Lost and Found (BWWM)|Complete

🌊⚓ Chapter 12 ⚓🌊

Anthony's POV

"I know you hated me for joining the military. You hated me not because I wanted to protect others, you were never that crass. You hated me because I was leaving you. We could have done the long distance thing, but you never thought about that. Your love language is time. You don't need fancy gifts or elaborate displays of affection. By spending 2 hours with you watching your favorite movie, I could make you the happiest girl in the world."

She looks away from me because it's true.

"You wanted me to stay because you didn't believe that the relationship would last if I left."

"Both of us know that I'm a realist. I always plan for the worst, not because I believe that the worst will happen, but because I need to make sure I'm prepared either way. Long distance relationships don't always work."

"But sometimes they do."

"Yes that's true, but you left me emotionally long before you decided to leave me physically. It seemed to be one last thing to cross off your list. I felt that you were trying to let me down easy by giving me power over the demise of our relationship."

"That was never what I wanted." I said with a sigh. Looking at things from her perspective, I see why everything went to shit.

I took a deep breath and began to speak. I told her everything. The story began as a tale of a young boy and his widowed mother, and it ended with that young boy turning into a monster. It was filled with broken promises and lost dreams. It was decorated by fear and pain. But despite it all, I would never have become the man I am today without it. So in a way, I was kind of grateful.

"My mother decided to remarry once I got to high school. His name was Trent. In the beginning having Trent around was great. He would take Mom and me to fun places. We would go eat out. He even took us on a week long vacation. He was awesome, but then they got married. After the wedding everything changed. We found out that he was not the guy we thought he was. He hit me for the first time when I was 14. I had gotten into a fight at school. My mom always told me to protect those who couldn't protect themselves. I never knew what she meant by that until the very end. Anyway, he decided that since I wanted to fight, I could fight him. He broke 3 ribs and fractured my wrist. Things only got worse from there. I worked hard in school to get out of there. I told my mom what happened, but she refused to do anything about it. Later I found out that he had been beating her too. The night that I told you I was leaving, that was the night they both died."

Just telling her the story brought back all of the old memories. I could picture her there lying on the floor. I remember all the the anguish that consumed me. My mother was all that I had left, and I had failed to protect her.

"He killed her. He had consumed one too many drinks, and he went further than either of us thought he was capable of going. He stabbed her a total of 15 times. I didn't have time to grieve because he came for me next. I had already begun a bit a training, but it was all defence stances. I blocked his drunken advances and really just fought for my life. In the end, his body laid right next to that of my mother's."

She grabbed my hand as I tried to walk away.

"It was self defense Anthony. Why would you consider yourself a monster?"

I laughed a grim laugh. It left my mouth as a very harsh sound. It held no humor, only pain.

"I'm not a monster for killing that piece of shit. He deserved it. I consider myself a monster because I didn't protect my mother. If only I had stood up to him, maybe she would still be alive today."

"Anthony," she whispered as her hand came up to rest on my shoulder. I couldn't bare to see the pity in her eyes, so I refused to look at her.

"Anthony," she says again as her hand comes up to cradle my face. When I refuse to look at her still, she moves closer. She puts her other hand on my face and I have no choice but to look at her.

"I know how much you love your mother. I know that if you could have prevented her death, you would have. You mother's death was not you fault anymore than my father's was mine."

I wanted to argue that I should have known, but how could I have known? My mother would have made sure that I didn't find out. She never would have allowed me to see her pain. I also knew that Kayla wasn't just saying those words to say them, I knew that she believed them to be true.

I was just about to answer her when the phone rang. I looked at the called ID and saw Donate's name flash across the screen.

"I have to take this." I said as I walked towards the door.

Dontae had been digging into the information in the folder that was found on my desk. I wonder what he was able to find out so far.

"Dontae what do you have?" I asked as I answered the phone.

"Congratulations, you are no longer an only child. I have a 2 year old little boy sitting in my office right now who looks a lot like you. His name is Ace. I'm sending you a picture."

My phone pinged and I opened the message. When I looked at the picture, I almost dropped the phone. Staring back at me was a kid who looked just like me when I was younger.

***Author's Note: I promise to update again soon lovelies. How are you guys enjoying the story so far? What do you think will happen next? What do you think should happen next? ***