Second Chance

Secrets

“What are you doing?” Ray asked. 

“I’m calling someone.” I growled. 

        I waited for Samantha to pick up and when she did, I got a little tense. What am I supposed to say? I found out your family secret and I have questions to ask you? This is going to be the most difficult thing I’ve probably ever done in my life. 

“Liam?” she quietly asked. 

“Hi Samantha.” I said in the most soothing voice I could. Maybe if I did that she would be a little less freaked out once I’ve said what I had to. 

“I have to talk to you about something that’s really important.” God, I hate talking to people. 

“Is everything alright?” 

“Yeah, I just have some questions. Can I come over? I think this would be better if I talked to you in person.” 

“Liam, you’re always welcome here. Are you sure everything’s alright?” She said that with such motherly concern, I wished my own mother was like that. If she was alive, that is. 

        My mother was an alcoholic her whole life. Always abusive, swearing up and down, and constantly fighting with my father. Every night I was abused, bruises and scars everywhere on my body. One night, she was at a club with her friends, and she got wasted. When I say wasted, I mean wasted. My father was watching me, since I was only 11, and he didn’t want to leave me home alone. Her friends wouldn’t bring her home and she just decided to drive herself home, and she came home, and wreaked of alcohol. My father walked up to her, and asked her what she was thinking. Her response was something I never saw coming. 

“I hate you, I hate everyone, and I hate life.”, and she committed suicide. It wasn’t a car crash, like Maddie. She had an empty bottle of tequila in her hand, held it above her head, and let go. It shattered her skull, and there wasn’t anything they could do. They said she could either be brain dead, and live, or just die. We decided to just let her go. 

        Even though she abused me every night, I still loved her. She was my mother, so it felt wrong to not love her. When she killed herself, I wasn’t surprised. It killed me that she was gone, but I didn’t cry as much as I did when I found out that Maddie was dead. I know I’m making it sound like I’m a horrible person, and believe me, I think I am. I know I am. But I want to change that. 

        As for my father, well, he’s gone too. Cancer liked him too much. Especially his brain. Over time the cancer just spread throughout his whole body. I always thought that cancer was a genetic thing, something that ran in the family. No men in our family had cancer, so I guess these things just happen. I lost him when I was 10, so about 9 years ago, and I haven't stopped thinking about him since. My whole family is gone. No siblings, and no parents. 

“Everything is okay, but it’s important that I talk to you. My friend also needs to talk to you. I’m not sure if you know him, but he knows you.”

“Who is he?” 

“He’s your sister’s husband. Ray.” 

She said nothing, and I wondered if I had said too much. 

“Samantha?” 

“I’m here.”

“Is there a certain time that I can come over?” 

“How fast can you be here?” 

“Hour and a half?” 

“Okay. See you soon.” 

        I let go of a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. That was the easy part. Now it’s time for the hard part. I have to admit, that went better than I expected. Hopefully I didn’t freak her out to much. When I mentioned Ray I think she got a little nervous, but hopefully he won’t make things awkward. This needs to happen, but it sure won’t be easy. I looked at Ray with the, we need to leave now look, and he understood perfectly. We said goodbye to Doctor Davis and left. Instead of taking both cars, we just went in mine, considering he had to be back for work after this anyway. I put on 92.3 for some music and he looked at me with amusement all over his face. 

“What?”

“You actually listen to this stuff? It’s total crap.” 

“Do you have something better to listen to?” 

        He pulled out his iPod and put on 90’s rap music. It wasn’t too bad, but I still preferred 92.3 for music. We listened to Slim Shady by Eminem, This is how we do it by Montell Jordan, and some other songs that I can’t remember. I just started to tune everything out after a while. 

When we finally pulled up to the Meyer house, anxiety filled my body like someone filling a cup with water. She was waiting at the door for us, and she froze when she saw Ray. 

“Let’s get this over with.” I muttered.

Samantha welcomed us in, and we sat on the couch. We sat in silence for a couple minutes, and I decided to start this conversation, when Ray unexpectedly piped up. 

“Long time no see Samantha.” 

“Same to you Ray. How did you two end up meeting?” 

        Ray looked at me expectantly, seeing that he didn’t want to tell the story. I told her everything, and she said nothing. Assuming shock ran through her body as much as it did mine, I told her that I had some questions. 

“You want to know who the father is, don’t you?” She said. 

“Yes.” Ray and I had said it at the same time, and that caught Samantha off guard. 

“Madeline’s father was my sister’s high school sweetheart. When she finally had the baby, he wanted nothing to do with her or the child, and took off. Neither of us have seen him since.”

“But her parents wouldn’t allow her to have a child, so what did she do?” 

“She gave the baby to me. I’m older than her by 2 years, and when I was done with school, I said I would take Madeline.” 

“Were you ever going to tell Maddie about all of this?” 

“I was going to tell her the day she died. I wanted her to know sooner, but I just didn’t know if she was ready for it.” 

“So, where’s the mother now?” I asked. 

Ray’s face fell, and I thought he was going to cry. 

“When I went home last night, she left me a note saying she was done with me, and wants a divorce. I don’t know where she is and I tried to call her, but she didn’t answer.” 

“I’m so sorry.” I said. 

He got up and stood by the window, obviously trying not to cry. I stood up and patted him on the back, and left my hand there. These past few days have been really depressing. I looked at Samantha, not knowing what to say next, and a question popped into my head. 

“What’s the father’s name?” 

“Thomas Young.” 

“Where is he now?”

“San Francisco.” 

“You ready?” I asked Ray. 

He wiped his face, that was red and damp from his tears. 

“As ready as I’ll ever be. When we go, I’m picking the music station. Deal?” 

I laughed, despite the fact that I didn’t prefer his taste, I’ll get used to it. Besides, it’s not that bad. 

“Deal.”