Always ✔

46| Stay and Strengthen

Dedicated to:Books_et_Food

Thank you for being an immensely enthusiastic reader! Your support motivates me highly :)

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"I'm sorry and I believe in you and I'll always be near you, protecting you, and I will never leave you, I'll be curled around your heart for the rest of your life"

~Jennifer Egan

Logan's POV

I gaped horrendously into my stepfather, Logan Walker's eyes as he gaped back into mine. Ignoring the apologetic vibe of his countenance, my immediate reaction was a furious snarl at Claire.

"What the hell is he doing here?" I asked, completely shaken.

"There's something he wants to tell you"

Almost instantly, I snapped "I don't want to know" and turned around in haste. Anything that included my stepfather always turned out to be terrible and I wasn't taking any chances with it again.

"It's about your father!"

I stopped dead in my tracks.

What was more to tell about him? Other than the fact that he's dead and he's gone.

I took deep breaths, shut my eyes close for a minute and then, I looked at them and spotted anticipation in their eyes.

"Please Logan, hear him out" she choked a little, threatening to break down again. If it wasn't Claire and her remorse begging me to do this, I swear I would've ignored him.

"Let's stand in a corner, shall we?" my stepfather asked, ushering me to the side.

Just when I was about to go with him, mom interrupted, clutching my sleeve "He's not going anywhere. Come on son, we're getting late"

"Mrs. Walker, you don't understand how important this is!" Claire protested against my mother as I gawked at her raging self "He needs to know!"

Mom merely spoke "No he doesn't. I know exactly what you're going to say. There's no need to make situations worse than they already are"

I blinked at my mother, wondering briefly what she was hiding from me and suddenly, I wanted to know. I gripped her hand that was resting on my arm and removed it "Mom...what're you hiding from me?"

"A lot" my stepfather said.

Mom shot daggers at him and then glaring back at me, she gave me a sad smile "Nothing important. Let's go now"

But that smile...that smile hid a lot. I could say because I've been there myself. I've gone through times when I smiled at my loved ones even when my heart was a disaster and I wasn't even aware of my feelings that went haywire.

So there was no way that smile was fooling me.

"I'm sorry mom, but I want to know" I cut her off, looking at my stepfather "Let's talk"

I followed him into the corner, every step felt like an explosion of spikes on the soles of my feet. My heart ached from thinking what it was that I was about to know.

My stepfather's gray eyes buried into mine, his facade bereaved. With a deep gruffness in his voice, he spoke "First off, we need to get a few things clear. What is it that makes you hate me so much? I always try to make things better for us and something always goes wrong. Is there something I'm not doing right?"