," Jacob interrupted. For the first time in a while, Jacob seemed genuinely angry. He is usually the calm and collected one. The 'Yoda' as some put it.
"Sorry doesn't cut the years of trauma and nightmares Lisa and Justin had to go through. Sorry doesn't cut the fact that Jason and I had to grow up and basically become parents at such a young age. Sorry doesn't cut the fact that you left all of your children in the hands of your abusive wife. And sorry definitely doesn't cut the fact that you left all of your children without a father."
Everyone was silent after that. My dad even seemed to have seen it coming.
"I know, I know. That's why I am trying to start here. But it seems no one except Annalisa will give me a chance," he said turning his attention to me at the last part. "Can't you see I am trying?" he asked everyone.
He almost seemed to be on the verge of tears. I really did feel sorry for him. His own kids didn't want him and for good reason. "I know it's going to be a long road till you guys can even think about trusting me, but I need to start somewhere."
"I think a good place to start, would be telling us what in the world was so important that you basically abandoned your kids?" Dylan said. Dads eyes flickered to me again, and I spotted something close to regret in his eyes.
He hung his head and sighed. "Okay, but I don't want Lisa or Justin in here for this," he said not even sparing any of us eye contact. "That's bull!" Justin exclaimed.
"Why not?" Dylan asked. "What is it that you don't want them to hear?" he pressed on. Dad glanced over at me again. "I promise, I am only doing it to protect them," he continued. "Its just better if they didn't know."
"If that's your way of building trust, you might just win the next best personality award," Justin commented. If you hadn't guessed yet, Justin deals with everything with sarcasm. "Just tell us all," Dylan said.
His eyes flickered around the table. "Okay," he sighed in defeat. "So when I first met your mother, It was under some questionable circumstances. She was already pregnant at the time-"
"Wait, so Jason isn't our full sibling?" Justin cut our dad off. Jason paled, he looked like he was about to pass out. Dad quickly shook his head. "No, no, no he is." Everyone sighed of relief. "As I was saying, your mother was pregnant when we met, I would say about 6 months-"
"So we do have a half sibling?" Justin cut him off again. Dylan rolled his eyes. "Can you please let him finish?" he said. After Justin didn't say anything Dad sighed and continued.
"Despite the fact that she was already pregnant, I still fell in love with her. We were about 22 still young, she didn't have a job, and she was pregnant so I offered to help her out. With a little help from my parents, we were able to get a small apartment together." He took a pause and continued on.
"There were some complications with the baby, and it died, it was a girl," he finished. The entire table was quiet. You could hear a pin drop. I had no clue of this, and by the looks of everyone else around the table, neither did they.
"Your mother was distraught. That was her first child and she lost it. After that, she was secluded, kept to herself and didn't really communicate with anyone. A couple of months later, her ex-boyfriend found out about it and he went crazy."
"Wait, who was her boyfriend?" Justin asked. Dylan rolled his eyes again. "Does that really matter Justin?"
"Yeah, actually what does he look like?" Jacob chimed in. Our dad thought for a moment before speaking up. "I haven't seen him in a while, but the last time I saw him he had a shaved head, a nose ring, he is very tall, and that's all I can remember," he finished.
I thought the description sounded familiar, but then again that could be anyone. Jacob and Jason nodded as if memorizing the information. "You can continue now," Justin said resting his head on his hands.
"Anyway, fast forward to after Justin was born. We already got a house, your mother and I got a job, we were doing great. That is until your mother got pregnant again. It was another boy, but there were a lot of complications during this pregnancy. The doctor told her that because she already had one miscarriage it took a toll on her."
"So we do have a half-sibling," Justin said as if realization just hit him. I physically wanted to slap him. "Justin, would you just shut up," Dylan groaned out. Jason rolled his eyes and told Dad to continue.
"Okay, well this pregnancy did go to full term and when your mother went into labor she lost the baby. We also found out though that she was pregnant with twins," Dad paused and looked at me. "You were the other child. We had no idea that there was another until your mother was already in labor."
"Wait, what your saying is that Lisa was a twin?" Jason asked in disbelief. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I was a twin. I was a twin. "What?" I mumbled. Why was I only hearing about this now? I felt a hand hold mine and looked over to see it was Jacob. I was just shocked. That was not what I expected tonight.
"After the labor, your mother was dead set on the loss of her son, your twin brother." Hearing those words made everything seem much more real. I had a twin brother. This was so much at one time. Dad continued.
"She didn't even want to meet Lisa. It was almost as if she blamed it on Lisa. I guess that was just her way of coping. Losing another child brought so many memories, that she went back into the same state she had been in years ago when she lost her first child. Don't get me wrong, it hurt me too, but it hurt your mother harder. I thought she would have gotten better over the months, but she seemed to have only gotten worse." Dad paused again, taking a deep breath.
"And that's when she started to abuse you guys. She must have taken something because she was a completely different person. She even went back to her ex-boyfriend. For the first couple of months, I had no idea what was going on. I had to work extra hard because your mother got fired. It was taking a toll on me to support the entire family on my own, and on top of that, I started to take drugs. One of the drug dealers turned out to be your mother's ex-boyfriend." He paused again and cleared his throat.
I hadn't even realized I was completely still for the entire time. My palms were sweaty, and I was pretty much frozen. This was a lot of information for me to take in. I could distantly feel Jacob rubbing a comforting hand on my knee. I wondered how he was holding up with this?
