Darkness Before Dawn

him anxiously, waiting for him to tell his story. When he looks at me and exhales, I shift to pay him closer attention.
    "Benny had a plan and it backfired on him. He came into the house thinking he was gonna take me. Your mom got defensive and started screaming at him. She and Benny were close at one point, if you can believe that. Heartless bastard," he mutters under his breath before continuing, "I tried to keep her out of it, but your mom always did what she wanted when she wanted. Shit got out of control, shots were fired, Benny was drunk as fuck and one hit her." Liam's eyes grow sad as he recalls the night.
    "Did you forget I met Benny?" I ask angrily. "He's a monster! He...he would've killed me without thinking twice. Shit, he TRIED to kill me!"
    "If he wanted to kill you, he would've killed you, Blake," Liam says.
    Cole gets up from his seat beside me and crouches down in front of Liam, looking directly at him. "You don't know what she's been through, so you don't get to talk to her like that. You don't get to sit here and defend the man that murdered her mother and almost killed her. You don't get to do anything. As the matter of fact, consider this a gift from me to you, because you don't get to speak to her ever again. She may have come from you, but she's nothing to you."
    Liam's eyes widen as Cole's words seep in. "You can't keep me away from my own daughter!"
    "WHY DIDN'T YOU FUCKING LOOK FOR HER? WHY DIDN'T YOU LOOK FOR HER WHEN SHE WENT OFF TO COLLEGE, IF NOT AT MAGGIE'S? YOU'RE A FUCKING DEAD PRICK YOU'RE DEAD TO HER!" Cole screams, the veins in his neck more prominent the louder he gets.
    I can only sit here staring blankly at the spectacle in front of me, refusing to side with my birth father in anything because at the end of the day, Cole is right. Liam didn't want me then, so it doesn't really matter now.
    "And you," Cole says, turning around and pointing at Camden. "You're dead to me. My only family is Blake. PERIOD. Let's go."
    I will myself to move, but can't. I'm still in shock, just staring.
    "Baby, please get up," Cole whispers.
    I blink at the men a couple of times before looking up at Cole, who is looking at them as well as he grinds his jaw. He tears his eyes off of them and looks down at me, noticing that I haven't moved. He tilts his head, his green eyes laced with pain, anger, and concern. "Do you need me to carry you, baby? Are you okay?"
    "I think I'm okay," I whisper back, standing on shaky feet as I wave my goodbye to Liam.
    "You're just gonna let him boss you around like that?" Liam asks, bewildered.
    "He's right. Everything he said is right," I reply quietly with a shrug.
    Liam raises an eyebrow. "I guess the similarities are only skin deep. Your mother would've never let me speak for her," he muses.
    I grab Cole's forearm to keep him from moving forward and take a long, deep breath. "Thanks for that bit of information. Maybe if you had been there for me twelve years ago, I would've made a note of it. You weren't, though. I know nothing about you, nothing about my mother, and you know nothing about me, so you shouldn't make assumptions. If I had to make my assumptions about you, I would pretty much say what Cole already said about you. You're a coward for being too scared to go get his own daughter, a deadbeat for going on with your life with your new family not giving her a second thought, and a loser for even pretending that you missed me to begin with. So yeah, I can speak for myself, but I don't have anything nice to say to you. And since the people that DID raise me taught me how to be a lady, I was going to let you off the hook. Now that you got me started though, you wanna get to know me? Fuck you, because the only man I need in my life is the one standing beside me, like he always has been."
    I grab Cole's hand before Liam or anybody can say another word and pull him toward the door where we came from, glaring at Camden as I pass him. I stop in front of Brian and examine his face, his glossy eyes, and take a breath.
    "Maybe we can get to know each other someday," I offer.
    He smiles warmly. "You're always welcome here, baby girl," he says before pulling me into a hug. "Don't let him fool you, your pops did miss you. I'll get to the bottom of that, but I'm glad you put him in his place. Don't believe everything you hear, love. Not even from him. Not even from Shelley. I did try, I did look for her—I sent her flowers with those kids every time I knew they were going