Chapter 27
Jeannie
Well-Earned Closure
My leg bounced rapidly as I sat in one of the few booths at the café, staring down at my untouched coffee.
Never in a million years had I thought that my parents would show up at my door, and never in a million and one years did I ever expect to feel like a sixteen-year-old girl again. So small. So powerless. So confused as to why those who were supposed to be protecting me weren’t doing their job.
For a moment, it felt like I was about to crumble, but then I’d found the anger that had been hibernating in me for so long, waiting for the chance to actually be absolved. I guessed Remy was an even bigger influence on me than I thought.
But all shifter jokes aside, I was intensely grateful that he was waiting down the street in his mommy-mobile just in case things went sideways.
I had messed up by isolating after getting the bad news, and yeah, I could use some more therapy, but for the moment I was ecstatic to have him in my life.
The door chimed for probably the twentieth time since I’d arrived, but this time, my parents were walking through the entrance.
It was entirely surreal seeing them as they were.
The last time we’d spoken had been nearly half my life ago, when my mother’s hair had only just begun going gray at the temples and my father hadn’t quite yet gone bald.
Somehow, they both seemed smaller now. Less the patriarch and matriarch of our household, and more like sad, wrinkled old people.
It made me feel better. A tacit sort of acknowledgement that I had grown past them. Even though I was nervous about what they might say, I wasn’t afraid like I might once have been.
“There you are, Juni—Uh, I mean Jeannie,” Mom said, sliding into the booth first. Ick. It felt weird to use that term for her, but at the same time I wasn’t about to call her by her first name. “I’m so glad to see you here.”
“I set up the meeting,” I said neutrally, deciding that the ball was in their court and they would dictate how this meeting went. After all, I owed them nothing. If I decided that they hadn’t changed, then I fully intended to walk out the door and never look back at them again.
“I know, but still, I was worried you might get cold feet.”
That was reasonable. I had certainly thought about it, so I couldn’t really fault her for that.
“How did you find me?”
“Oh, we showed you yest—”
“That newspaper clipping is how you found out about Max, that he was sick, and even what city we’re in, but you didn’t wait outside the cancer clinic hoping to run into us. You came to my address and knocked on my door. The newspaper clipping didn’t tell you all that.”
They got that sort of disgruntled expression on their faces that I recognized so well from my childhood.
It was the same one they wore whenever I asked too many questions or poked too many holes through their blanket statements.
Well, I wasn’t a kid anymore, so they couldn’t brush me off like they used to.
If they wanted to continue to have a conversation with me, they had to answer.
It was definitely a tip in the power scales, and it was working for me.
I had spent so much time as a kid being scared, or confused, or believing I was downright too weird to function.
That something was broken in me, that I couldn’t be a good kid like everybody else and just fall in line.
Now I knew better, and I could use that knowledge to get the closure Juniper had always been owed.
“We hired a private investigator,” my dad answered, and I was relieved that he was choosing to be honest right out the gate. Not that he’d been much of a liar when I was a kid. No, my father had definitely been a man of his word. The issue was the words that he spoke.
“Why?”
My mother took over again, which made sense.
She’d always been more of a yapper than my dad.
“Because, like we said, we realized that we failed you and wanted to reconnect. For a long time, the wounds ran too deep, but once we saw that little boy’s face and found out what the two of you had to go through, we knew we had to try. ”
“That man we saw at your house,” Dad cut in. “Is he the father?”
I debated lying to them, because it really wasn’t any of their business, but it would be hypocritical to expect honesty from them and not give the same in return. “No. He’s never been in the picture.”
I waited for their disapproval, certain it was coming, but strangely enough, they almost seemed... pleased by it?
“Well, it’s a bit unorthodox, but I can’t complain about having someone to carry on the Wulfhunde name.”
It was a simple statement, perhaps even a throwaway one, but it dinged at something in my head.
How many times had I heard my father wishing that he had a son to carry on our family legacy?
And when I had told them about our leader, they’d mentioned that as a daughter, my greatest gift to them could be marrying well.
Was this why they were here? Or was I just too paranoid?
“It’s Wolfe.”
“What was that, now?”
“Our last name. I had it legally changed. I’m surprised your PI didn’t tell you that.”
“Oh, I’m sure he did. It just slipped my mind.
” My mother recovered quickly however, reaching across the table as if to rest her hands over mine.
I quickly jerked away. While I believed in healing and forgiveness, I also believed it needed to be earned.
My parents hadn’t earned it yet. “But technicalities aside, don’t you see?
This was meant to be!” The fact that she used something I had thought about Remy and me so often just rubbed me the wrong way.
Like she was co-opting language she didn’t deserve.
There was nothing magical about them showing up at my door.
They had hired a freaking private investigator.
“I can’t imagine how difficult it’s been for you, going through this all on your own, but you don’t have to now. We’re here. We can help with babysitting, doctor’s appointments, taking little Max to service.”
“Service?” I blurted with so much disdain I was surprised my coffee didn’t boil itself in my cup. “Are you guys still involved in the commune?”
They gave me such aghast expressions, like I was the weird one for having a strong reaction.
“Of course, sweetie, why wouldn’t we be?”
All of that anger that had no place to go for so long found its place, virulently forming into a spear that was ready to bury itself in the people who had hurt me so terribly.
“I told you, your dear and glorious leader came on to me. He cornered me at my own birthday party and tried to kiss me.” I was speaking loud enough for all the tables around us to hear, but I didn’t care.
