"Clarissa?" the deep voice on the other end of the line booms. "How are you?"
Groaning, I stand up and, with much physical struggle, move towards another room.
"Valentine." I address my father calmly over the phone, though, on the inside, my whole mind is a raging war. The other end is silent so I use the chance to put the phone on speaker and take deep, controlled breaths.
"How's the baby?" His voice is somewhat softer and I recoil slightly. "Is he okay? How're the kids? How's Jace? Are you all doing okay? How about your mother?"
"Wow, Valentine, you actually sound like you care," I spit out sarcastically. His only response is a deep chuckle. I'm about to yell something else at him but he ruins my chance by speaking.
"Believe it or not, Clarissa, I actually care about you. And your mother. And your children. They're important to me. Also, I prefer if you called me 'Father' form now on. It shows some form of respect. Priorities, dear, priorities."
It's actually hard for me to comprehend what he's saying right after the word 'respect' comes out of his mouth.
"Excuse me, what? Why in the fuck should I owe you any type of goddamned respect when you're the one who abused me when I was younger? Why in the living fuck should you even give a shit about me and my children when you were the one trying to control Charlotte with some type of voodoo magic shit. Get your priorities straight before you start criticizing mine."
"Big words for a small girl," is all he says before, "Is there any way that I could talk to your mother? She's been avoiding my calls."
"Why wouldn't she avoid your calls. She was mentally disturbed for years all because of your damned mistakes. God, use your sense for once, Father." The last word is drawn out mockingly. "Besides, you know where we are. I'm surprised that you haven't randomly showed up to kidnap me. Oh right, sorry, that already fucking happened."
"Calm down," Valentine says, probably checking his fingernails and rolling his eyes at me from... wherever the hell he is. "I just want to discuss matters with her. I want to be back in your lives. I miss you all. Including your brother."
He adds the last sentence as an attachment to the rest of his discreet pleading. "Oh, so now you remember your first born child. I thought you'd completely disregarded him because you haven't mentioned him before now. Hmmm."
Chuckling, he plows through this argument anyways.
"I'd like to see you and your children instead of attempting to talk to your daughter, who is very sweet, through... my other means. See, this wouldn't be happening if you guys had just let me in earlier."
"Whatever. Drop by tomorrow. I have the police on speed dial so if you try anything funny, I'm going to, very simply, hand you over to the Feds. Okay? Okay. Great."
"Wise choice, Clarissa. Gather the whole family. Including Jonathan and Jace, if you please."
"Yeah, uh, about that. Jace isn't exactly here right now. He has other matters to take care of." I shuffle my feet as I speak, briefly glancing over my shoulder to see if Iz and Simon have overheard my conversation. Simon is throwing an 8 year old Emma up in the air. She squeals and keeps chanting, "More, Daddy, more!" or "Don't stop, Daddy. What're you doing? Keep going!"
"Where is he?"
"Is it any of your business?"
"Feisty, Clarissa," I can almost see him shaking his head. "Watch your mouth. It's my business now. Where is he?"
"He's helping his mom in the hospital."
"Okay," Valentine takes the answer. "Is your mom there?"
"Why do you need to talk to her so bad? What's going on?"
"I need to hear her voice. I haven't heard it in over 5 years and it's killing me. Just to know she's happy."
"Uh, no, she's not here right now. I can head over to the hospital to get her...?"
"Please."
"Okay, I'll, uh, call you when I get there."
Hanging up, Isabelle walks out of the kitchen holding a bowl of Cheezits, a bottle of white wine tucked under each arm. "What's up?" She attempts to say around a mouthful of the cheesy crackers. Sighing, I grab and handful and tell her to grab two wine glasses so we can drink in the car, on the way to the hospital.
"Are you freaking serious?!" Isabelle yells before taking another swig of the wine. Wincing, I glance down at my untouched glass. "He's being nice now? And he's coming over tomorrow? How the hell is he going to make it? Only God knows where he is. Jesus, Clary, maybe these hormones and modd swings are actually starting to get to you."
Coughing, I shake my head.
"I really just want the girls to have some kind of grandfather-figure in their lives."
"What about my dad?"
My eyes dart towards her, shooting a look that shuts her up.
"Okay then, so what about Luke?"
"He's always travelling. And when he isn't, he's always too busy or too tired to visit. It's crazy. I have no idea why he's still walking or even functioning as a human being any longer."
"Okay, so you want to bring your psycho crazy, fucked up father into this?" Isabelle stares at me like I'm crazy while I back up into the only available space in the parking lot. "Don't get me wrong, I really do want you to work things out with your father so all of this crazy shit can stop. But, honestly, I wouldn't trust him with my children, if I were you."
"Alright," I climb out of the car, and then see Izzy attempting to take the wine glass into the hospital. "Hmm, I'm not super sure if that's a good idea. My mom said that they don't permit alcohol unless it's for medicinal purposes. Sorry, Iz."
"Damn you, Fray." Isabelle chugs the rest of the wine and drops the glass back into the cup holder. "Urgh, that burns."
We push through the doors and walk straight to my mom's office after I flash a membership/VIP-whatever card at the receptionist. Knocking on the door that says in gilded letters 'Jocelyn Garroway', I clear my throat.
"Mom?!" I call out.
"Uh, hey sweetie. This really isn't a good time."
I glance back at Iz and she just shrugs, massaging her temples.
"So I can't come in?"
"Nope, honey, sorry. Not right now. I'm, uh, busy," she calls out and then whispers, "I'll be back, Valentine, our daughter's at the door."
AN: such cliffhangers oh my. Like I've said in my other stories, don't kill me. I was absent for tons of personal reasons like school and life and people and ugh it's frustrating but I'm back.
I haven't been in the best of mental states either so I sincerely apologize for that. I've also been travelling so much over the past 2 months that it's crazy.
I don't want to bore you with my travel talk, though. It was super tiring.
Okay, don't forget to follow, favorite, and review bc those make my day and they tell me what you guys want to see in the story/
Love you guys so much that it's flipping crazy,
-fucj
(btw: sorry for the amount of cussing in this chapter. i was rlly pissed off and i was listening to super angry music.)