Chapter 18
Eighteen
So who is this moderation everyone keeps telling me to drink with?
—Romeo’s secret thoughts
Romeo
My heart was still pounding a million beats per minute.
I’d gotten the call at two to come to Mable’s house, and my heart rate had shot through the roof.
At first, I hadn’t known what was going on.
But then Gentry had stopped me outside and given me a short rundown.
Now, I was standing here, listening to everything get aired out, and wondering how something like this could happen without either one of them figuring it out.
Did neither one of them talk? Ever?
“What about him?” Birdee sneered. She flicked her gaze to me. “I’m glad you got rid of him. He was a waste of space. The fact that he was breathing the same air as me offended my every nerve ending.”
“Wh-what?” the woman at my side stuttered. “Are you joking right now?”
“Joking about what?” Birdee asked, clearly impatient. She was also very clearly in pain. Every time she breathed, she looked like she was in pain. “I’m getting pretty damn exhausted here. Can someone just spell it out for me?”
“We were under the impression that you slept with Morris,” Vito said in confusion.
Birdee visibly recoiled. “What?”
“Morris broke up with me before the rehearsal dinner and explained that he was in love with someone else. You.”
Mable’s words had me pulling her impossibly closer.
If she could crawl inside of my chest, she’d be there.
She was standing there, looking so incredibly lost, and every single cell in my body was encouraging me to pull her in close and never let her go. To protect her from everything that might hurt her.
The fierce protectiveness inside of my soul that wanted to wrap around her and protect her with every fiber of my being was dangerous.
I couldn’t have someone this close to me.
I had a secret that could never be revealed.
And that wasn’t something that a woman should have to live with—half of a man.
I should be giving her my all. Not pieces.
There were things that I could never share with her.
What kind of life would that give us if I couldn’t give her all of me?
“Morris is a crusty piece of shit on the inside of a toilet bowl.” Birdee shook her head in disgust. “When I saw him kissing our mother, I knew that I would never look at him with any kind of respect.” She leveled Mable with a look.
“I would like to point out that I warned you about him, too. I told you he was a sick fuck, might I point out. You told me that I was jealous.”
Mable cleared her throat. “I thought you were trying to get me to break up with someone that was great to me. You didn’t want me to be happy.”
“Get over yourself, Mable.” Birdee shifted uncomfortably.
“Nothing is all about you. There are always two sides to every story. And in this instance, eighteen. I think you need to take those rose-colored glasses off and look at the world with your real eyes. Maybe if you did, you’d see that your life is pretty damn cushy. ”
She struggled to stand up from the couch.
“God, I need a fucking vacation,” she grumbled. “I should freakin’ move.”
“You went on my honeymoon.” Mable snorted. “You had a vacation recently.”
That was when Birdee slowly turned her head and focused solely on Mable.
The angry gleam in her eye had me stiffening, because I knew she was about to hurt Mable with her words. But I also had a feeling that the words were going to be true.
“I most certainly did not,” Birdee disagreed.
“I haven’t been anywhere in years. I don’t even have a passport or a Real ID.
I couldn’t get on a plane if I tried. Oh, and when you finally open your eyes and see the world for what it is, call me.
Maybe I’ll be nice and answer. But don’t hold your breath.
You’ve literally made my life a living hell, and I don’t altogether even like you.
” She walked to the door, where her father refused to get out of the way.
Birdee didn’t say a word as she waited for him to move.
When Gentry came up behind her, he ordered, “Move, man.”
Vito moved, but not without saying, “Birdee, can we talk for a bit?”
Birdee ignored him and kept on walking.
Gentry followed her out into the night.
“She’s right,” Apollo said as he threw a stack of papers on the table.
“Everything she said was true. After finding a little tiny clue, I was able to figure it out. All this crap that’s happening to you, Mable, was also happening to her.
And all of it boils down to your stepmother, Whitney.
From an early age, she started pitting you two against each other.
