It started with a plus sign.

I was pacing the floor while Tori was sitting on the edge of the bathtub.

Tori looked up to me with tears in her eyes and said, "it's positive."

I dropped to the floor. I am seventeen years old. I was about to start my senior year. I was not ready to be a father. Father. My father is a preacher. Oh man. My parents are going to kill us.

..................

That was nine months ago. All this came flooding back to me while I was pacing the waiting room floor. I had always been impatient.

Today was the day. I was going to be a father. Now, I am just waiting for them to do the epidural.

Tori doesn't want me in there. We broke up three months ago, and she obviously doesn't want me around.

She'll have to deal with me. My daughter is coming, and I am going nowhere.

"Mr. Bentley," I turned to see the nurse standing there. "You may come back now. It is close to time."

I turned and sprinted down the hallway. Things weren't great with Tori and I, but I was going to be there for my baby.

.................

Lennox Madeline Bentley entered the world on December 15, 2010. She came in small and screaming. She was beautiful.

I looked at my precious daughter, and I heard the words I never wanted to hear.

They came from beside me out of the mouth of my daughters mother, "I don't know why you are even here. You will never see her anyways."