Too Far 02 - Never Too Far

turned and walked out without another word.

Blaire

    I hadn’t been asleep very long when the phone rang. It was the middle of the night and only a few people had my number. My stomach knotted up as I reached for my phone. It was Rush.
    “Hello,” I said almost afraid of what he’d called to tell me.
    “Hey, it’s me.” His voice sounded like he’d been crying. Oh god… please don’t let Nan be dead.
    “Is she okay?” I asked, hoping that this time God had actually heard my prayer.
    “She’s awake. She’s a little disoriented but she knew me when she opened her eyes so her memory is good.”
    “Oh thank God.” I sat down on the bed and decided I needed to try this praying thing a little more often.
    “I’m sorry, Blaire. I’m so sorry.” His voice was hoarse. I could hear the pain laced in his words and I didn’t have to ask what he meant. This was it. He just couldn’t say it.
    “It’s okay. Just take care of Nan. I’m really glad she’s okay Rush. You may not believe that but I’ve been praying. I wanted her to be okay.” I needed him to believe me. Even if there was no love lost between Nan and I she was important to him.
    “Thank you,” he said. “I’m coming home. I’ll be there no later than tomorrow night.”
    I wasn’t sure if this meant he wanted me gone by then or would we’d do our goodbyes in person. Running would be so much easier. Not having to face him. It hurt bad enough on the phone. Seeing his face was going to be so hard but I couldn’t let it destroy me. I had our baby to think about. This wasn’t just about me anymore.
    “I’ll see you then,” I replied.
    “I love you.” Hearing the words hurt more than anything else. I wanted to believe he did but it wasn’t enough. The love he might feel for me wasn’t enough.
    “I love you too,” I replied and hung up the phone before curling into a ball and crying myself to sleep.

    The doorbell rang just as I was getting out of the shower. I grabbed the clothes I’d laid out to wear and quickly got dressed before wrapping my hair in a towel and hurrying downstairs.
    When I opened the door and saw my father standing there I wasn’t sure what to think. Had Rush sent him to get rid of me? No. Rush wouldn’t do that. But why was he here?
    “Hey, Blaire. I, uh, came to talk to you.” He didn’t look like he’d slept in days and his clothes were rumpled. Seeing the daughter he did love in the hospital must have been hard on him. I pushed that bitterness away. I wasn’t going to think about that. He was Nan’s dad too. At least he was there for her now even if he’d screwed her over the first part of her life.
    “What about?” I asked, not moving to let him in. I wasn’t sure there was anything he had to say that I wanted to hear.
    “It’s about Nan… and you.”
    I shook my head. “Don’t care. I’m not up for hearing anything you have to say. Your daughter woke up. I’m glad she didn’t die.” I started to close the door.
    “Nan isn’t my daughter,” he said. The only words that would have stopped me from slamming the door in his face. I let his words sink in as I slowly opened the door back up. What did he mean Nan wasn’t his daughter?
    I just stared at him. This made no sense.
    “I need to tell you the truth. Rush is going to tell Nan when she’s ready. But I wanted to be the one to tell you.”
    What did Rush know? Had he been lying to me? I wasn’t sure I could breathe. “Rush?” I asked, backing up in case I couldn’t get a deep breath and passed out. I needed to sit down.
    “I told Rush everything yesterday. He had been told the same lie you had but he knows the truth now.”
    The truth. What was the truth? Was there a truth or was my entire existence a lie? I sank down onto the steps and stared up at the man I thought was my father as he stepped inside and closed the door behind him.
    “I’ve always known Nan wasn’t my daughter. More importantly, your mother knew Nan wasn’t my daughter. You’re right, your mother would have never allowed me to leave my pregnant fiancéand run off with her. Not for anything. She almost didn’t let me leave my ex-girlfriend who was pregnant with yet another member of Slacker Demon’s kid because she was worried about what would happen to Rush. Her heart was just as big as you know it was. Nothing you knew was a lie, Blaire. Nothing. The world you knew was not a lie.”
    “I don’t understand. I know my momma wasn’t involved in any