It started in school—there are literal documents that show her contacting teachers and school administrators about the two of you.
Text messages are in this stack of papers, too.
Some between your ex-boyfriends. Boyfriends’ parents.
Bosses that you both worked for. Hell, there are even some in here where she contacted the vet and had Brawny’s microchip details changed.
And she’s good enough with a computer that she can do this all anonymously, so it was really confusing at first. But I truly think that she was arrogant enough that she believed she would never get caught.
She would message you from a spoofing website meant to appear like Birdee’s number.
Half those texts you got that were so awful didn’t even come from her.
Whitney literally documented everything she did. It’s all here and more.”
“I can’t believe this,” Vito replied in stunned disbelief.
“Oh, you got it worse, my man,” Apollo said.
“All the times that you thought you were texting your daughter, you were really texting her mother. And the times where you actually got Birdee were the times you were saying all the hateful stuff like ‘I disown you as a daughter’ and ‘you’re a disgrace.’”
Vito looked sick.
“She made sure that those got through.” Apollo looked apologetic. “I’m sorry, but you have a lot of making up to do. She’s going to require some groveling.”
“So who actually went on my honeymoon?” Mable looked at the papers in disgust.
“That would be your stepmother,” Apollo said.
“She’s similar enough to you in the hair and eye color, facial features, and body structure that she could pull it off.
She’s been using your identity for years.
That’s who also bought the car under your name.
She did something to affect Birdee’s credit, and Birdee found out.
The mother promised to fix it, and got her a car.
Birdee was under the impression that it was to pay her back for the damage done to her credit.
She was unaware that it was in Mable’s name.
Let alone that it wasn’t paid off. Whitney produced some fake title and handed it over to Birdee when she gave her the car. ”
“Jesus Christ, this is a freakin’ mess.” Mable scrubbed her hands over her face.
“So what you’re telling me is, all this time, I thought that I was the victim.
When, in fact, Birdee was a victim, too.
I’ve been mean and angry at her for no reason, and she’s just thinking that I’m an asshole to her for no reason. ”
“It’s looking that way,” Apollo admitted, sounding apologetic.
“A lot of the same stuff that was done to you was done to her, too. Where you saw vacations and preferential treatment, Birdee was seeing suffocation and falsehoods. Let me just say here that I think you got the better end of the stick. I would rather be ignored by that crazy bitch than to be suffocated by her.”
That was the freakin’ truth. She sounded like a goddamn psychopath.
“I think you’re right,” Mable murmured. “I guess I need to call my lawyer and get the proceedings put on hold.”
I gave her shoulder a squeeze and said, “I think that would be good.”
Mable walked off to do that and Apollo came to me where I was holding up the wall in the corner of the room.
“This has been so much fun.” He laughed as he slapped me on the shoulder. “It’s always fun to find a worthy opponent.”
“The mom is really that good with computers?” I wondered as he leaned against the wall beside me.
“She’s better than good,” Vito said as he came up to us.
“In the beginning when I met her, she was working an IT job with a startup company out of Baton Rouge. She hated the job she was at, though, and had decided nursing was going to be her next career path.” He grimaced.
“We got married quick because Birdee surprised us. We didn’t know each other all that well, and I hadn’t been thinking about anything but making it right when she found out she was pregnant.
Had I done even the slightest amount of research, I would’ve realized that she was messed up.
But I didn’t. Instead, I was busy as hell at my plowing job and the gym.
She was in school to become a nurse—at least I thought. ”
“She’s not a nurse?” I frowned in confusion.
“Nope.” He laughed humorlessly. “That was one of my issues. I found out that she was fixing her grades in the gradebooks. Cheating on tests to pass. Saying she was at clinicals and marking herself as there when she most certainly wasn’t.
She graduated and started working as a home health nurse, but she only did that so she could get into people’s computers when they weren’t paying attention.
