Chapter Twenty-Seven #2
“She suddenly scrambled up, fixed herself, then said she’d made a terrible mistake and had to go.
She was sorry for disturbing me and dumping her problems on me.
She was out the door in a flash before I even thought to say anything.
And then reality crashed down on me. I’d cheated on my wife, a woman I loved more than anything.
I couldn’t let her find out. I didn’t know if your mother would tell her.
And for the next month, I didn’t see Joy.
She avoided coming to our house when I was there.
I barely caught glimpses of her at your place.
I thought it was over, never to be spoken of again. ”
“And then she was pregnant. How did you find out you were the father?”
“I didn’t know, didn’t even suspect when she and Gayle resumed their friendship like nothing was different weeks later.
They bonded over the fact both of them were pregnant.
I was eventually able to corner Joy and ask if the baby could be mine.
She swore that she and Marty had been trying since they got married and more than likely it was his.
I let it go. I had a pregnant wife and then a baby to take care of, so I focused on them and tried to put that night out of my mind.
And then one day Joy brought over her six week old baby girl to show off to Gayle and to make friends with Desiree.
I don’t know how Gayle knew, but she did.
She took one look at the girls side by side and she looked up at me and I saw it in her eyes.
Since she’d gotten home from her sister’s she’d looked at me differently.
Like she knew something happened while she was gone.
Not necessarily with Joy, but something.
I didn’t think I’d changed in any way, but she’d sensed it, or I’d acted off and she noticed. ”
“Did she confront you when she saw Desiree and I together that day?”
“No. She didn’t say a thing. She didn’t accuse me or Joy. She simply acted like it never happened.”
Lucky could understand. “Gayle had a newborn of her own. If she’d said anything, she’d jeopardize her marriage, her security, her ability to care for Desiree on her own.”
The sheriff agreed with a nod. “I figured she knew she had every advantage staying with me. And I made sure she knew that when we went to bed that night and I told her that she was the only woman I loved and I would spend the rest of my life proving it to her. She must have believed me enough to stay and I made sure every day that she knew how special and important she was to me.”
“And then you realized, or she did, that I was being abused.”
“Desiree brought it to our attention with an innocent statement. ‘Lucky seems to get hurt an awful lot.’ My blood ran cold and I locked eyes with Gayle, who’d seen bruises on your mother.
We couldn’t pretend anymore that there wasn’t this not-so-secret secret between us.
She told me I needed to do something. It couldn’t go on.
Someone was going to get really hurt or die and it was on my head if it happened.
But I was afraid of making things worse. ”
“You were afraid that if the secret came out, you’d lose your wife. She’d be humiliated. My father would be furious and probably take some kind of revenge.”
“I was afraid he’d take it out on you and your mother. I didn’t want that on my conscience.”
“So you did nothing and let me suffer.”
“I was running for sheriff. The scandal would have cost me the job. I needed to support my family. I couldn’t help you if I was kicked off the force.”
“So you won the position and turned your back on me completely. Because you never lifted one finger to help.”
“I spoke to your father many times, warned him what would happen.”
“To no avail. He never stopped hurting me. Ever. You gave him a free pass.”
“No. I hated what was happening to you, but I had other problems to deal with, namely Desiree and her penchant for getting into trouble. She was out of control.”
“Yes. And you had no problem asking me to help you with that.”
“She listened to you.”
“Really? When? Because it seems like she was plotting shit behind our backs and getting away with murder.” She held up her hand. “Oh wait. I didn’t die. So I guess it must be okay.”
The sheriff gripped the bars and tried to shake them but they didn’t budge. “Damnit, Lucky, I didn’t mean for any of this to happen!”
“You didn’t do anything to stop it!” And nothing he said was going to change that. He couldn’t come up with a logical excuse for leaving her in the hands of a monster when he had the power and authority to remove her from that house and her parents. “Do you know why my mother named me Lucky?”
He sighed. “Because when you were born and she looked into your eyes and saw pieces of me in your face and not his, she said the first thing that came to mind. Lucky.”
“As in, I was Lucky not to be his. But that wasn’t true, because I remained his from day one until Desiree freed me from them.”
“Yes,” he bit out.
“You’re welcome!” came from the other end of the room.
