Not Your Average Hero

•19• anderson calloway

•Anderson•

Anderson Calloway looked down at his hands, he wasn't expecting Ashlyn to recognize him so quickly, she was only three when he divorced her mother. The witty boy with the potty mouth, who Anderson found out was named Sterling, stared at him in disbelief. The other one was unreadable.

Anderson sighed, "I'm so, so sorry." He reached to place a hand on Ashlyns', but she jolted away from it. He knew what was going to happen before she even opened her mouth. Ashlyns' face contorted so that her eyebrows were pinched together and her nose was wrinkled up, the same face her mother made when she kicked Anderson out of the house and told him to never come back.

"Sorry?" She laughed dryly, not even trying to mask her fury, "it was your decision to leave us. Mom was heartbroken. Do you know how long it took her to recover from that? She had to take care of the three of us without you." she spat, "for all I know, I don't have a father."

Her harsh words made Andersons' ears burn and his heart ache, but he took a deep breath, he understood why she felt this way. "She wasn't heartbroken over me, she's the one who kicked me out of the house, she's the reason I wasn't aloud to see my children, she's the reason why you grew up without a father." Anderson managed to keep his voice calm.

"What are you talking about?" Ashlyn asked, shaking her head.

Anderson looked at Sterling and Gold, who were watching the conversation as if it was a ping pong match. "Can I talk to Ashlyn alone, please?" He asked. Sterling left without hesitation, but Golden Sparkler remained planted beside her, hand placed firmly on her shoulder. I'd have to have a conversation with him later.

"Please? Just for five minutes." Anderson wasn't a pleader, but he felt explaining himself to Ashlyn was far more important than his image. Golden Sparkler looked at Ashlyn, checking to see if she was okay with it; to Andersons' relief, she nodded.

"Do you remember when Axel fell deathly ill?" Anderson asked once the boys were out the door; Ashlyn shook her head. "No, I suppose you were too young." He sighed, "when Axel was three, we took him to the hospital because he was in excruciating pain, ear-splitting screams of agony, a sound we never imagined could come from a three-year-old. When we got the blood work back, the doctor paused before telling us what was hurting him; I was worried they'd found out he had enhanced DNA, but that wasn't the case.

"Turns out your brother had an illness in which, was extremely rare to obtain, unless it was passed down by genetics, only, Aspen and I had no trace of it. In all honesty, I should've known. Aspens' blood type is A, as is mine, and Axels' is AB, which is only possible if there was a B in the mix. I guess I just didn't want to believe it. That was when all of my suspicions came true. That was the day your mother told me that Axel wasn't my son." Anderson felt the fury swarm inside him, he slammed his fist on the table; Ashlyn jumped at the sudden movement. "I was just, so, angry. After your mother told me who the real father was, only because she wanted to save Axel, I payed him a visit. Cadbry Smith could save Axel with his blood, but, because he didn't want his wife to know he had a son, he said no."

"Cyrus. It's not a name. It's an abbreviation, isn't it?" She commented; Anderson managed to supress his smile, Ashlyn is a clever young woman.

Anderson nodded. "Cadbry Yuri Ruk Uther-Smith." He hissed. "At the time, it was six years since I faked the death of Carmine Wind, but at that moment, all that anger towards your mother, towards Cadbry, towards myself for not realizing sooner, I just snapped."