beautifully broken:if i break 3(55)

“We had an argument, sort of, but he’s going to meet me at Lisa’s later,” he shrugs and my heart speeds up.

“Lisa’s,” I can’t help but repeat.

“Yeah. He said she has something important to tell me. I want to get it out the way before we leave,” he says, sitting down on what has been Caylen’s and my bed.

“Are you okay?” he asks concerned. I swallow the lump in my throat.

“Of course, why would you ask that?”

“Well you’ve folded that shirt over almost three times since I’ve been in here,” he chuckles. I toss the stupid shirt on the bed.

“I’ll admit my nerves are a little on edge,” I sigh. He sighs.

“This probably isn’t going to help but my dad wants to talk to us.”

“Really? He hasn’t dished out enough verbal abuse before we leave?” I ask sarcastically, grabbing another shirt of Caylen’s and folding it.

“He says he wants to apologize to you and doesn’t want us to leave on a bad note,” he adds and I can’t help but look at Chris in disbelief.

“I know my dad’s been a real prick lately,” he laughs and I nod. He’s been more than a prick.

“But that’s not the man he usually is. That’s not the dad I know. It’s just I think this Cal thing…”

“If you want us to talk to him Chris, I can do that, but the moment he says anything negative or remotely insulting I’ll be exiting the conversation,” I shrug and he smiles relieved.

“Okay.”

“Are you ready now?” he asks and grunts.

As ready as I’m going to be.

“Yeah, let's get it out the way.”

I follow Chris out the room and into the dining room. Mr. Scott is sitting at the head of the table, his hands folded but his face relatively relaxed and the hardened frown I’ve become accustomed to absent. When he sees us he even smiles and that shocks the hell out of me. Since I’ve met the man he’s never smiled at me once. I don’t know what Chris said to him after our conversation this afternoon but it really must have been something. When we’re seated he takes a deep breath, and he shifts his body weight towards me.

“First I’d like to apologize to you Lauren,” he says without a hint of bitterness or anger hidden beneath his tone. I nearly fall out of my chair.

“I have been extremely unhospitable to you since you’ve arrived,” he continues.

“Just a plain jerk,” he adds with a chuckle.

Yeah you have.

“I blamed you for things that were not your fault. I used you as someone to take my anger out on since they weren’t here for it and I am truly sorry for how I have been towards you.”

Has hell just frozen over? Who is this man sitting in front of me?

“Christopher, what you told me this morning really was a wakeup call for me. You did exactly as you should have and stood up for your wife, for her respect and I couldn’t be more proud of you,” he says putting his hand on Chris’. I can’t help but note how pleased Chris looks, how much stress seems to have poured off him just in these few minutes.

“I want you both to know that, if you choose to stay, it will be different around here on my end. I will be here to support whatever decisions that you make, but both Gwen and I would be thrilled if you chose to stay.”

So that’s what this is about. He wants Chris to stay, God forbid he steps out from under Papa’s wing.

“Well Dad that’s…”

“You don’t have to answer me now. I’ll give you both time to talk about it. I just know that one of the main reasons you’re leaving is because of the way I have been acting and I couldn’t sleep tonight if I knew that I was breaking up our family,” he says and I can’t believe my eyes when I see that Mr. Scott is actually tearing up. What in the world has just happened? He turns towards me.

“Lauren do you accept my apology?” he asks and takes my hand in his. I can’t believe this is happening. I glance over at Chris who looks like he’s about to tear up as well.

This man has been nothing but mean, nasty and cruel to me since I’ve known him, but this guy in front of me seems to not even be the same person. If Chris was his biological son right now I’d swear that DID runs in their family.

“I-I,” I stutter, not knowing what to say. I glance back at Chris who has this pleading expression on his face. How can I not give him what he wants? His happy family. If William can stop being a jerk, or at least pretend, then I can move forward, I guess.

“Of course,” I tell him and before I know it he’s stood up and pulled me into a bear hug.