Chapter 38
Max left the hospital that evening completely disconnected from his family. He'd never really protested against the the idea of Joey and Lauren together, but he grew to hate the fact how close they had gotten and how much he saw the hurt in his daughters every day she was away from him.
He wasn't one for apologising, something that he'd picked up of his step brother. Max's father had Married Derek and Jack's Mother, when Max was only 5 years old. They grew up as a family and until he was about 13, he always looked up to Derek. Unlike with Jack, Max and Derek had quite a volatile relationship. It had stared, as said before when Max was 13 and Derek who was 20 at the time was engaged to a young girl. Max had seen on a quite few occasions, Derek going off with other girls while he was engaged to someone else.
Max not knowing any better at the time thought he'd confront Derek about it, only he was greeted with a hefty punch and a threat. Over the years Max saw Derek go from girl to girl, using them like toys, throwing one away and moving into the next when he was bored. But one girl changed all that. Sara Green.
When Derek was 25 he was in a relationship with 22 year old Sara Green, a young brunette from the local social club. A pretty young brunette who was training to be a midwife after going traveling. Midway through the year; about 6 months after they'd started dating, Sara dropped the bombshell she was pregnant. Derek wasn't at all impressed at the time, accusing Sara of trapping him, but over the months he grew to accept responsibility and in the period of Two years, he was married, had a young son and had an empire that was climbing by the second.
Derek had Sara under his thumb and she stood by him, living the way he wanted her to. By the time Joey was 10 they had a second child and Derek had been on the wrong side of the Law several times, but true to form, Sara was always they waiting at the gates for him on the day of his release. Son and daughter in tow.
Pulling up outside number 5, Max looked over to Derek's house, his car parked proudly outside. He slammed the car door shut and walked up the steps letting himself into the house. It was silent. There was no family there, his girls were all at the hospital, his Mother in Law out. It was quite eerie to see the house so static. He looked around seeing memories of his children flash in front of him. A young version of Lauren running into his arms and hugging him so tightly it hurt.
He slammed the keys on the side an bolted the front door. Before he knew it he was downing his 5th glass of whisky. When times get hard, hit the bottle. As he went to pour another glass he found the bottle empty so searched through the cupboard, coming across a photograph in the process.
It was again a younger version of Lauren. She had her hair in pigtails smiling brightly at the camera as she held her new baby sister. Max ran his finger over the image. "where's that innocent little girl gone ay"
so we have more of the background story now... can Max come through for his baby ? back tomorrow ... any guesses on baby names ? xx