“We need to talk.”
I hold the phone closer to my ear. “Who is this?”
“Kid, it’s me. It’s your dad.”
Chapter 23
My phone slips out of my hand, and I hurry to pick it up.
“Dad? It’s really you?”
“You alone, kid?”
“Yeah. I’m in my room.”
“You can’t tell anyone I called. You understand?”
“Yeah. Dad, what’s going on? Where are you?”
“I’m on the road. Not sure where I’ll end up.”
“Brock said you were in rehab, but he wouldn’t tell me where.”
“It was out by Palm Springs. I spent a few weeks there, then got tired of it.”
Which is another way of saying he’s drinking again, and probably doing drugs.
“So you’re not in LA?” I ask. “What about your apartment?”
“It’s gone. I’m not going back there.”
“You could livehere. In La Jolla. We could get a small apartment. I’ll get a job to help pay rent.”
“Sorry, kid, but it’s not going to happen. You need to stay where you’re at.”
“Why? I hate it here. Dad, please, let me stay with you. I don’t even know these people. Brock. Braden. Trystan. They’re not even family. Why are you making me stay here when I could be with you?”
“What do you mean they’re not family?”
I hesitate, then decide to just tell him. “I know you were adopted.”
“Who told you?”
“Braden. He overhead Brock talking on the phone.”
“To who? Who was he telling this to?”
“I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that Brock and his kids aren’t my family. I’ve never even met them before I moved here, so why are you making me stay with them?”
“It’s where you need to be. It’s what’s right.”
“I need to be with my dad.”
“Kid, you know I’ve never really been a father to you. I took you to the park a few times. Sent you birthday cards when I’d remember. Sent you a gift every Christmas. That’s not a father. That’s just a man who came in and out of your life. You would’ve been better off without me.”
“But you’re all I have left. With Mom gone, you’re all I have left for family.”
“Brock is your family. And those boys of his.”
