Chapter Five: The Bitter Truth

Jeff's POV:

Over the next few days, Dad, Matt, and I took turns staying with Taylor. Ms. Kingsley had given me the key to Tamara's house so I could start going through her things and so I could choose her clothes for the funeral. I was still in shock that I was planning her funeral.

While I was going through an old trunk of her things, I found some pictures from back in Cameron. It brought a smile to my face. There were pictures of her working at the pizza place downtown, where we used to hang out afterschool. I found some pictures of the two of us sitting on my father's porch, just holding hands and talking. The memories were bittersweet. I put them back in the trunk and marked that with the things that I would have shipped back to Cameron for Taylor.

Going through her clothes I saw that Mr. Adams finally turned her into what he wanted, the prim southern girl he always wanted. There were no t-shirts or clothes that she would have worn when she hung out around Cameron. There were pantsuits, dresses, slacks, dress shirts, all nice things. But then, we'd always known that we had been yin and yang. We were opposites, but we balanced each other so well.

"Tammy, what did he do to you all these years?" I asked out loud.

I couldn't handle going through Tammy's things anymore. I went down the hall and found myself in Taylor's room. There were gymnastics trophies and posters everywhere, but one was crooked and there seemed to be something behind it. Curiosity got the best of me and I went to look.

Pushing the crooked poster aside, I found a painting hidden behind it. It was beautiful. I took the poster down, leaving the painting in its full glory. Apparently, Taylor liked to paint abstracts like I did. I just didn't understand why she was hiding her talent.

Continuing around her room, I found a skateboard hidden in her closet, hanging from a hanger. It was a smart way to hide it. Obviously, Taylor was more like me that Tammy wanted her to be. At this point, feeling like I was invading Taylor's privacy too much, I left her room and left back for the hospital.

When I got there, Taylor seemed in slightly better spirits and she was finally getting used to talking to me, Matt, and Dad. She called all three of us by our first names, but she was nearly sixteen years old, I couldn't expect her to just start calling me Dad when she'd just met me.

"Alright, you two, I want some time with Taylor," I said to Dad and Matt. "Go get something to eat."

The two left and I was alone with Taylor for the first time that day.

"How are you feeling today?" I asked her.

"A little better. Are they gonna let me out of here anytime soon?" she asked me.

"Probably on Monday."

"In time for the funeral on Wednesday," she said looking at her hands.

"Yeah," I said awkwardly. "I know this is hard for you, Taylor. Having to bury your mother."

"Really?" she snapped at me. "What would you know about it?"

I took a deep breath. We were still getting to know each other.

"My mom died when I was nine. Matt was only thirteen. It was hard for us. Thankfully, we had our father to help us through."

"I'm sorry, Jeff. I shouldn't have snapped at you."

"You didn't know, Taylor. I'm not just saying things to make you feel better. We're both gonna screw up here. I don't know how to be a father to you and you don't know how to have a father. You're used to only having your mom. We need to accept that and roll with it and see where things go from there. We need to get to know each other."

"I guess that's true."

"Not to make you mad or anything, but I was in your room at your house…"

"You what?!"

"Your mom's lawyer gave me the keys so I could start going through things. I couldn't keep going through your mom's things, it was too much, and I just wound up in your room. I found a painting behind one of your gymnastics posters and a skateboard hanging on a hanger in the closet. Why'd you hide them?"

"Mom didn't want me 'boarding, and she didn't like certain types of art. I happen to like those things, so I did them and just didn't tell her."

I couldn't help but smile.

"What?" she asked me.

"When you and I get back to Cameron, I can't wait to take you to the Imag-I-Nation."

"The Imag-I-What?"

"The Imag-I-Nation. It's my creative place back home, where I do whatever it is that I want. I do artwork, I have a motocross track, you'd have to see it to believe it. I think you'd love it."

"You have your own motocross track?"

"Yeah, on my property. I like to do extreme things."

"So do I, but Mom always tried to stop me. The most she'd let me do was watered-down gymnastics," she said before she got a little upset.

"What's the matter, Taylor?"

"The accident was my fault, Jeff."

"Why do you think that?"

"The only reason Mom was on the road at that time was because I had gotten suspended from gymnastics again. I kept throwing really dangerous aerial tricks into my routines that my coaches kept telling me not to. When I wouldn't stop, the head coach called her in. We were arguing in the car about me wanting to do more difficult routines when the crash happened," Taylor said as she started crying again.

