Chapter Three: The Uninvited Truth
Dan Scott was standing in front of her wearing his trademark evil smirk while Lucas stood next to him shaking his head disapprovingly. Haley suddenly felt sick to her stomach already knowing exactly what was going on.
Dan was torturing Nathan about not being able to recover from his injury and continue playing basketball just as he had during every other visit before and now Nathan was livid. She sighed and lowered her gaze to the ground below while saying a silent prayer that Nathan wouldn't take his anger at Dan out on her.
She could hear a door slamming shut in the distance forcing her to flinch and mentally prepare herself for what she knew was later to come.
Taking a deep breath Haley looked back up and refocused her attention on Lucas and Dan as the excitement she was just feeling moments ago slowly started to fade away.
"You just couldn't wait to tare into him, could you Dad?"
Dad? Haley thought to herself. Since when did this happen? Lucas referring to the man who had tormented him and everyone he loved as Dad and not Dan? What the hell?
"Oh come on Luke I was only kidding. Besides it's not your fault that your brothers a donut eating cop instead of a basketball star like you"
Basketball star? Doesn't Lucas have HCM? And more importantly why didn't she know about this?
"Hey being an officer is a very noble profession and aside from that you promised me that if I brought you with me that you wouldn't be an ass to Nathan. That you wouldn't say or do anything to set him off"
"And I haven't. Who knew Nathan was so got damn sensitive? And if he doesn't like to hear us talk about basketball then he shouldn't listen to our conversation"
Lucas let out a frustrated sigh before walking over to her.
"Hey Hales" he said engulfing her in a tight embrace. "I missed you so much"
"I missed you too" she replied finally having found her voice "It's been so long since we last talked"
"Too long. We have lot of catching up to do buddy"
Haley smiled at this. God she missed Lucas so much and there were so many things they needed to talk about.
Suddenly she felt the urge to pour out her heart and soul to him. To tell her best friend what a monster his brother had become and all the horrible things he was doing to her and their children. But she knew better. Nathan would more then likely kill her and who's to say that Lucas would even believe her.
"Hello Haley" Dan spoke interrupting her thoughts "My, my, my don't you look rather…oh what's the point? We both know no matter what I say I'd be lying so why pretend"
"Dad!"
"Oh what now Lucas?" said Dan rolling his eyes.
"Do not speak to Haley like that. She's your son's wife and not to mention the mother of your grandchildren for God's sake. So how about showing her a little respect"
"Fine but how do we even know they're Nathan's kids? I mean they are after all too young to show any real signs of failure" the man laughed.
Seeing the anger building in his son's eyes Dan quickly tired to smooth things over.
"Calm down son I was only joking. Gees where's your sense of humor?"
"Grandpa!" both Dillon and little Lucas said as they ran into Dan's arms.
"Hey boys, how are my two favorite grandsons?"
"Good" the boys replied with smiles on their sweet innocent faces.
"Come play with us" said Lucas as he grabbed onto the larger man's hands and began pulling him in the direction of the family room.
"Yeah and you can help us build a house" added Dillon.
When the three Scott males disappeared Haley exhaled, relieved to finally be rid of Dan.
"Sorry about that Hales" Lucas spoke in a sorrowful tone. "I was stupid enough to actually believe him when he promised to be on his best behavior. I guess the saying's true. You can't teach an old dog new tricks"
Haley laughed.
"Well that's Dan for you. He'll say or do just about anything to get what he wants" the woman said before taking a seat on the couch and motioning for her brother in law to do the same.
"Let's just forget about Dan for a minute and catch up"
"I would love to Hales but I think one of us needs to check on Nathan. Dad was in rare jackass form on the ride back from the airport. He ragged on Nate during the entire time and needless to say his words were not very well received"
"I know. He practically flattened me he ran in here so fast" she smiled while inwardly cringing.
"Where do you think he went?"
Knowing Nathan the way that she did there was only one place he went when he was angry and couldn't take out his frustrations on her.
"Check the gym. It's down the hall, third door on the left"
"Thanks Hales" Lucas replied giving her a kiss on the cheek "I promise that we'll talk once I make sure Nathan's okay"
Within seconds the older Scott sibling had disappeared down the hall as Haley looked after him. This visit wasn't going at all like she hoped it would. She thought that Lucas's arrival would make things easier for her. That he would be able to help her with Nathan but instead he brought Dan along with him who was only going to add to her husband's hostility and anger.
This scared her.
With Nathan being constantly tense and put on edge by Dan he's going to need an outlet for his anger and not only that but he was going to want to forcefully go after the one thing that he felt led to his downfall.
He was going to come after her.
The afternoon passed by quickly and now the members of the Scott family were seated around the dinner table. A heavy amount of tension still lingered around the dueling father and son but thankfully Lucas had been able to keep them from killing each other along with the presence of the two boys. Haley just hoped that Dan wouldn't say of do anything to push Nathan even further over the edge.
"So Haley" the man in question spoke. "What exactly do you call this little dish of yours?"
"Mainly we call it dinner Dad" Nathan replied through clenched teeth.
"Well I guess you do what you can on a cops salary. Lucas should lend you his cook Sheryl one day. She's fantastic"
"I only have a cook because Brooke and I are too busy with our careers right now to do the cooking and cleaning ourselves. Besides Haley doesn't need any help with those things. She's a great cook. Away Dillon, How's school going for you this year kiddo?" Lucas said stopping his father from commenting any further and his brother from blowing a gasket.