I was tired of allowing these people to hide in secrecy and shadows.
If I wanted to shout to the whole world that they were willing to pimp out their daughter for social currency, then I damn would.
“I ended up having to run away because you and everyone else in that stupid fucking cult punished me for not wanting to sleep with a man who was fifty years old and already had two other wives!”
My mother clicked her tongue, and I was instantly transported back to my youth. “You always were so dramatic about things, sweetie. It was never like that.”
“Yes, it was. Don’t try to pretend it wasn’t. You two were basically trying to serve me up on a silver platter!”
“Cut the theatrics. We didn’t travel all this way for you to get hysterical.” That was my father, of course, and his response was so old that I could have said it verbatim without him even opening his mouth.
“Juniper, shhhhh! You’re making a scene.”
“That’s not my name. And I’ll make a scene if I goddamn want to make a scene! You don’t get to pretend to be all high and mighty, to hunt me down in my own home and violate my peace, and then pretend like nothing happened. That man sexually harassed me, and I came to you for help.”
“Jeannie, honey, it was just a miscommunication. Leader Camden explained everything. Really, if you just come home and give him a chance to explain, you’ll understand.
That way, everything can finally be settled, and Max can have a community.
No kid should have to grow up with no family. Don’t you miss everyone?”
“He does have a family, and I trust them with my life.” I stood, red-faced, finger pointing, and my father reacted in kind. He was about to bellow at me, a thing that would have once made me cower, but I wasn’t that little girl anymore. I hadn’t been in a long time.
“You listen here—” he started, but he quickly learned that was the absolutely wrong thing to say.
“No, you listen here, you ass backward, brainwashed old kooks. If you’re so sure that your actions are right, then you should be fine with everyone hearing how you were willing to sacrifice your own daughter for clout when I was fifteen.
And how you let it go on for a year and a half until she was driven from your home.
“Go on. Look at everyone’s faces. You see that? Do you see that? That revulsion? I think some people are even filming. That’s because you’re disgusting! You sicken me, and you will never be part of me or my child’s life!”
“Jeannie, you don’t mean that.”
“I most definitely do,” I countered, satisfied in how they were rapidly packing themselves up and heading toward the door.
I was definitely feeling cathartic, like I was taking the power back from two people who didn’t deserve to have it.
“And if you dare try to hire another PI to bother us, or show up at my door again, or even so much as send a greeting card to anyone in this city, I will personally smack you down with enough restraining orders that you couldn’t so much as take public transportation.
“I will plaster your faces and my story all over the internet. I will make sure it goes viral so the entire commune can’t show their faces anywhere in this country. Do you understand me?”
“You’ve never learned,” my father snapped as he opened the door for my mother. “We try to do what’s best for you, but you always insist on fighting us every step of the way.”
“You never cared about what was best for me, only yourself and continuing your family legacy. You are bottom feeders among the bottom feeders, and after this, I will never spare you another thought.”
That seemed to be the final straw. They hurried out the door and down the street. I stood there, chest heaving, allowing myself to fully feel my feelings.
There were a lot of eyes on me, but I didn’t care. Some would consider what I had done a waste of energy, but I had finally shut the door on my past. Now, I could move forward into my future.
I still had a lot to learn, still had a lot to heal from, but I had just taken a huge step in the right direction. I was proud of myself.
And I couldn’t wait to tell Remy.
There was no “everyone clapped” moment, but a few people cheered and sent me encouraging looks. I nodded in kind to them, gave a little bow, then headed out.
Sure enough, I only had to go a few steps before Remy was right there, a soft grin on his face. He looked so proud of me, I nearly cried. How had this man, who had been a stranger six months ago, given me the things my family had denied me from birth?
“I’m so incredibly proud of you,” he said before catching me up in one of those amazing bear hugs of his.
I smiled at my pun, but also at the sensation of being truly embraced. There was peace in Remy’s arms. And I would never forget that.
“You heard?” Although he had been halfway down the street, shifter hearing really was quite impressive.
“I heard. And you were magnificent. I wish you would’ve let me come in with you so I could film it. I bet the look on their faces was amazing.”
Now that my adrenaline was beginning to ebb, I gave it a thought, and yeah... Their expressions had been a mix of comedic and incredibly satisfying. They really had thought they could just whisk into my life and trick me all over again. Fucking idiots.
“They were. I think I made my point clear enough, so we won’t have to worry about them ever popping back up again.”
“If they do, you know I’ll handle it, right?”
“Handle it like run them out of town, or with a sniper rifle?” I chuckled, calling back to the joke he had made before.
“Whatever you want.” He bent and gave me a little kiss. Not the lip lock I was kind of starting to crave what with the adrenaline still pumping through me, but it was so wonderful. “Speaking of which, do you want to go pick up the kids from their playdate with Valencia and Paulo?”
That did sound lovely. The whole thing with my parents really made me want to hold my son and be grateful that he was gonna have a life nothing like mine had started. But I wasn’t sure if I was ready quite yet.
“Actually, do you mind if we go on a bit of a walk? I’d like to wind down first. Right now, I’m on top of the world, but I don’t wanna crash suddenly when all the fight-or-flight chemicals go bye-bye without warning. Do you think we have the time? I know you’re crunching a major project.”
He took my smaller hands in his larger ones, squeezing slightly as he gazed into my eyes. “For you, I’ll always make the time.”