Read A Reason To Stay for Free Online

of her. He touched her hair, rubbing it fretfully.
    “Honey, it has nothing to do with you or your sister. I love you with all my heart. My job has transferred me to another place, and I have to go.” He hugged her fast and stood up. He snapped his case shut and practically ran down the stairs with it.
    “Daddy!” Elise screamed, as she tried her best to chase him down. Terror and fear stung the ears of anyone within twenty feet of their house. “Don’t go. We all want to go with you, Daddy!”
    She ran down and glued her arms tight around his neck as he bent down to kiss Melanie. She remembered how he wept as he peeled her off him, never looking her in the eyes. He grabbed his bags and suitcase from the floor. Elise’s mother came from the kitchen and pulled her from his legs. Melanie stared from her playpen in the living room, drool leaking from her chubby lips.
    “Elise, calm down and let him go.” Her mother’s nails scratched her arm, trying to restrain her. She broke free and ran outside, not feeling the burn right away. His car had pulled away from the curb and was making the right-hand turn that led him out of sight. She ran down the sidewalk, her breathing becoming too rapid and her feet stinging from the pounding on the cement. Sobs had mixed with physical fatigue and she couldn’t get to him in time. Her mother yelled from the front stoop of their house.
    “Elise, get back in here now. You’re causing a scene.” She waited until Elise came back into their yard before shutting the screen door and going back inside.
    Elise stayed on the front porch until it turned dark that night. She watched every set of car lights that drove down her street, hoping one of them was her daddy. But he never did return. She did think that a few times she had seen him out past the jungle gym equipment on her playground. When she mentioned it to her mother, she reassured Elise it was only her imagination.
    They never talked about that day and it remained closed in Elise’s head. She attributed it to her problem with her mother, her father, and men in general. Her mother raised her two girls in the brainwashing that no man was ever going to stay with her. Mrs. Newton tried to look content in her chronic single status as the years went on, but Elise wondered if her mother ever regretted not allowing herself a second chance with love.

CHAPTER FOUR

    Regrets and Rebounds

    Elise trudged to the kitchen, rubbing her puffy eyes and untwisting her nightshirt. The sweet smell of Darren’s roses welcomed her into the room. She sighed as she walked by them, regretting the evening before and what they represented. Grabbing a glass out of the cabinet, she turned on the faucet and waited for the water to get cold. It soon felt good cascading down her throat, flushing away the dryness. She stared back at the twelve buds, feeling immense shame for her actions, knowing she didn’t deserve them. Today was not going to be easy. Ignoring a situation was sometimes more difficult than facing it.
    She got ready for work and picked up the bags on her way out, the ones that Darren had brought in for her. The ones that held her worldly emergency possessions. A pair of clean underwear, a small bottle of Scope, water, her wallet, a book on bettering herself (that little gem hadn’t even had the spine cracked), and her laptop. She burned off more calories toting these around than she did actually using the contents. Still, it made her feel better to have them close by at all times.
    She drove to the Starbucks on her way to work, pulling into a parking spot after she saw the drive-thru line was wrapped around the building. She went in and stood, waiting her turn to order herself and Janine a cup of anything that could get her through the day. She felt a heavy stare weigh on her back and turned to see a guy three shades shy from Bradley Cooper gorgeous. He smiled a ‘come hither and get to know me’ look at her. Ordinarily, he’d be just the right