The boy's face lit up at the question and Haley smiled. She was certain that nothing bad could possibly come up in a conversation of this kind.
"Good. My teacher said that I'm really smart"
"That's nice son. Do you have really good grades too?" questioned Dan.
"Yes. He got an A on both his math test and his spelling test" Haley proudly boasted.
"Wow that's great Dillon. You know your uncle Lucas made excellent grades in school too just like you. Your father on the other had was academically challenged"
Haley looked over to Nathan who had become noticeably tense. Reaching over, she placed her hand on top of his in an attempt to keep him calm.
Unfortunately it had an adverse effect.
The dark haired male roughly snatched his hand away from his wife' and glared at her. The woman instantly cast her gaze downward and trembled under the weight of his stare.
Lucas noticed this.
"You okay Hales" he questioned with intrigue.
He didn't understand exactly what was going on but the one thing he did know was that Haley looked scared.
"I'm fine Luke" she replied while trying to regain her composure.
"Are you sure?"
The young wife and mother hesitated for a moment until she felt her husband's foot press down firmly on her exposed toes.
"Yes I'm sure" she insisted with a fake smile.
Her fragile nubs were now throbbing and hurt like hell. She tried to curl them up and protect them from any further punishment but Nathan, being aware of what she was trying to do decided to apply even more pressure as tears stung her eyes. Haley looked up to see her husband's twisted smirk of satisfaction before the man turned to address his brother.
"Of course she's fine. Why wouldn't she be?"
"I don't know. She looked totally spooked just now"
"Really?" he questioned with mocked concern. "You feeling alright baby?"
Haley wanted to vomit.
"She probably ate the food"
"Shut up Dad" Lucas said in a low growl.
He didn't want to scare his nephews but at the same time Dan needed to know that he meant business.
"Oh give me a break Lucas. Haley knows that I'm only joking so relax"
"Yeah well you better be and while you're at it make sure you keep your little comedy routine at my wife's expense to a minimum"
Dan chuckled "Whatever you say officer"
"It's fine Nathan. I'm okay, really. Now can we please just forget about it and get back to dinner? Please"
She was so tired of Dan's behavior and Nathan's loving husband act. She wanted to get this over with as soon as possible and turn in for the night.
"Good idea Hales. Anyway so what's new with you? Did you ever sign up for those classes at the university that you were telling me about"
The woman smiled weakly as she tried to think of a lie to tell her best friend. In truth the only reason that she wasn't attending college was because Nathan wouldn't allow her to. He said that her place was in the home, tending to him and their children.
"I umm…"
"She decided to wait until both boys were in school full time" Nathan spoke for her "That way we don't have to worry about who's taking care of them and how they're being treated"
It was disturbing how quickly, easily and amazingly well he could lie.
"Well that makes sense" Lucas said before putting a fork full of tuna casserole in his mouth.
"That's the smartest move you've ever made Haley. I wish your mother would have done that with you but no, her career was more important then her family"
"Well I'm sure Deb had her reasons" Haley spoke in the woman's defense.
"Yeah and her boyfriend was one of them"
Everyone in the room instantly fell silent, well everyone except for Nathan.
"Can you blame her? Maybe if you weren't such an ass Mom wouldn't have had a reason to cheat"
"Oooh Daddy said a bad word" little Lucas spoke.
"And he's very sorry he did, isn't that right Nathan?"
The man rolled his eyes at the woman and put up a hand to silence her.
"What did you just say to me boy?" questioned Dan as he rose to his feet and threw his napkin down on the dinner table.
"You heard me Dad" replied Nathan with amused grin, happy to finally get the best of Dan.
"You try working your ass off to support a family and have your ungrateful whore of a wife cheat on you then you talk to me about the proper way to react"
"Oh please you were a jerk way before Mom had the affair"
"How the hell would you know Nathan you were only three years old?"
Nathan's eyes grew wide at this.
"But I thought…"
"Well obviously you thought wrong. That's why you need to have all your facts straight before you go running off at the mouth. You see your dear saint of a mother cheated on me three times with three different men and I took her back every damn time. I don't know why but I did"
Off the young Scotts silence the man continued.
"It hurt like hell Nathan and every time I looked at her all I could see was how easy it was for her to walk away from us and abandon us all for some guy she barely even knew. How she just walked away from me, from you, her only child. It killed me Nathan and I have apologized a thousand time for the way I took my anger out on you but damn it what else did you want me to do? Was I supposed to just let it all roll off my back and forget what she did? Tell me son, how I was supposed to act all those years with the ghost of the past lingering over us? What would you do if Haley did that to you?"
Nathan looked over to a stunned Lucas who had walked over to their father and put his hand on the man's shoulder and helped him sit back down.
He then looked back over to his wife who stared back at him with tear filled eyes and a pleading look She knew what he was about to say, he could feel it. He knew that the secret he was about to unleash was going to change the way they all looked at her, at them. With Dan nothing would be lost but Lucas was a different story.
He would hate Haley and she would be crushed just as his dreams of joining the NBA had been crushed by her just a few short years ago. But there were also his boys to consider. Was it right to shatter them just to get back at Haley? Then again would they really be able to fully comprehend the words he was about to speak? He didn't know but he was about to find out.
With a heavy sigh he turned back to his father and brother.
"Why don't you ask her? Seeing as how she already has"
He then collected his two sons, walked out of the dinning room and never once looked back. Not even when he heard Haley start to cry.