She’d steal whatever she wanted. And when they were grieving the death of their loved ones, she’d help herself to valuables. ”
“Wow,” I said.
“What a creep,” Apollo muttered.
“I didn’t find any of this out until one day I came home early from work because I was sick.
I walked in the door and she was inventorying a pile of cash bigger than my forearm.
When I confronted her about it, she let slip a few things, and I lost it.
I accused her of stealing. Confronted her about more stuff that I’d found weird over the years—new pieces of décor and jewelry—that had magically shown up.
She got pissed and left, leaving Birdee behind with me.
But that was just the calm before the storm.
Stupidly, I didn’t report what I’d found immediately.
I’d been way too damn sick. Birdee was sick, too.
And it was just a hectic four days. When I finally got better enough to confront her and call the cops, I found out that I had a restraining order placed against me.
‘Evidence’ came to light that I was abusing her and Birdee, and all of a sudden my life was in shambles. ”
“I actually read about that in your background check,” Apollo said, not sounding apologetic in the least that he’d looked into the man. “But all of the accusations leveled against you were baseless. Lucky you had Grace.”
Vito smiled. “Grace was literally my saving grace. Without her, I never would’ve proved that Whitney was falsifying everything.
By the time the dust settled a year and a half later, Whitney had moved.
I couldn’t find them anywhere. Grace had Cody, and I checked out.
I focused on Cody when I should’ve for sure fought harder for Birdee.
Maybe if I had, she wouldn’t have been so miserable. If I’d known she wasn’t happy…”
“Man, I don’t want to make you feel worse or anything, but Birdee’s had the shittiest life anyone has ever lived.
She’s grown up in a house full of people that hate her.
Her mother and stepfather might put on a good mask in public, but she was literally the whipping girl.
You should read some of the diaries that she wrote.
She started a mental health series on YouTube a few years back and has quite the following. You should check it out sometime.”
“Thought she was bad with computers?” I asked suspiciously.
“She’s not good. She has a good friend who helps her. The douchebag that gave your girl there the lime,” Apollo muttered.
“Guess he won’t be helping much anymore,” I grumbled. “Heard he lost his job and the cops dealt with him.”
“He also became suddenly unemployable here and moved in with his mom in Portland,” Apollo said.
“Though, I’m going to play devil’s advocate here.
He was just sticking up for his best friend.
He was stupid with how he did it, but he knew it wouldn’t kill her.
Also, from what he knows, Mable played a pretty big part in making Birdee so miserable over the years. ”
When he put it like that…
“I still don’t like him,” I muttered.
Vito snorted. “I never got the warmest feelings from him, either. But knowing he was sticking up for my girl when I didn’t definitely puts a different perspective on it.”
Mable entered the living room again, and I saw the exhaustion on her face.
“Time for everyone to leave,” I ordered.
“Heading to your place,” Apollo said as he correctly read the situation. “I’ll take care of the dog.”
I slapped him on the back as he and the rest of them left, Cody looking at Mable for a hot minute before she, too, decided to go. During everyone’s goodbyes, Mable hung back, looking uncertain.
I waited for the door to close behind Vito before locking it.
When I turned, Mable was staring off into space, looking stricken.
I walked up to her and pulled her into my arms.
“What kind of person does that make me that I participated in Birdee’s torture?”
“Unknowingly,” I pointed out as I folded her impossibly closer. My chin went to her head as I said, “She did the same. Would you blame her?”
She wilted in my arms. “No.”
“I think there’s going to need to be a lot of healing in this family. Your job is to participate. But it’s time that you stopped letting those people walk all over you. You have the ammunition, it’s time to use it.”
“I already spoke with my lawyer friend,” she said quietly. “We’re starting the eviction process tomorrow. Luckily, we only have to give them thirty days’ notice here.”
“Good,” I said. “Let’s go back to bed.”
“You’re staying?” she asked, sounding hopeful.
“Nowhere else I’d rather be right now.”