"One day he and your mother came back to the house. They were obviously wasted. The only ones home were me, Justin and Lisa. I was in the office downstairs, when I heard a scream. I went upstairs to see your mother and her ex beating Justin and Lisa. I tried to pull them off, but your mother's ex was very strong. He pulled out a gun and threaten me with your life. He said if I ever did anything about it, he would kill you all. I figured he was still hung up about his first child, although I didn't think he cared," Dad finished and wipe away a stray tear.
"I didn't want to risk your life on it, so I did nothing. I knew he had people on the inside of the police, but I just didn't know who. I have been trying to find out who they are ever since, but it's near impossible," he finished.
"So...what changed?" Jason asked. "I might have gotten a lead. I'm not sure though, and...I missed you guys. I know I didn't have a relationship with you, but at the same time, I don't regret it. If it meant that you would be safe-"
"But we weren't safe," Dylan cut him off. "I know, that's not what I meant. If it meant that he wouldn't kill you. I mean it when I say, I was and am trying my best. Every day I worked hard to find out who he was working with and who in the police force is under his payroll. That way I could bust him and he wouldn't be a threat to your safety."
"He has a lot of people, some who may be in this very neighborhood," he continued.
I tried to gather all of this information but it was too much. I had a twin, my mother lost 2 kids, she had a crazy ex who was out for us, finally finding out the reason that Dad seemed to not care for us. I was especially hung up on the fact that I had a twin. A twin brother. Just as my dad was about to say something else the doorbell rung again.
"I'll get it," mumbled. I wanted to get out of the area and clear my head. Besides I have been sitting for too long anyway. I shakily got up and went to answer the door.
I could finally look through the peephole now. Jason always told me to look through the peephole before opening the door. I couldn't before since I was too short, so he had one installed lower so that I could look through it.
So as I usually did, I looked through the peephole, but I saw no one. I opened the door and looked around only to see nothing. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. That was the second time already. Surely if they had gotten the wrong house or something it wouldn't happen twice.
I was about to close the door when something small and white caught my attention. It was a little envelope, barely visible under the welcome mat. I looked around again, before discreetly picking it up. It seemed to be brand new as if it was just placed recently.
I quickly closed the door to examine the envelope more. There was small sloppy handing writing on one side of the envelope that read 'Lisa'. I turned it over to see nothing else. I brought it inside and into the kitchen.
It was still dead silent when I got back to the kitchen. Everyone seemed to be milling everything over. Dad looked really nervous as if at any moment we would kick him out of the house and never talk to him again.
"Uum...I found this outside." I brought the envelope to the table and took my seat again. "What is it?" Jacob asked grabbing it.
"Duh, it's an envelope Jacob, are you blind?" Justin said rolling his eyes. He was in a very snappy mood. Jacob reached across the table and smacked the back of his head. "Ow, I was only answering your question," Justin said rubbing his now sore head.
"You know what I meant" Jacob mumbled whiles opening the envelope. Except there was nothing in it. He turned it over, but it remained empty. "Is this some sort of joke?" he mumbled. I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion.
"Where did you find it?" Jason asked me. "Under the welcome mat, I barely saw it." I turned around to look at Dad. "Do you know?" I asked. He shook his head no. "No, its strange," he had a look on his face that told me otherwise.
I nodded letting it drop. There was enough out in the open as it was. I looked over at the clock to see that it was pretty late. I almost forgot that we had school tomorrow. Justin yawned out loud making me yawn next.
I guess it's true when they say yawning is contagious. Jason looked at the both of us. "You guys should probably get to bed," he said getting up from the table. I glanced at Dad to see that he was already looking at me.
He stood up as well. I am guessing he would have to leave. "Get a good nights rest," he said smiling at me. I smiled back and waved to him as he left. Jason followed him out probably to exchange some words. I hope Jason will let him come back.
I went up to my bedroom and did my usual nighttime routine. With this weird evening, I almost found it absurd to go to school the next day. After about 15 minutes I got in bed. I left my door open knowing Jason or Jacob would come in to wish me goodnight.
As mentioned Jason came in closing the door behind him. He sat next to me and started massaging my scalp as I leaned my head on his shoulder. It was a soothing action that could put me to sleep in seconds. "How are you feeling?" he asked.
"I don't know. It's weird knowing all of that information now. I don't think I really absorbed all of it. There were so many things I didn't know. I even had a twin which sounds completely absurd." My mind was just in a wondering haze. This will probably all come to me tomorrow.
He started to massage my shoulders. "I know sweetie, Its a lot for me too."
"Do you believe him?" I asked. It was something I was wondering the entire night. I wanted to trust him, but I couldn't help but doubt a little of the things he said earlier. "He seemed really genuine. For the most part, I hope he wasn't lying and was telling the truth because that would explain a lot of things."
I felt myself really fighting sleep as Jason continued to massage my shoulder. "Anyway, we can continue to talk about it tomorrow. You need to get enough rest for school," Jason said. I felt him fix me in bed then tuck me in.
He leaned in and kissed my forehead. "Goodnight Princess, I love you." And with that, I was out.
~Overprotective~
Here is another update from yours truly, muah. I took your advice on quicker updates and slightly shorter chapters. I really appreciate the feedback, it really helps me as a writer to know what you guys want.
Feel free to comment on any future chapters of suggestions or comment whatever you thought about it. I know there are some suggestions that I am still working on.
Okay... So I am going to try this thing where I leave an update date in the A/N and hopefully try to post on that date. That way it will give you guys some knowledge of when I will be posting and it will be like my training wheels so that I can continue to post consistently. So with saying that I am going to try to have another chapter up by. Wednesday, April 10 or Thursday, April 11.
Let me know if you guys would like that or not.
And until next time...
xoxopeacefulwriting101