CHAPTER 75

"Mr. Cahill, I, um… I… what are you doing here?" Miguel stammered, shocked as he stared at Emily's dad for the first time since that night at the hospital. He was quite possibly the last person Miguel expected to see at his doorstep and for several moments, he was silent in his surprise.

"Miguel. Can I come in?" Emily's dad asked. Miguel nodded and opened the door wider, leading the man into the room. For some reason, as they stepped inside and Miguel's girlfriend's father looked around, everything seemed messier.

"Yeah, um… I just moved in here, so things are still a little messy, but um… wait… how did you find me?"

That's when Miguel realised.

"Oh. Mary and George told you, didn't they?" Miguel murmured. Emily's dad nodded.

"Yeah, they did." He replied. There was a long silence for several moments as the two men stared at each other, but it was Miguel who broke it and spoke next.

"Look, if you're here to hit me again, please go ahead. I won't stop you." Miguel murmured tiredly. Emily's dad shook his head.

"I'm not going to hit you, Miguel. And I… I shouldn't have done so at the hospital that night either. I was blindsided by the situation and I let it get the better of me and I made a mistake. I'm really sorry."

It was Miguel's turn to shake his head.

"No, you were right that night. I deserved it." Miguel stated. "It's just like you said, it's all my fault. None of this would have happened to Emily had I not started dating her. I should have never gotten involved with her. Going on that first date with her is the biggest mistake I've ever made. My mistake, but she paid the price for it."

Emily's dad chuckled and sighed.

"You know, I remember that night very well. The night Emily and you got together. I'll be honest, I've never seen a bigger smile on her face in the 17 years she's been alive. And although I know she would never admit this to her dad, I knew that she had found the person she wanted to spend her life with."

Miguel's head dropped down, looking down at the floor and refusing to make eye contact with Emily's dad.

"And fast forward a few months…" He continued. "We all thought Emily was gone. The police did too. But you didn't. I heard that you barely slept for a month looking for her, trying to bring her home, and succeeding at that. Not just anyone would do all of that for us. But you know who would? Family. You're family to us, Miguel."

As Miguel continued to look down, a lone tear rolled down his cheek. All of the pain inside him from everything that had happened over the past few months culminated inside him, churning through him like a virus.

"Look, Mr. Cahill…"

"Henry. Please. Call me Henry." Emily's dad interrupted. Miguel nodded.

"Henry… I'm flattered. I really am. I'm honored that you consider me part of your family. But I…"

"She needs you, Miguel." Emily's dad murmured. "She's not doing so well. Hasn't even come out of her room since we got home from everything. But on Friday we've got the court case for Silver and she is required to testify, give her account of what happened."

Upon hearing Terry Silver's name for the first time in months, anger boiled through Miguel's veins.

"She wants you there, Miguel." Emily's dad stated. "She isn't talking much. Isn't talking at all to me. Only talks to Mary. And Mary says that Emily's devastated that he hasn't come by yet. She thinks that you've forgotten about her."

Miguel shook his head.

"I could never forget about her, Henry. She's the love of my life." Miguel mumbled. Emily's dad raised an eyebrow.

"Really? Because, and this is just me, but if Emily's mom, the love of my life, was in this situation, I wouldn't just sit around for 2 weeks and not even think to go see her!"

Miguel's fists clenched in anger at the harsh words.

"It's not that simple." Miguel growled. Henry raised his hands in surrender.

"Easy. I'm not looking for a fight. I'm just telling you how she feels. She's asking for you to be there on Friday. Hoping that this is important enough for you to show up."

Miguel sighed. Despite what Emily's dad was saying, he was mostly still unconvinced. As far as he was concerned, he was a plague, and he had infected everyone who he spent enough time around and cared enough about. His mom. Emily. Johnny. Everyone around him.

"Look, I'm sorry. This Friday's just not a great day for me, unfortunately though."

"From what I see, it doesn't look like any of your days are great ones." Henry remarked, pointing at the various empty bottles of alcohol stashed around the RV. "Look, I can't force you to go. I only came here to let you know what was going on. Oh, and to give you this. It's a little housewarming present from the missus and I."

Emily's dad reached into his bag and pulled out a small item, laying it down on Miguel's table. It was a small picture frame, in it a picture of Emily and Miguel. Miguel recognised it immediately, as he knew that it was the same picture that Emily kept in her bedroom. Or used to keep. Miguel had no clue if it was still there. He doubted it.

"We had a copy printed. Figured it would look nice with your new place." Emily's dad said. "Goodbye Miguel."

