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"Leah, dear." I continued twirling my spoon around and around the soup, like I didn't hear my mom. She heaved a sigh and my lips curled into a smile as she did. Thank god I made it clear that I still didn't want to talk to her.

"Seth?" My eyes shifted to Seth in a gunshot. Ignore her, I wanted to shout out. Unfortunately, he withdrew his eyes from his soup and looked at mom.

"Mm'hmm?" I stepped on his foot from under the table. He glared at me and I glared back, showing him my 'didn't-I-tell-you-to-give-mom-the-silent-treatment' look.

"I don't know how to say this." Mom looked sadly at something from under the table, obviously looking for the right words to say. I knew that I should be ignoring her for being so un-motherly lately, but I couldn't help but wonder about what it was she wanted to tell us.

Seth reached for her hand and he tenderly rubbed her knuckles. "Go on, ma."

"You see, George and I…" Thick black liquid brewed from the deepest pits of my heart as soon as I heard the wretched name. George, this bald, stubby man with hideously oily skin and a revolting thick black moustache covering half of his face, has been coming in and out of our house lately. Mom told me that he was her business partner, so I didn't give a fuck about him back then. One day, I lifted the phone to call a friend, and then I heard my mother purring on the other line with some man who was moaning. The phone slipped from my hands and I gagged endlessly in the bathroom. It was the grossest thing I've ever heard that my body probably ran out of things for me to puke out. I learned that it was George who she was talking to; that they've been dating for three months and what I just heard was a near phone-sex encounter. I purged and cried my eyes out the night I knew. How could mom do this? My life was too fucked up already—dad died, Sam left me for Emily and now I'm some half human, half dog—and now she's adding to the heavy load by marrying a despicable looking man whom she only dated for three months.

I didn't know what was happening to her. It wasn't even a year since dad's death, and now she has a new man. I closed my eyes, remembering the vague memories of him teaching me how to pray, how to spell, how to add and subtract. I remembered how I'd always tug at his shaggy hair and he'd tug my hair back, how he smelled like tobacco each time we hugged, how the stubbles on his chin scratched against my fingers as I traced them. Eventually, I remembered the more recent memories—memories of him separating me from Sam back in junior high because he knew Sam would imprint soon, memories of him taking me back in his arms even if I eloped with Sam to escape from him, memories of him comforting me when I learned about Sam and Emily and the guilt I felt because I didn't listen, and the memory of his eyes turning white as he was clutching his chest the moment I turned into a monster. He was so alive back then, and it was so hard to believe that now, he's a rotting corpse somewhere six feet under the ground. His laughter was still so clear to me whenever I tried to remember how it sounded like, so clear that it always made me weep. He was a good man, and the least mom could do was to respect his death by not trying to desperately find his replacement.

"Yes?" Seth encouraged my mom to go on. I opened my eyes again, and I wasn't surprised when I felt the moisture in my eyes. I always cried whenever I remembered him.

"George and I…are getting married."

My hands curled into fists, and the silver spoon I was holding noisily broke into two pieces as I did. "Shut up." I hissed with my teeth clenched. "I'm not letting you marry that son of a bitch."

"He's a good man, Leah. He'll be a good daddy." A good daddy? I wanted to scream at her face. There will only be one man who could be my daddy, and no one else. How could she think that that little bulldog could be like dad?

"We'll be whole again, like before." She croaked.

"Look, bitch, we'll never be whole again unless dad rises from the dead! I can't believe you'd do this to him! He loved you so much and now you're replacing him for some dirty old man? Some hobo we don't even know? Are you fucking crazy? Have you lost your mind?" In an instant, mom's face was full of creases and she started to cry loudly. It wasn't enough. I wanted to make her cry even more.

"Leah!" Seth growled.

"Stay out of this, dickhead." I stood up, kicked my chair away, and headed for mom to knock some sense into her brain. Before I could even tell her one out of the million words I wanted to say, Seth zoomed right in front of me and pushed me halfway across the dining room.

"I said stay out of this!" I barked as I staggered to regain balance.

"You don't talk to mom like that, Leah!"

"So you're telling me you'd rather have George as a father? You're just gonna forget dad just like that, huh?"

"Don't look at it that way!"

"Wow, you're such a good son." I rolled my eyes.

"Go fuck yourself, bitch! You talk like you're the good one while it's really you who caused his death! You killed him!"

Those three words, the words I never wanted to hear, echoed through my ears. I gave my act up, and without realizing it, my lips quivered violently, I fell on the floor and tears poured down my eyes. I'm the reason why he's dead. I killed dad.

"I'm sorry, Leah." From a hostile tone, his voice abruptly softened up. Seth sank down with me and attempted to pull me up. This scene, it's been playing again and again for so many times, and I was sick of it.

"Just leave me alone." I squeaked as the tears slid past my lips. With shaking legs, I ran to my room, looked for my favourite picture of dad smiling ever so happily and cried myself to sleep with it in my arms.

What do you think? I'd really love to get feedback from you guys. Well, that wraps Chapter One, but I swear it's just the start. Hang on for the other chapters that I guarantee are going to be better (this chapter's just an introduction). :D