19. Colson
NINETEEN
COLSON
Old text messages…
Colson: I took Sebastian’s bag of M&M’s. Let’s bet on how long it takes him to realize they’re missing.
Violet: Oooh. What does the winner get?
Colson: One hell of a kiss.
Violet: Just a kiss? This seems like a trick. I think he’ll figure it out today.
Colson: I’m saying a month.
Violet: No way. Purposely trying to lose now?
Colson: Absolutely.
Colson: I never said where the kiss would be. Though I have a pretty good idea on where it should be.
Violet: I always knew you were a tricky trickster.
I shift my car in park and look up at Stewart’s fancy law building. The last time I was here, it changed my life. I can hardly wait to see what’s in store this afternoon.
When Aunt Bess called after leaving Gulliver’s and asked if I’d meet her, I was reluctant. I haven’t spoken to her since the last time we sat down with her lawyer. I don’t really want to now but would rather get it over with and not have to leave the house once I go home.
I’m hanging onto the small chance that Stewart found a way around the marriage license ordeal. Maybe it was a scam all along. A copy of a fake, and Mom wasn’t truly married to Clyde Lincoln after all.
I don’t let myself think about that possibility for too long as I ride the elevator up and approach the same receptionist Aunt Bess spoke to last time. She guides me back to Stewart’s conference room, Aunt Bess and Uncle Thad already present when I walk through the door.
“Colson.” Aunt Bess gets up from her chair and walks over to me. There’s worry in the depths of her eyes. She wants to know if I’m okay but is afraid to ask. It’s probably best that she doesn’t. For a split second, I wonder if Sebastian told her what happened, but then she wraps me in one of her hugs, and I know he didn’t.
He’s still loyal to me, even after I screwed up.
Warmth encases me, and it’s hard to let go of it when I’ve been shivering in subarctic temperatures for so long. I’ve purposely forced myself outside in blustering temperatures so I’d go numb, but Aunt Bess has always been a fireplace.
“I wish you wouldn’t pull away,” she says softly, pulling back and looking me over for harm. “Things didn’t go so great last time we were here, I know that. I’m hoping Stewart has better news for us today. He’s the one who called the meeting. He’s trying to find a way around our current predicament.”
“You had no idea that she was with him?” I ask her for the first time.
“When we were teenagers, her and Clyde would spend time together,” she discloses. “I had no clue it had gotten serious enough for them to get married behind everyone’s backs.”
“They hung out?” She’s never mentioned this before. “So, Mom and Clyde were friends?” If that’s the case, then at what point did it go south, and where does Clyde’s lifestyle fit into all of this?
“Yes, they were friends at one point, I think, when we were in high school. Long before he got deeper into his illegal activities.”
I give her a hard look, unsure of how to feel about this. “Why didn’t you ever mention it?”
“Why would I? It was a long time ago, and I was under the impression that they stopped speaking. Not long after they graduated, Clyde got strung up in a bad situation. Ended up having to do a couple months in jail. I was under the assumption that they stopped talking when he was sent away. I had no idea they resumed their connection when he was released. By then, my relationship with Janie was already starting to take a turn, rebelling in ways that didn’t have to do with drugs yet. She didn’t see eye to eye with me when I tried to help her. I met your Uncle Thad shortly after that.”
I run a hand over my mouth. I guess she has a point. It really was a long time ago. But even if it was, somewhere along the way, my mom and Clyde reunited. Enough for them to get fucking hitched. “When would they have gotten married, though? That friendship they had must’ve been serious enough for them to show up at the courthouse and sign some papers.”
Aunt Bess shrugs and rubs her palms together. She’s normally so put together, so in control of what’s going on around her that I barely ever see this side of her. The side that lacks answers and is uncertain. “I don’t know, Colson. I mean, yes, at some point that clearly happened. But your mom would participate in activities back then that I wasn’t aware of. She would go to parties and drink. She would hang out with groups of people I wasn’t involved with. I wasn’t her keeper, and it was hard to nail down any real answers with her when I did have questions.”
I nod, accepting her answer and trailing around to the other side of the room to claim a chair. “Why would someone get married, just to not be with that person?” I’ve been thinking about it a lot. It doesn’t make sense, and as much as I trust Aunt Bess, instinct tells me she’s holding back. It’s not just this that has me thinking about it, though. It’s also that conversation I had with her when she was waiting for me in my apartment to tell me about Mom getting arrested. When I asked her about my father.
I stretch my legs out underneath the table and watch as she paces. Uncle Thad nods his hello from across the table. “I see the way you’re looking at your aunt. Her loyalty isn’t something you should be questioning, Colson. We’ve only ever wanted the best for you.”
My gaze lingers on his, and bravo to him for reading me so easily. I’d give him a round of applause if I had the goddamn energy.
“There’s a lot going on,” Uncle Thad continues, “but if anyone is on your side, it’s her.”
Just like that, I feel like an asshole for wondering if there’s something she’s not telling me. I chalk it up to my own paranoia and all the shit that’s been going on, the lack of sleep catching up with me.
Stewart walks in a moment later, but he’s not alone.
The tall man behind him dwarfs his height and steals all the attention in the room. Dark blue engaging eyes. Scruff on his face. Entire body clad in midnight black. Just like his son, who stands behind him.
My body goes rigid at the sight of Clyde and Finn. My mouth clamps shut, and my muscles work overtime, clenching under the guise of this being the most fucked up family reunion ever.
Across the room from me is my stepfather—Mom’s husband —and Harrison Height’s most known drug dealer.