Self Inflicted

♣️Chapter TWELVE♠️

Solitaire arrived home to see her former teacher from the sixth grade, Mr. Mathews, sitting at her kitchen table. Solitaire stood before him with a puzzled look on her face. Mr. Mathews looked back at Solitaire with a smile on his face.

"Mr. Mathews?" asked Solitaire.

"Solitaire Daniels, one of the most talented students I've had," said Mr. Mathews.

Richard walked into the kitchen. He took a seat next to Mr. Mathews. "Solitaire, sit down; we need to talk."

Solitaire wondered what exactly her father wanted to talk about. She wondered if it had to do with school, but then again, Mr. Mathews was no longer her teacher. She was in the eighth grade now. What was her former teacher doing in her kitchen?

Solitaire slowly pulled out a kitchen chair and sat down.

"First of all, young lady, I don't appreciate you coming home at midnight," said Richard. "We were both sitting here waiting for you!"

"I was with Ethan," said Solitaire. Richard had gotten to know that Ethan was a good kid.

"I don't care who you were with, Solitaire. You don't come home this late on a school night," said Richard. "Anyway, I need to talk to you about something."

Solitaire looked at Mr. Mathews, who looked uneasy. He seemed to be developing sweat beads at the top of his forehead. Solitaire watched one of the sweat beads drip down the side of his face. Mr. Mathews wiped it with his right hand.

"Solitaire, when you were assaulted, Mr. Mathews was your teacher at the time," said Richard.

"Yeah, and?" asked Solitaire, wondering what this was leading to.

"Well, he was also there for me, Solitaire," said Richard.

Solitaire began to get impatient and wanted to know what point her father was trying to make.

"Solitaire, remember when I told you I was seeing someone last summer? I was seeing Mr. Mathews."

"Seeing him like just seeing him or like SEEING HIM SEEING HIM?" asked Solitaire.

"Solitaire, Mr. Mathews and I are together, and we both make each other very happy," said Richard as he grabbed Mr. Mathews's hand and held it.

Solitaire remembered when the girl she had fought with had called her father a fruitcake. She wondered if she had seen her father in public with men before. Solitaire remained silent and just stared into her father's eyes. Since when had her father been a homosexual? This was all too confusing for her. He had married her mother; he had three daughters. He was very masculine; he never gave anybody the impression that he might have been gay or bisexual. Solitaire wondered if her mother's bad behavior might have transformed her father into a homosexual.

"But... you were with my mother," said Solitaire, her voice barely a whisper.

"Yes, I loved your mother, Solitaire, but I have moved on. I love Mark now," said Richard.

"Your real name is Mark, huh?" asked Solitaire as she turned her head towards Mr. Mathews.

Mr. Mathews nodded his head at Solitaire. He seemed exceedingly uncomfortable about having this conversation with her. "Solitaire, I care about your father," said Mr. Mathews.

Solitaire never thought that Mr. Mathews would have been into men. She knew he had been going through a nasty divorce at the time, which was often taken out on his students. She remembered all the papers she had to complete by writing I will pay attention to Mr. Mathews from front to back. Solitaire finally decided to get up from her seat and head to bed. She was exhausted after all, but before she did, she remembered the pictures of her mother she had hung on the refrigerator door. Solitaire walked up to the refrigerator and grabbed the images of her mother.

"Momma sent these to me today; she's getting better. Have a good night," said Solitaire as she headed towards her room.

Mr. Mathews and Richard sat at the kitchen table in silence. They did not know what else to say to Solitaire. Richard looked at the pictures of Stephanie- Jo, the mother of his children. Richard wondered if his daughter was ashamed of him now, but he wanted to tell her the truth about his relationship with Mr. Mathews before someone else did.

"This was my wife," said Richard handing the pictures to Mr. Mathews.

"I see," said Mr. Mathews, quickly looking at the photos and placing them on top of the table.

"I think I should go home now," said Mr. Mathews as he got up from his chair.

"I thought you were spending the night," said Richard.

"I don't think that's a good idea, I mean, Solitaire just found out about us, and the little ones still don't know what's going on," said Mr. Mathews as he headed towards the door.

"Alright," said Richard. He walked Mr. Mathews to the door and kissed him on his lips.

After Mr. Mathews was gone, Richard crept into Solitaire's room. He wanted to talk to her and make sure she was okay, but Solitaire was already fast asleep.