Chapter 12

Two and a half weeks later, around 9pm, there was a knock on my front door. I opened it to find Allison crying. I held her in my arms as she told me her parents were having a huge fight and her mom was leaving. It wasn’t the first time they’d separated but it usually was for only a handful of days. I tried to reassure Allison, but she overheard her mom tell her dad that Allison wasn’t even his and she’d been cheating on him since for their whole marriage. I cringed. Madison came into the room and joined the hug. She took her back to our bedroom and a hushed conversation occurred as she tried to sooth her.

I texted Steve and Aubrey separately to let them know where Allison was. An hour later my phone rang. It was Steve.

“Hey Allen, buddy. So I guess you know Aubrey split. I’m pretty pissed off right now and I appreciate you looking after her. She’s probably more your daughter than mine because of how much time she spends there.”

I assured him that he could, and then said that he was the one that raised her, birth father or not, he was still her dad.

“Yeah. Well. Can you hang onto her a while? I don’t wanna be here right now. I’m going to go over to my girlfriend’s.” I didn’t voice my opinions about his own fidelity, but assented to her remaining. I didn’t hear anything from Aubrey.

In the morning we swung by to grab some essentials and school stuff. She left her clothes for the time being and just wore some of Madison’s. She wasn’t in the right set of mind to do cheerleading, and they talked to the coach and both begged off for the semester. Their friends were sorry to see them go, and Karen was really disappointed because she had decided to try out that year.

Although Allison talked to her dad a few times, things didn’t seem to change. We all agreed that Allison would move into my guest bedroom and I rented a van. Sarah and Karen helped bring things out, including the desk from her bedroom. We left the bed since we didn’t need it. We even took care to clean the room and tidied up a few other areas. I noticed that most of Aubrey’s stuff was gone already. I called to give Steve a heads up that we were done and wished him well. I asked him if he’d be willing to officially make me Allison’s guardian and he agreed.

I talked it over with Allison and she was overjoyed. She called her mom, who had changed her number by this point, and got her to agree too. As soon as the ink was dry, Allison started calling me Daddy.

Allison did set up in the guest bedroom, ensuring she had her own space. They divided their bathroom products between the hall bathroom and mine. Besides keeping up appearances for visitors, neither bathroom was big enough for them to both get ready at the same time. The girls continued dating boys on and off. Whenever they did they slept in their own rooms. I encouraged them to continue being social and had no objection. I let them be teenagers.