She didn’t give Desiree the time of day.
“You are a disgrace as a husband, a father, a man of the law, and a man in general. You let others suffer so you could keep the peace in your home. So you could keep your secret and not be shamed for what you did to your wife, my mother, Danny, me. How did that work out for you when Desiree killed her own mother, your precious Gayle, who stood by you even after you betrayed her?”
His face tightened with conviction. “Desiree would never do that.”
“She did. Tell him, Desiree.” Lucky kept her gaze on the sheriff.
Silence came from the other end of the room.
Lucky guessed her sister was all out of confessions.
“No? I’ll tell him, then. The daughter you loved instead of me not only planned to kill her mother, your wife, she recorded it on her phone.
According to the transcript I read, Desiree taunted Gayle while she struggled to take her last breaths that no way was Gayle going to call child protective services and get me removed from my home and placed into yours.
She wasn’t going to share you with me. Ever. "
Bob's face paled and she feared he might actually faint from shock.
"I was supposed to die, too, the night she killed my family, but you showed up and apparently said enough to get her to spare my life. I suppose I should thank you for that, except you could have stopped all of it from happening in the first place.”
He leaned into the bars. “I love you. I never wanted to see you hurt or dead. Desiree needed her sister. I needed you.”
“Yes, to keep her in line, because you couldn’t.
And you love me? Bullshit. You haven’t shown me an ounce of love, not in the way I needed it.
It’s too little, too late now. The time to save me was the moment I was born and you knew I was going home to an abusive man.
He broke my mother and she hated me for not being her ticket out of that man’s clutches.
If you’d done the right thing, Danny would be alive today.
Do you ever think about him and what he suffered? ”
The sheriff’s head dropped. “Yes. I do.”
“Then you must not have a heart, because you didn’t care even enough to make a phone call to CPS.
You didn’t have to blow up your life. All you had to do was remove us from that hell.
That’s all. That would have been enough.
I would have been so grateful to be free.
” She swiped the tears from her cheeks. “Now you will have all the time in the world to think about your choices and the lives they cost. You can think about Danny, the way I do every day, wondering what his life would have been like if he’d been given just a tiny bit of your time.
One phone call. One act of kindness. One good thing you did for the daughter you made suffer.
I could have lived my whole life without knowing you were my father, and I’d have been okay with that if Danny and I were together.
You could have kept your family. I could have had mine. One call.”
“I’m sorry.” Tears streamed down his face, shame in his eyes, regret pulling his mouth into a mask of pain. “Please, Lucky. Let me make it up to you.”
She pressed her lips tight and shook her head. “What is a life worth? You can’t give him back to me.” She rubbed her hands up her exposed arms. “You can’t take away a thousand cuts and all the vile words my father used to tear me down. You can’t change the fact Desiree wants me dead.”
“I don’t,” she called out. “You’ll take good care of Krystal for me. Won’t you, sis?”
The sheriff’s tears poured down his cheeks again. “What I wouldn’t give to see her grow up under your influence. What I wouldn’t give to go back and make that call.”
“You had the power and you didn’t use it to save me. You betrayed me every day you knew what was happening and you didn’t stop it. So this is it for us. I do not want to hear from you. I will not contact you. Let this be the end of our sad story.”
“But I want to make things right. I want to know what happens to you, to Krystal.”
“We will be happy and better off without you. I will love her enough, so that she never goes looking for love disguised as whatever kind of crazy Desiree is or the kind of neglect you inflicted on me. She’ll have a good man to show her what true love and protection looks like.
” She glanced over her shoulder at Hawk, who winked at her.
She turned back to her bio-father for the last time.
“When you think about me, if you think about me, remember you’re the one who ruined any chance of us ever being father and daughter.
I would have given anything to have the kind of love and devotion you showed Desiree.
Now I’ll never know what that’s like. But I have him.
” She pointed her thumb over her shoulder.
“So I know I’m going to be better than okay, because he’s giving me a new family.
One who’s already welcomed me with open arms.”
“You deserve it, Lucky. I know you don’t believe it, but I do love you.”
“If only you’d showed it.” She glanced one last time down the row of cells at her sister, then took Hawk’s hand and walked out, leaving her past behind and looking forward to her future.