Unmistakable
Authors: Gigi Aceves
(Able Series, Book #2)
By
Gigi Aceves
UNMISTAKABLE
Copyright ©2014 by Gigi Aceves
All Rights Reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in whole or in part by any means.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events portrayed in this book are the product of the author’s imagination or are either fictitious or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Editor:
Angie Davis
Cover Design:
Heather McNeal
Interior Design and Formatting:
Fifteen years ago
As my mother’s soft fingers caress my cheeks, her words forever stay in my heart…they’re the only link I have of her.
“I hope, someday, I’ll see you again. I hope when I do, you’ll have the ears to listen, the arms to accept, but most of all, I hope you’ll have the heart to forgive me. It’s not that I don’t want you, it’s that I can’t have you. It’s best if you stay with your dad, but please know this, my heart will forever be full of hope. The hope that someday, in God’s time, we’ll meet again.”
Abruptly, I sit up, clutching my hands on my chest after waking up from yet another dream about my mother. My ten year old body shakes with great longing, a sadness that leaves me broken. It leaves me with a void as big as the universe and as deep as the depths of the darkest abyss. I wish my dad had never given me her stupid goodbye letter on my tenth birthday. Maybe, I wouldn’t have these stupid dreams about her. Her words
haunt
me. They make my heart
bleed,
making me empty inside…but
hope
…hope fills my bleeding heart back up, and maybe…just maybe…someday…
love
…love will transform my battered heart to its original form.
Dreams…my dreams come and go. They dance in my mind like a song, rocking me to sleep, only to be woken up, and the feeling of emptiness washes over me. I wish I’d never dreamt of my mother saying things that make me wish she’d pick me, instead of leaving me. So, the dreams…the dreams go on…in my dreams my mother loves me…in my dreams she picks me.
I make my way to the kitchen to get a glass of milk. As I walk back, I hear my dad and stepmother in my dad’s study. They’re talking about how to get rid of me, and my nightmare begins even when my eyes are wide open. As hard as I try to forget where I am, to forget what I’m feeling, to deny what I’m hearing, I can’t. How can I? I’m glued to where I stand, hearing every single thing that no child should ever hear.
“I’m telling you, John; we need to get rid of her. It’s not going to help you with your campaign to be Governor. She’s acting up in school. Just last week, I received two phone calls from the principal’s office. You, certainly, don’t need negative publicity,” My stepmother’s evil tone makes my skin crawl.
My dad’s loud and frustrated groan keeps me from moving, “Tessa, we can’t do that! How many times am I going to tell you, getting rid of her isn’t on the table?”
Getting rid of her? Am I a piece of garbage that can be thrown away? Why do I feel as if I’m a jar of peanut butter on a conveyor belt to be easily be put back in the return pile? Is this how a father should love his daughter?
“It didn’t stop you from getting rid of the other one. Remember the end game, John. I’m through listening to you. If you don’t do as I say, I will tell her! Is that something you want? She’ll hate you; if she doesn’t already.”
The chair screeching, and it hitting the floor makes my heart beat faster than it ever has. I want to leave, to run to the safety of my room, but I can’t. I want to know every gory detail; I want to hear every painful word that will come out of my stepmother’s evil infested mouth.
“What do you mean ‘if she doesn’t already’? What have you been telling her? Tessa, so help me. My mistake was listening to you the first time. I’m not making that same mistake, again,” My dad’s loud voice bounces off the walls of our cold, loveless house.
“You’re not the only one who makes the decisions here. I’m just as much a part of this as you are. We planned it this way, remember? We got married because both our families are influential. I forgave your first indiscretion when you got someone pregnant, but you didn’t learn. Like an idiot, you fathered another bastard with the same woman! I’m done!”
Nothing, but silence from my dad. It’s almost deafening. The witch takes my dad’s silence as a green light to spew another gallon of the bile from her mouth.
“Get.rid.of.her! I don’t know why I even listened to you. I know you said keeping her would be good PR for your campaign. Of course, it’ll pull on the heart strings of women voters. ‘Oh poor John, re-elect him because he saved his love child from getting aborted by his whore, and his wife, lovingly, accepted the bastard child. Besides being a good Mayor, he has a heart of gold.’ Enough of that bullshit! She’s a nuisance, just like her whore of a mother.”
My world seems to topple down like a pile of Jenga when I hear the evil witch say my dad fathered another child. Do I have a sibling somewhere? All along I thought my mother didn’t want me, and that’s why I’m here. All along, I thought my dad wanted me…that he loved me, but the honest truth is, all this time…I’ve not been loved by anyone.
My dad’s pained voice halts my scrutiny of my life, “I can’t do it again, Tessa.”
The witch’s laughter doesn’t make my skin crawl, anymore. In fact, it just makes my blood boil. However, what came out of her mouth next makes me see red, enough to make me wish for God to strike her where she stands. I want her dead.
“You’ll suck it up as before. You’ve been a successful Mayor. The next stop is Governor, then Senator, and hopefully, the Presidency; but if you continue this idiotic plan you have, you may as well kiss your dream goodbye. Let me make this abundantly clear, I’ve invested time and money to put you where you are. I’ll make you and your family bleed for every dollar if you don’t stick to the plan. I will make your life miserable! I’ll make you wish you were dead.”
I look at the door separating me from my dad, silently begging for him to rescue me, to grab me, take me in his arms, and leave this place. To choose me…but he doesn’t. To love me…but of course, he doesn’t. Instead, he says the words…words that cut deep…words that destroy the very essence of love which exists between a father and daughter…words that create a hole so big, no one can ever fill it.
After a long silence, my dad adds yet another painful condition to my already pain filled life of lies and convoluted agreements. “Fine, I’ll let her go. I’ll agree, but only if you promise me, my kids and their mother will not be harmed, that includes my entire family. If you can’t promise me that, I’m walking right now.”
Her icy tone and evil mouth spews yet another slew of venom, “Walking? You can’t just walk away. You sold your soul to the devil a long time ago, John. I’ll let you have what you want, but no communication at all. Forget them. I want her gone by tomorrow.”
I’ve heard enough, so I run to my room, straight to bed. I’ve lived my entire life in nothing but lies, pretending everything is a-okay. I’m humming, In The Arms Of An Angel by Sarah Mclachlan when I feel my bed dip, and I know it’s my dad. I wish he would remain silent, but in the same breath, I hope he utters the words my heart wants to hear.
“Baby girl, I hope, someday, you’ll have it in your heart to forgive me. I can’t undo what’s been done; it’s too late anyway. Life is full of limitations and restrictions, but what I can give you is freedom from the Hell I’ve created. You’ll have a better life living it away from me…far away from this.”
As soon as I hear my door close, I know who to call. I’m tired of all the lies, deception, and conditions. With a shaky voice and a hopeful heart, I call the one person, the one family member, who loves me unconditionally.