With that, Emily's dad left the trailer. Once he was gone, Miguel walked over to the picture, picking it up and taking it to the couch with him. As he looked at it, he saw the pure happiness on Emily's face and his own, and before he knew it, emotion had overcome him and tears began to fall…

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Friday. Before he knew it, the day had arrived. Miguel hadn't slept a wink the night before as his mind was spinning with nerves. He was about to speak to Emily for the first time since… well, since the night of the accident. He knew it wasn't about to go well, but the uncertainty of it all was what kept him up all night. The night and the following morning dragged on agonisingly slowly, but before he knew it, it was time to go…

Miguel stood in front of his small, cracked mirror and nervously adjusted his shirt collar and brushed his hair. Though he had looked like an absolute mess the past few weeks, today he needed to look presentable. Eventually, as Miguel finally managed to gather the nerves to get going, he walked over to the door, however when he opened it, he immediately stumbled backwards. For there was someone standing at the door that Miguel never expected to see. For the second time in a week, there was a person who Miguel least expected to see to see at his house.

"Miguel…" The person said as they looked up at him. Miguel scowled at them, a hard look on his face as he growled out a reply.

"Hello mother…"

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"Hi Miggy." His mother smiled at him, a look that Miguel did not replicate as he glared at her.

"Why are you here? What do you want?" Miguel snapped. Carmen raised an eyebrow.

"Can I not just be here to see my son because I care about him?" Carmen asked. Miguel shook his head.

"No. You proved that much when you kicked me out the house." Miguel murmured. Carmen sighed.

"I didn't kick you out the house, Miguel. You chose to leave." Carmen stated. "And I'm here to talk about that. Can we talk inside?"

Miguel sighed and nodded, roughly kicking the door open and following his mom inside, as opposed to the polite way he had led Emily's dad into his place. Carmen's reaction to Miguel's new place was similar to Henry's, a quiet gasp as she looked around at the mess. As Miguel shut the door behind her, he turned to her.

"Okay, look, I have somewhere to be so let's make this fast. What do you want to talk about?" Miguel murmured. Carmen sighed and opened her handbag, dumping a stack of papers on Miguel's table.

"Mail delivery." Carmen said, her previous happy expression now gone as she glared at Miguel. Miguel slowly picked them up and flipped through them. They were all government papers he didn't understand a word of.

"What are these?" Miguel asked. Carmen sighed.

"Well, let's see… the top one is a fine for public intoxication committed by Miguel Diaz. The next, I don't know, dozen are fines for illegal parking of an RV owned by Miguel Diaz. The next, a letter from West Valley High, informing me of the fact that Miguel Diaz hasn't been in school for a month…"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. They're all my fault. Just leave them on the table and go." Miguel snapped. Carmen laughed mirthlessly.

"See, Miguel, it's not that easy. You see, because you are legally my son, and are under the age of 18, all of those fines you have racked up… they are charged to me. That letter from the school… if you miss too much more of school, I'M the one who's going to get charged by the police."

Miguel looked down, shocked. He didn't know about that. Didn't know how complicated things had become on the outside. He had been so focused on himself and the bubble he had made around his life in the past month that he had absolutely no clue what was going on around him. And despite everything that him and his mom were going through, he didn't want her to have to suffer for his life.

"So what do we do?" Miguel asked her.

"Well, we have two options. Option 1, you come back home. Come back to your old life. We'll work out all of this together. But that'll still mean…"

"You'll force me to go to a psychiatrist." Miguel finished. Carmen nodded.

"Yes… yes, I will. And by the looks of things…" Carmen said, pointing around the RV at the various empty bottles. "You need it."

Miguel shook his head, not vehemently but just tiredly.

"And it's like I said before, I'm not going." Miguel replied. "I'm not going and paying 200 bucks an hour for a random stranger who knows nothing about me and has no idea what I'm going through listen to me talk. So what's the other option?"

Carmen nodded and took a deep breath, before pulling out another paper from her bag.

"I figured you would say that so I brought this too." She said, handing the paper to Miguel.

"What's this?" Miguel asked. A tear rolled Carmen's face as she replied.

"Emancipation papers." She replied. Miguel's hand went slack. The paper slipped out of his grip and his mind and whole body went numb.

"Em-em-emancipation?" He stammered. Carmen nodded as tears trickled freely down her cheeks.

"I'm sorry, Miguel. I can't do this anymore." She whispered. "I can't stand all of this worrying. All of this stress. Not knowing what my son is up to and where. The only information I'm getting coming from fines from the police?! I'm sorry, Miguel. I can't do this."

Tears rolled down Miguel's face too at this point. His whole body trembled as he picked up the paper again, gathering a pen that was lying around the table. With shaking hands, he read the paper again and signed on the dotted line…

A few minutes later, Carmen Diaz left her former son's apartment, leaving Miguel an absolute wreck. Tears began to fall freely as he sobbed for a while, the pain inside him never feeling as powerful as it did now. He very nearly passed out from the sudden waves of excruciating agony that were rolling through it. Before he knew it, he had stumbled over to the cupboard and grabbed a bottle of cheap vodka, popping it open and beginning to take large swigs of it. He sat back on his couch and began to drink more and more, relishing as the numbness began to set in. The last thing he remembered before passing out was looking up and seeing the framed photo of him and Emily staring back at him. Even in his woozy state, he remembered where he was supposed to be right now and more pain rushed through him. He couldn't bear to look Emily in the eye, even in a photo, so he turned the picture away from him.

"I'm so sorry, Em." He whispered, before lying back and passing out…