his little girl // jiley

Chapter XXXIII

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C H A P T E R
T H I R T Y   T H R E E
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| a u t h o r s n o t e |

hey! so i'm going to hold off on skipping forward in time, but in a few chapters I probably will :)

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Hazels POV

I WALK INTO the kitchen the next morning, and I'm still mad at dad from last night. It isn't fair he won't tell me about my mom. I'm only 6, but I'm not an idiot.

Dad looks up at me from his phone. "'Morning," he mutters. Good to know he's mad too.

I make a small uninterested noise to acknowledge him but I don't say anything. I stand on my tiptoes to grab the cereal box. I hate being small. I make myself a bowl of cereal and then sit down at the table.

"Can you tell me now?" I say to Daddy. He sighs. "You said in the morning. It's the morning."

"Oh, give over, Hazel—"

"Dad, I want to know!" I insist. He's being so unfair!

"Hazel! If I say I'm not telling you, I'm not telling you!" Dad yells.

"You have to! She's my mom!"

"Hazel, stop." He seethes.

"No! I want to know now!" I yell, on the verge of a childish tantrum. He rolls his eyes.

"This isn't fair." I state.

"Well, I'm your dad. What I say goes." He's obviously trying to stay calm, but his attempt is failing miserably.

"But what if what you say isn't fair?"

He looks even angrier than I've ever seen him. "Hazel, be quiet now."

"But I just want answers!"

"Well you aren't going to get them!" He roars. Daddy never really yells at me. Anger bubbles inside of me, and simultaneously tears well up in my eyes. I get up and storm out.

Rileys POV

I sigh when I hear the shouting from the kitchen, and when I hear Hazels door slamming shut, I go into the kitchen myself.

James is bursting with anger. "I can't believe her! She's six years old, why does she thing she can just demand things?!"

I try and soothe him but he doesn't calm down. He's yelling at this stage. "I'm not telling her anything! She doesn't need to know. She doesn't need to know anything!" He stops yelling suddenly and tears run down his face. "Ugh. But she has to." He says quietly, his voice thick.

I hug him without saying anything. We stay hugging for a while. I can tell he's crying. I haven't really seen him crying this much. Maybe that time he broke his leg, when he was 14, but that's it, really.

"Do you want me to talk to Hazel?" I ask him gently. He nods.

"Yeah. Probably best." He says. He smiles slightly to lighten the mood. I hug him once more and then head to Hazels room.

I'm smart and I knock first, but when she doesn't reply, I just walk right in. She's sitting on her bed casually, reading a book.

"Hazel?" I say. I sit down on her bed. "You ready to apologise to your dad?"

"Me? Apologise to him? Not until he tells me." She says stubbornly.

"Hazel, he wants to tell you, but you have to understand that it's hard for him to talk about it, okay?" I say softly. She sighs and nods.

"Okay," she says. "But please tell me more when I'm older?"

"Yeah, of course we will. I swear."

I hear Lydia crying across the hall and I get up to go and tend to her, and Hazel gets up to follow me, into my room where I have Lydia's crib.

I pick Lydia up and rock her. Hazel sits on my bed and asks to hold her. I smile because I know how much Hazel is enjoying having a little sister, even though she said herself that she would prefer a brother because she would play with him more.

I carefully place Lydia in her arms and Hazel holds her, smiling down at her. Even though Hazel isn't my actual daughter, I love her as if she is, even if that wasn't my initial thought about her.

James walks in then. Well, he doesn't really come in, more just watching from the door. He cleaned up a bit but you can still see that he was crying. But he smiles.

"Hazel, I'm going to the studio," he says. "Coming?"

Hazel nods and smiles. I take Lydia back and nurse her myself, and Hazel runs over to James and goes with him. Before James walks away he winks at me. I laugh and shake my head.

Then I hear the door slamming shut. That's the thing with kids; arguments end in minutes. Then it's all fine. "Well, Lyd, I guess it's just you and me." I smile down at my daughter. I guess this is my family now.

But I always think that we're missing someone... like Jacob. Lydia's twin brother... I didn't even meet him and I miss him so much. So I guess our family will never be perfect.

But perfects overrated.