Her dad, adopted uncle in reality, but the man she called father in actuality, wrapped the two of them in a hug.
“Samantha, I hope you know that your mom and dad would have been so proud of the beautiful woman you’ve become,” he said.
She smiled, wiping away a tear. “I know,” she said, kissing his cheek. “But you guys are my parents,” she said. “I love my real mom and dad, but you’re who raised me and loved me when I wasn’t even yours. As long as you two are proud of me, I’ll be okay.”
Claire started crying harder and turned, hugging her tightly.
“It’s okay Mom,” she whispered.
“You know we’re proud of you, sweetie,” her dad said.
Sam forced a smile and leaned upwards to kiss him on the cheek.
“I love you guys,” she said.
“We love you too,” her mom whispered through her tears.
She got another squeeze in before the seven of them headed back home. As she relaxed in the back seat of her dad’s car next to Toni, she looked out and watched the world going by, thinking about all that her parents had to be proud of her for. Lust. Stupidity. Rage.
The red-hot ball of anger that had filled her for the past few months hadn’t gotten very much cooler. She was still furious, and at so many things. As her father drove them home, she stared out the window, calm on the exterior, but a boiling ocean of anger just beneath.
Anger coursed through her like it was part of her body now. Clenching and unclenching her fist, she dug her nails into her skin. God, she was so mad! She was mad at Dan for betraying her trust, of course, but it was bigger than just him. She was mad at Amanda for not being strong enough to stand up to the man and for being unable to get out of a bad marriage sooner. Yes, Sam had been supremely naive about the whole thing in the beginning and Dan was incredibly charismatic and
manipulative, but Amanda knew what was going on. She could have stopped it at any time!
Sam supposed that she hadn’t wanted to be alone, or maybe she’d been truly afraid of her husband.
Whatever the reason was, it wasn’t good enough. As an abused woman, Amanda had a duty to herself and those that depended on her to get out of the situation she was in. If she couldn’t, she needed to ask for help. Amanda might not have liked the choices she had, but they were valid choices. There was no excuse for staying with the abusive prick. They might not have been choices that the young wife liked, but they were valid choices. They didn’t have kids. That made it much easier. Call the police on him and leave him. How hard would that have been? Only when the chips were down and all the cards were on the table, did she get out of the marriage. Before that… nothing. Instead she had assisted her piece of shit husband in manipulating and seducing an eighteen year old girl.
She was mad at the church for allowing something like that to happen on more than one occasion. Of course given the rumors that she’d always heard, that was just the status quo from those assholes. She hadn’t been back since it had all gone down.
Finally, she was mad at Keith for being oblivious. Sure that hadn’t really been his fault. Sam herself had lied to him and that was on her. Still, he should have seen the signs and helped her.
She sighed. She knew she had no right to be mad at Keith. He couldn’t help that he was oblivious to a lot of things. She knew that she was mostly just mad at herself. She hated that she’d been so naive and stupid. She hated that she’d been so easily duped and manipulated. She hated that it had taken one of her siblings to help her get out of it, though she was thankful that Alex had told someone. Most of all, she hated that she had enjoyed so much of it. That part was really messing her up inside.
Yeah, she was still furious; on the inside. Outwardly, she was as calm as could be, almost too calm.
As they got home, she kissed her mom and dad and went to her room, sitting on the bed and idly picking at her skin. She thought back to what her dad had said about her parents being proud. Were they proud of their daughter for being duped by a lowlife into sucking his cock? For wanting to suck him off; for almost needing to?
She rolled her eyes. “What a crock of shit,” she said to the empty room.
In the weeks that followed, Pastor Dan had disappeared from the church and the town that they lived in. The congregation had heard rumors that were only confirmed by his conspicuous absence. The church sent him to a sort of half-way house for priests in Dallas. He’d started drinking heavily, spending all of his savings at a tiny dive bar on the bad side of town. If the rumors were true, he’d gotten drunk and tried to stumble home, but had fallen off a bridge on the way. He’d struck one of the concrete pilings and had broken his neck, then fallen in the water and drowned.
She felt sad for him, but only briefly.
Amanda had left him before that though, but the public opinion of her wasn’t much higher than it was for her husband. She might have been an abused wife, but she still colluded in the predation of a young woman if rumors were to be believed. She was shunned by her friends when the story got out, and had to move back home to Houston to live with her parents. Sam hoped that she was okay.
She couldn’t say for sure how much of all that was true and how much was embellished. All she really knew was that the asshole had died, and Amanda wasn’t living in town anymore.
Sam’s identity was thankfully not exposed. Her parents were never made aware that it was their daughter that had been taken advantage of. Her father had a fiery temper, and Sam was genuinely concerned about what he might have done.
Still, the shame of how much she’d been duped and what she’d agreed to had put her in a furious state for several months. She’d been able to calm herself down outwardly, and it seemed like she had a serene, almost bored expression on her face when others were around. Keith was still kicking around now and then, but she didn’t really have the desire to see him.
She’d spent the rest of the summer working at Double D’s and being lazy around the house. Alex and Toni would come and talk to her, but she really seemed to have lost the spark. Even Toni, who was always such a bitch to her, had softened and was genuinely concerned.
She was still trying to get a handle on everything, and find out what she was as a person now. It wasn’t always just anger coursing through her. She was sad of course. Sighing, she brushed her long hair as she stared in the mirror. Studying herself, she let her eyes drift down her body.