I got closer to her and held her as she cried, trying to comfort her.

"Taylor, the accident wasn't your fault. The other driver jumped the divider in the road. That has nothing to do with anything that you did. You just happened to be there. That's not your fault."

"But Mom's gone now," she cried into my shirt.

"I'm sorry your mother is gone, but I'm happy that you're still here. It gives me a chance to get to know you," I said to her.

She cried for a little while longer and she fell asleep, with me still sitting on her bed, leaning on me.

Taylor's POV:

Jeff was leaning back on my hospital bed when I woke up. I cried myself to sleep on him again. I had done that a few times this week. He never complained, he just went with it.

"Sorry," I said sitting up.

"For what?"

"Crying myself to sleep on you again."

"You just lost your mother. If you need to cry, cry," he said to me.

I looked at him. He didn't look like he could be a father, with his tattoos and his purple hair. He looked like the punk kids at the high school.

"What?" he asked me when he caught me starting at him.

"It's just, Mom didn't talk about you, and you don't look like a father. I don't really know much about you except for the little bit you told me before I cried myself to sleep again. What happened between you and Mom? Where were you all these years?"

"Wow. You go right for the big questions, don't you, Kid?"

"Sorry. It's just, if you're all I have, I kinda want to know."

"You have every right to know. I just thought I'd have more time to figure out how to tell you," he started. "Like I mentioned earlier, I'm into extreme things. I like motocross and I'm a professional wrestler. When your mom got pregnant with you I was just starting out in the WWE."

"Wait, the WWE. Like Wrestlemania, WWE?"

"That's the one."

"Mom never let me watch wrestling, but I know about the WWE."

"Well, we were young when she got pregnant and she wanted me to give everything I love up. To just change myself. I didn't think it was fair of her to make me choose between being myself or my child and tried to convince her to change her mind, but in the end, she told her father I'd never be a good father because I couldn't be a man like him," he said to me with sadness in his voice. "I am a man, just not the kind of man she thought could raise a child. She wanted a man like her father, someone who would wear a suit and work in an office. I can't do something like that. I begged her not to take you, not to leave Cameron. She threatened to get a court order to keep me from seeing you. I was miserable when she left, but I thought she was right. What judge in their right mind would give custody of a baby girl to someone who willingly gets into fights with tables, ladders, and chairs for a living? When she left, I never heard from or saw her again. I've spent all these years, wondering what happened to the two of you. Then the lawyer called to tell me about the accident. I was scared to hope that I might actually get to see you."

"Why were you scared?"

"Because I've wanted to see you all these years. I didn't know where she was or if the two of you were okay. I loved your mother and it broke me to lose her, but I got over her. I never got over her taking you."

"So you really aren't just some deadbeat dad?"

"I would've been here if she'd let me, Taylor. She didn't want the kind of life I was living for you. She wanted you to be more like her."

"I know. She tried to force it on me. I hated it. The clothes she would buy for me, the activities she would allow me to participate in, she wanted to control everything I did. Even gymnastics, I never wanted to get involved in that. I wanted to do things let get involved in the junior dragster races. She said no way in hell."

"Dragster races? Something I'd do, but you're not even old enough to drive."

"Junior dragster races, you can be as young as eight to drive the dragsters since they can only be driven on the courses. She wouldn't let me do it. She said it's not for girls."

"Exactly the point she made when she left me that night. She didn't want a life of adrenaline for our child. I guess it's in you anyway, huh, Kid?"

"I guess I'm more like you than she wanted me to be," she said with a sad smile.

"If you want, when you heal, I can teach you motocross."

"You'd let me do that?"

"If it's something you're interested in, why not? I have the track at home. You just need to use a helmet."

"I'd like that, Jeff."

"I don't like why we're finally getting a chance, but we have a chance. I'm not gonna try to force you to be someone you're not. Just let me know what you want. We'll take it from there. But there is one thing."

"I knew this had to be too good to be true. What is it?" I asked him.

"When we get back to North Carolina, you're gonna live with both me and Gil after a while."

"What? Why?"

"When I go back to work, I can't just keep you out of school for days on end. So, Dad is gonna let you stay with him during the part of the school week I'm on the road."

"You still wrestle?"

"Yeah. Just not with the WWE. I work for a different company, called TNA now. They're mostly based out of Florida. I get to be home more."

"But you're not going back to work once we go back to North Carolina are you?"

"No. I told my boss I needed time off."

"Then, I'll deal."