Breeder - Redneck

“Mom called today.” She squeezed my hand.

“Oh yeah, what did she have to say?” Her mom and I were not the warmest with each other. She’d had a hard time forgiving me for getting her daughter pregnant at eighteen and she didn’t even know the whole story.

“Dad.” That’s all she needed to say. My hackles rose but I kept my cool.

“What about him?”

“She wanted to know why I won’t go see him.” I looked at her to gauge her mindset. There isn’t much I deny her, and if she wanted this…

“Do you want to?” I’d try to understand if she did, but I can’t say I was happy about the prospect. We hadn’t seen or heard from him in six years and I’d like to keep it that way. We’d come up with a plan back then on how to make him pay for what he’d done without giving our secret away.

She was more worried about me than herself even though I’d been more than willing to pay for what I’d done. It would’ve meant being away from her if they sent me up, something I was sure back then would’ve killed me, but I wanted her to be proud of me. I couldn’t ask her dad to own up to his crimes, if I wasn’t willing, to do the same.

She was the one in the end who convinces me that I’d suffered enough and she didn’t need me to play the martyr, her words. In the end she’d called him and told him she was okay. I sat there and listened while she lied to him.

She told him that she’d left on her own accord because she’d learned something about him that had upset her. He believed her when she said that she’d been receiving secret messages, because he too had received the same.

She told him to call off the search and come up with a story unless he wanted her to go to the newspapers and tell them the story. I had no idea that she’d planned to that anyway. I’d still been trying to figure out how to make him pay, when she took it out of my hands.

He’d cleared things up with the cops, telling them that she’d gone off with friends and had no idea that there was a search going on for her. That her phone had been lost and that’s why no one could reach her. At least that part was true, I’d smashed her phone that first night and dropped it down a storm drain.

Once the coast was clear, she’d asked me to trust her to go back alone. it was the hardest thing I’d ever done since losing my family, but I owed her that much. I prayed from the minute she left my sight.

That night she called and told me to turn on the TV. It was all over the news. Not only the fact that he was charged with insider trading but also the fact that he’d killed my wife and son. I sat there in astonishment as they read the report I’d compiled. I didn’t even know she’d taken it.

I watched through tears as she told the reporter why she’d come forward with the story. She kept to the lie that she’d ran off when she learned the truth of what he was and even told them that she was going to marry me. According to her we’d met and struck up a relationship. She wouldn’t tell them anymore than that.

The report was enough to have the authorities looking in the right place and he was going away for a long time if not ever. That night I sat out on the porch as the sun was going down, holding my breath. She could’ve changed her mind anytime between that interview and now, but I was hoping…

I’d fallen all the way in love with her; that was never more obvious than at that moment. I tried to imagine what I would do if she didn’t come back and I couldn’t see it. I’d told myself I would let her go if it’s what she wanted but I couldn’t do it.

I was about ready to go after her when I saw the headlights coming down the little dirt lane that led to the cabin. I was off the porch and running towards her before she came to a stop. I opened her car door and pulled her out and into my arms. “Thank you, you won’t regret this I promise.” And I’d kept that promise ever since.

“Well do you?”

“Do I what?” She took a bite of her roast chicken and hummed with pleasure.

“Do you want to go see him?”

“Don’t be stupid why would I want to do that?” The tight band of restriction that had gathered around my chest eased and I breathed again.