Prodigal Daughter
Copyright© 2025 by DB86
Chapter 24
Marshall was puzzled. He and Elise had had sex four days ago. At the time, they had agreed not to reveal their relationship to Justin, but in the days since it was becoming apparent to Marshall there was no relationship to show.
Elise treated Marshall like a friend, and an extremely platonic one. Call him stupid, but he had just kind of assumed there would be more sex coming his way. Since they’d started, there wasn’t any reason to stop having sex.
So, he was having second thoughts about his plan to tell her how he felt, convince her to stay at the farm, and live happily ever after. He was hoping. Or fooling himself.
He knew the chances that Elise would be willing to stay in Middletown on his farm as his wife were close to none. It was probably a huge mistake. She would laugh at him. Recoil in horror. Tell him no.
Elise had finished painting Justin’s room and was hanging the blinds and drapes. Marshall had asked her that morning if she needed help, but she had refused. He could hear her muttering and complaining and reading the directions out loud. Justin was watching a movie on TV. He was fascinated with Pixar’s movies, especially with Lilo & Stitch.
Justin’s school screening was the next day, and Marshall was anxious about it. He just wanted to get it done and over with.
“Hi, Dad,” he said, without even looking away from the TV.
Marshall’s heart dropped down to his boots. That was the first time he had called him Dad. And that he did it without thinking just turned him into mush. Damn, he was a sap.
Justin could ask him for anything, and he’d try and give it to his son.
Yet, he knew he’d have to learn something from Elise. Money and things didn’t matter. Just being there did. Like his grandparents had been there for him. Marshall tickled across the back of his son’s neck as he walked past him, pulling a giggle from him.
“Can I call you, Dad?”
Marshall almost choked with emotion. “Yes, of course, you can,” were the only words he was able to say.
Justin looked at Marshall and took off his baseball cap very slowly. When he finished, he looked down at the floor.
Marshall looked at his bald head, and his heart almost broke. He gulped, and forced himself to smile.
“Do you still want to be my dad?” his son asked, without looking up.
“Because you have no hair? It changes nothing. Of course, I want to be your dad! I’ve loved you since the moment I saw you, and I’ll always love you.”
“You do?” His misery turned to suspicion. “Why?”
“Because you’re my son. We are family. We love each other no matter what. Would you love me less if I was bald?”
He thought for a moment and then said, “No. But I am ugly.”
“Hey! You are not ugly! You are my son. Every time I see you, I see a beautiful, wonderful boy. My boy.”
“Mom always said I was a mistake!” he wailed.
Marshall took his son’s hands, and he let him. He was dying to take Justin into his arms, but he didn’t want to scare him away.
“Justin, your mother was a very sick person. Do you know what a drug addict is?”
The boy nodded slowly. “The Social Services lady explained it to me. She couldn’t stop taking things that made her sick and crazy. At the end, she was taking them all the time. I had to hide in the closet and stay there for hours.” Justin was openly crying now.
Marshall’s heart broke once again. He opened his arms, and the boy ran into them. He closed his strong arms around him, in a very protective way. He rubbed his son’s back slowly until he calmed down, whispering soft and reassuring words in his ears.
“I love you, Justin. My beautiful boy. Now and forever.”
When Justin calmed down, he wiped the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand. Marshall kept explaining, “The things your mother took made her say a lot of things she didn’t mean. It’s like when you’re angry and say things you regret later. Do you get what I mean?”
Justin nodded.
“You are with me now. I’ll take care of you. I’ll protect you. And I’ll love you with everything I have. No matter what.”
Justin gave Marshall a shy smile. “Okay, Dad.”
Damn! Marshall would never get tired of listening to Justin calling him ‘Dad’.
Elise was standing on a chair, hammer in her hand, aimed straight at the window. It made for a scary picture.
“What are you doing?” Marshall leaned on the doorframe.
“What does it look like? I’m hanging this curtain rod.” She gave a monstrous whack with the hammer and sent a nail straight into the wall, a bracket clanking, but holding in place. “There. I just have to do the other silver thingy, and I think I can click the rod into it. The directions were crap in English. I read the French version, and it made so much more sense.”
“Yeah, they always make more sense in French,” Marshall said, with a chuckle.
Elise ignored his words and kept working.
Marshall looked around the room. He had to admit it looked beautiful. There were all kinds of animals flittered across two walls. Grass was painted around the perimeter of the whole room, and the comforter was cheerful and bright. It was a totally different room, one that Justin could call his own.
All for a couple of hundred bucks. He was impressed. “You made an amazing work of art. It looks great in here.”
“It better do. I’ve slaved away in here for over a month. I’m much better painting animals than I am painting walls. Stencils made the job easier.”
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