A Mother's Priority | Chapter 6

"Tate!" I shouted as I opened the door.

He had been sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at the floorboards.

"What the hell was that!?" I was pissed.

He didn't respond.

"You promised." I told him, "You promised that you would never, ever hurt her. You made that promise to me.. to yourself, even."

No response.

"Say something, dammit! Make some form of response!" I slammed the door shut behind me, "Stop sitting there in silence and just admit that you fucked up just now!"

"I didn't want to do that to her."

"You didn't-" I took a step back, "You didn't want to do that? That's all you have to say.. that you didn't want to hurt her that way?"

"What else do you expect me to say?"

"Oh, I don't know. How about 'I'm sorry'. How about 'oh god, I just got so pissed off that I actually hit my daughter'. You just hit your daughter, Tate. You just smacked the one girl across the face that saw you as an awesome human being. You just broke her heart and all you can say is-"

I doubt that smack across her face was enough to break her heart, babe." He attempted to lighten the conversation with a chuckle but I wasn't about to let him change my attitude towards this.

"I'm talking about the fact that you let her down." I explained, "First of all, you made a promise to her to be there after school.. and then just never showed up. You probably wouldn't care, but she was so devastated when she saw me walk through the doors of her school. You disappeared for god knows how long without a single care in the world about how we would've felt about it.. only to show back up once again to get so pissed off that you smacked your little girl across the face. Tate, how self-centered can you become to not realize how fucked up that sounds? How fucking messed up do you have to be-"

Tate grabbed ahold of my wrists and slammed me against the wall, "Watch your fucking tone with me."

"Tate." I got out, "Tate, you're hurting me."

He pressed his body against mine, getting real close to my face, "I didn't ask for you to go ahead and get pregnant, did I?"

"It didn't seem to bother you when your daughter was born."

His hand wrapped around my neck, "You wanted this. I could've left. I could've fucking left and let you raise her all on your own; just like your own shitty father had done."

"Tate." I was trying my hardest not to break out in tears.

He let go of my throat and stepped out of the room.

"Tate." I ran after him, stopping at the living room as he was throwing his coat back on, "Tate, where are you going?"

"Clearly I'm unwanted here."

"Tate." My body flung itself towards him, hanging onto his arm, "Tate, you're so wanted here. Honest. Please don't go."

"Why?" He fixed the collar of his jacket, "So that you can throw it in my face that I harmed your daughter?"

"Our daughter."

"Excuse me?"

"She's our daughter, not just mine. She's the daughter of both of us. Tate, don't go. Don't leave her." No matter how much pain he has put me through, I can't stand him not being home.. having to wait by the door hoping that the next time I heard from him wasn't going to involve me standing in a hospital or a police officer standing at my door. "How would you think Lola would feel if the last memory she shared with her father involved him hurting her in a way she never thought he could?"

He slammed the front door shut.

"Lola's almost six years old, Tate. She won't be able to just forget all about you easily. She knows you. She loves you. You're her father, Tate. She deserves to get to know you. I deserve to get to have her father in my life." I found myself running up from behind him and wrapping my arms around his torso, "Please Tate.. please just stay here with us."

His hand rested over mine as he turned himself so that our eyes were locked onto one another, "You didn't actually think I was about to walk out of Lola's life, did you?"

"What?"

"I'd never do that to her." He chuckled, "She's my little girl. My little angel. Of course I'd never let her grow up without me."

He headed off into her bedroom and I couldn't help but just stand there in disarray. What the hell just happened? My fingers ran through my hair before I let out a big sigh. If there was ever a moment where Tate made me want to rip out my own hair, this would be that moment. But at least he stayed.. right?