CHAPTER EIGHT

About a week had passed and Samantha had just been released from hospital. She sustained two fractured ribs and a sprained wrist at the hands of her father. The hospital staff had been very kind to her, they had taken good care of her and had even respected her wishes not to contact any member of her family. She had, on the other hand, called Andrew a couple of days ago. She just wanted to make sure that he was okay. He assured her that he was fine and a black eye was the worse he suffered. He didn't hang around for too long himself after Samantha had ran for it. He held his father back so that she got a fair enough head start and then ran himself. He was currently staying with his best friend, Shaun, for a couple of weeks and was planning to move to California, as soon as he could get the money together, to try and launch his acting career. He had offered Samantha a chance to go with him, but she declined. Her mission now was to talk to John. So she called for a taxi and headed straight to his house with no further delay.

Once the taxi had pulled up outside John's house, Samantha handed over the little money she had to the driver and stepped out, immediately feeling the icy air cut through her. She shivered and rubbed her hands up and down her arms, trying to get the blood flowing. She walked up to John's front door and took a deep breath. For a few seconds, she just sort of froze. She was unsure that this was the right thing to do. She shook her head and raised her hand, knocking lightly on the door. She waited for a few minutes, but there was no answer. She knocked again, but still got no response. Samantha sighed and turned to leave. She knew that this was a bad idea, like John would ever want to talk to her ever again. She walked a few steps until she heard the door being unlocked behind her. She turned back around as the door opened slowly and John stood in front of her. Samantha smiled weakly at him. She was so pleased to see him. She felt as if she hadn't seen him for so long, whereas it had only been a few weeks. Although, it looked as if John didn't feel the same way towards her. His facial expression was blank and unreadable, but his body language was telling Samantha that he wasn't exactly thrilled to see her.

"H--hi, John." Samantha said quietly. She got no response from him. John just stood there, his arms folded over his muscular chest, starring a hole right through her. "John, I don't want to fight with you. I just want to talk." she said, a pleading look in her eyes as she spoke. "Please?"

John just held his gaze for a few more moments, before he stepped to the side, gesturing for her to enter. She smiled slightly and walked quickly past him and into his living room. John closed the front door and walked over to her.

"Whatever it is, make it quick." he said bitterly, walking past her and sitting down on his couch.

"John, you have every right to be angry with me right now." Samantha began. "But I just want to explain to you what happened that night I was supposed to meet you." she continued, taking a seat on the couch with him, but making sure that she was a fair distance away from him. "Just let me explain and then you can throw me out if you want."

John sighed and ran his hands over his short, brown hair. He leaned further back into the couch and said, "G'head. I'm listening."

"Right, well, first of all, it wasn't even my idea to call you and ask you to meet me..." Samantha began.

"Oh, so yah saying you didn't wanna see me again at all?" John interupted. "Well, that makes everything okay."

"Would you just let me speak, John!" Samantha exclaimed. She got no reply from John so she continued her explanation. "Andrew told me to call you. It was all his idea. He told me to phone you and ask you to meet me in Central Park. I was just like you, I thought this was our second chance. I thought that we could be together again and that Andrew was on my side." Samantha said, taking a breath before continuing. "Andrew said that he wanted me to be happy and if being with you made me happy, it was alright by him. But it was a trap. My father set the whole thing up."

"And why would he do that? We had already split up, he'd already gotten what he wanted." John questionned.

"Because he's an evil, spiteful man." Samantha said sternly. "He just wanted to hurt me. He just wanted to make me suffer even more."

"Why?" John asked, standing up from his seat. "I'm sorry, Sam, but none of this is making any sense! Why would your own father wanna hurt you like that?"

"Because..." Samantha tried to speak, but she couldn't. She wanted to tell John the truth but she couldn't find the words.

"Because what!" John yelled. "Why would a man wanna hurt his own daughter like that? I know David's a bastard but we had already broken up, he had already gotten what he wanted, so what reason could he possibly have to wanna do something like that to you!"

"Because he fucking hates me, John!" Samantha shouted, standing up herself. "He hates my guts, he always has and he always will. He enjoys watching me suffer. He gets his kicks out of hurting me. All my life that man has fucking tortured me! He's made my life miserable. And he'll keep on making my life a misery until I do something about it. And that's why I'm here, John, to end it once and for all." Samantha said, letting everything that she had kept inside for so long just pour out. "I'm not going to let him do it to me anymore, John. I just came to see if you were with me, which your obviously not, so I'm sorry I've wasted your time."

Samantha turned on her heels and headed towards the front door.

"Wait, Sam." John said, grabbing ahold of her arm, stopping her from opening the door. "You ain't getting away that easily, yah know?" he said, pulling her back into the living room and sitting her down on the couch. "Now, I want some more answers." John stated. "Why the hell didn't you tell me any of this sooner? We've been together for almost two years and you never thought of dropping it into the conversation?"

"I couldn't tell you, John..."

"Yes, you could've." John practically yelled, standing in front of her, throwing his arms in the air. "I could've protected you! Instead you decided to go home each night, and let that piece of crap beat the shit out of you! Why would you not let me protect you?"

"He would have fucking killed me, John!" Samantha screamed, rising from the couch again and shoving John aside. "You say you could have protected me, but you don't know my father. He would've stopped at nothing to get me. He would've hunted me down and killed me with his bare hands!" she blurted out, pacing the room.

"I'm gonna fucking kill him!" John exclaimed. "I swear to God, I'm gonna fucking kill that man for what he's done to you! How dare he lay one damn hand on you! He's a fucking dead man!"

"John, just stop it, okay!" Samantha shouted. "This is why I didn't tell you! Because I knew that this was how you was going to react. I knew that you wouldn't be able to just leave it!"

"You damn right I ain't gonna leave it!" John shouted back. "He wants to pick on someone? Why don't he try and pick on me?" John said, as he turned around and headed towards the door.

"No, John!" Samantha protested, stepping in front of him and placing her hands on his chest, trying to restrain him. "You're not going to do anything. You're just going to leave it, do you understand me? Just leave it alone!"

Again Samantha once again headed for the door herself, but again John caught her wrist.

"You can't...you can't just..." John tried to speak.

"I can't what, John!"

Without warning, John suddenly pulled her into him and crushed his lips onto hers in a passionate kiss.