Chapter 9
"Y-you're what?" Craig stuttered, dropping the picture onto the table. "Sam, this isn't funny. This is serious."
"I know Craig," Sammy said.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked.
"I tried to."
Craig ran his fingers through his hair. "Sam, I don't understand," he said. "I've been your best friend since the day we were born. We've been through everything together. My mother dying. Your father dying. You're finding out your father wasn't your father but your biological one lives in Germany. You're leaving me. What else are you going to do to me?"
"You sound like my mother," Sammy said, on the verge of tears. Craig had never seen Sammy cry before not even at her dad's funeral.
"Sorry," Craig said. "I want you to tell me everything. From the time you left until now."
"I tried to forget everything between there. I even tried to forget how sad you were when I left."
"Sam, it killed me," Craig said. "You don't know how bad it killed me."
"I could guess, couldn't I?"
"No," Craig said. "Sammy, do you remember when we were seven? We were in the tree house behind your house and I told you I loved you and you said you loved me?"
"We were seven."
"But we meant it. We knew what love was, Sammy. We knew that being together forever meant everything to us. After you said you loved me I kissed you do you remember that?"
Sammy nodded.
"Then I said," he looked at her waiting for her to finish his sentence.
"That we would tell each other everything," Sammy said. "And I'm sorry. That was just something I couldn't tell you."
"What else have you kept from me Sammy?" he asked.
Sammy blinked back tears. "My dad…he use to hit me," Sammy said. She looked up at him. "And he raped me."
Craig forgot that he was angry at Sammy and looked at her. "And?" he asked.
"And Gabriel is sort of my brother, too."
"Let me get this straight. Your dad is your son's dad, too?"
"Craig, I was embarrassed to tell you," Sammy said. "I told Mom everything and she and I pressed charges and we left him. We got an apartment in B.C., then I had Gabriel and Mom got her old job back here. So we moved back." Sammy took a deep breath. "There. Happy?"
"About what?"
"That's from beginning to end. From the time I left to today."
Craig smiled. "Sammy, I'm glad your back," he said. "I don't care if things have changed for you. We can pick up where we left off as friends."
"Yeah, I would love that," Sammy said.