Dusk **UNDER CONSTRUCTION**

Chapter 12

You know how sometimes in movies the character gets shocking news and their ears ring? Yeah?

Real life's nothing like that.

Instead, my brain shuts down. I can't hear anything else that my Mother says after her shock announcement purely because my brain has decided to stop working. "Excuse me," I mutter before retreating upstairs to my room.

I gingerly shut my bedroom door before making my way over to my bed and sliding onto the ground beside it. I immediately tangle my hands into my hair, trying to find some sort of comfort, much like when my Dad calmed me down by playing with my hair.

There's a knock on the door and without waiting for my reply, the person enters. "Hey," says Thomas quietly. There's a silence "code blue?" he asks with hesitation.

I shake my head "please leave me alone," I say softly, my voice slightly muffled by my hair. I hear the door close softly a few moments later.

I sigh loudly as I pull my knees up to my chest and hug them to my quaking body. It was bad enough that I thought my Mother got into a relationship just months after my Dad died but now to find out she'd been cheating for nearly ten months?

Despite Ash and I always insisting that Dad divorce her, he refused. My Dad loved her with everything he had. He tried his best to provide her with everything she'd ever wanted in life. He'd given her the big, white, fairy tale wedding she'd always wanted, with the expensive dress and rings. And because of that, he didn't have money for much else. However, he worked day and night to buy her a house, even more so when he found out she was pregnant. Point is, my Dad was a giver and my Mother was nothing more than a filthy leech, she bled him dry. In the end, he was struggling to pay the bills, especially my medical bills, and she was constantly creaming at him because this wasn't the life he promised her, she was nothing more than a gold digger. The worst part is, if she had left him, he would have achieved his dream of being a musician. He was close to, record labels were taking interest. But no, she wanted what she wanted and that was for him to give up his dream.

And so he did.

I shakily stumble over to my wardrobe, where I pick out one of my Dad's old shirts. Pulling it over my head, I take note that it still smells like him, like the sea water and wood fires. I always thought it was a strange combination, but it suited him perfectly. But soon, that unique smell will fade away, his shirts will no longer smell of him. I can't help but shed a tear at that thought.

I sit back against my bed, my knees once again drawing to my chest, almost as if I'm subconsciously trying to keep myself in one piece. I pull my phone out of my pocket and immediately go into my voice mails, scrolling back to two months ago.

Pulling my phone up to my ear, a watery smile crosses my face as I hear his voice for the first time in months. "Hey May!" his deep voice fills my ear, I can hear the smile in his voice. "Just calling to say I picked up them cinnamon doughnuts you asked for. I'm so proud of you, sweetheart, you haven't had them since-"he stops, as if he can't say the words. "I love you, May, I'll be home soon."

The waterworks immediately start with that last sentence. He won't be home, he'll never be home. My home is where my family is but now my family's six feet under, never to see the light of day again.

I know what my Dad would say if he was here. He would say that my Mother was my family but that was him, ever the optimist. He believed she would change but what he didn't realise is that she didn't want to change.

My Mother may have been my blood relative but she will never be my family. Family doesn't deliberately hurt their family, family doesn't make each other feel unloved and family doesn't make their family wish they were dead.