Chapter 12 – Harley
When the doorbell rang, Harley didn’t move from her spot on the sofa where she’d sat since helping Uncle Val prepare breakfast for himself and Aunt Zoann, which he promptly brought upstairs.
Harley ate cereal alone at the kitchen table then returned to the den, trying not to think or to feel. Just numb.
Even when Uncle Val and Aunt Zoann left a little while ago after fussing over her and asking if she needed anything, Harley couldn’t connect with her feelings. She didn’t want to think about Nardo. Or Pillar of Earth. She didn’t want to remember all the abuse and taunts.
The bell rang again. She still didn’t move. Whenever she answered that stupid door, the visitor always brought devastating news to her. Otherwise, she was forgotten by everyone except Aunt Zoann and Uncle Val.
Ryan’s laughter floated down the hallway. “Yeah, no, cuck. Fuck off.”
Harley’s ears perked. Cuck? That had become Ryan’s pet name for the boys, especially CJ. It was stupid, considering the meaning when he’d first began using it, but she was a girl and she’d never understand boys.
“We have visitors, Harley,” Ryan announced, walking into the den with a cigarette jammed in the corner of his mouth, wearing only bike shorts, leaving nothing to the imagination.
She blushed, discomfort swirling in her belly. Bowing her head, she studied her hands. “We?”
“Hey, Harley.” Grant Harrington’s kind voice encouraged her to look up. Walking to her, he smiled, then sat next to her and hugged her. “How are you doing? We’re all really worried about you with Bailey refusing to even call to check on you.”
“What the fuck is wrong with these bitches?”
With those vicious words, Rory’s presence registered.
Harley stiffened. “Mommie isn’t a bitch.”
“Yeah, she is. As much as my mom, who just fucking left for no reason.”
“Rory, fuck off,” Grant snapped. “Don’t talk about Bailey until you know the fucking facts. For that matter, respect your mom. Do you know who she’s married to? The same motherfucker whose daughter was afraid to face him after she’d been through something traumatic.”
“You don’t get to tell me how to feel,” Rory spat.
“Bailey’s my stepsister, you ungrateful little motherfucker. I sure the fuck do get to tell you how to feel, especially when you’re talking to her daughter.”
“Wait, fuck.” Ryan discarded his cigarette in the ashtray on the coffee table, then sat in one of the chairs across from the sofa. “That makes you Harley’s uncle, Grant?” he asked as if he was unsure.
The concept was hilarious to Harley and she giggled.
Grant nudged her shoulder with his and winked at her. “I guess it does.”
“That makes you nothing to my mom,” Rory said bitterly, “so shut the fuck up.”
“No, why don’t you shut the fuck up and get the fuck out?” Grant said in a hard voice. “You’re over here for whatever fucking reason instead of being home helping your mom to take care of your brothers and sister. Seeing if she needs anything.”
“Mom doesn’t care, so why should I? Besides, that’s what Ella’s there for. Mattie can help and make herself useful,” Rory said sullenly.
“Rory…” Harley pursed her lips and cleared her throat. “What…? This isn’t you. Whatever’s bothering you, we’re your cousins. We can help.”
“Fuck off. You can’t help yourself, so how the fuck can you help me?”
“Uh, Rory, get the fuck out,” Ryan ordered. “You said you wanted to talk to me. Let’s do that because you aren’t abusing Harley.”
Rory’s gray eyes blazed with anger, pain, and something else—grief. Uncle Johnnie’s behavior not only affected Aunt Kendall, but their kids, especially Rory and Mattie. Until recently, he’d always been so kind.
“You want to help me, Harley?” he blared, ignoring Ryan’s rising anger. “Bring Gypsy back. Rewind the clock and tell Mom not to leave. Because of her, Dad’s gone, too.”
“Gypsy?” Harley squeaked. “Uh…uh…where did Uncle Johnnie go?” She didn’t know what else to say. Gypsy’s death was really sad, but Rory’s reaction was weird, like he was mourning a…she gasped.
Oh.
Grant patted Harley’s shoulder but focused on Rory. “Dude, would you control yourself and shut the fuck up?”
“Harley,” Ryan started, gritting his teeth and glaring at Rory. “I know I don’t have a right to ask anything of you. I’m asking you not to tell Mom or our aunts or your grandmother. We know about Rory and Gypsy. They don’t.”
“Ewww,” Harley said before she stopped herself.
“You want ewww?” Rory laughed wildly. “Try watching your fucking videos. There’s your ewww.”
Ryan and Grant jumped to their feet, unaware of Harley’s rising nausea and mortification. She slid down, wanting to melt into the sofa, wishing she had a blanket to cover her head.
“Ro, I thought I heard you,” Devon said, walking in, looking at Grant and Ryan, then lifting a brow. “What’s up?”
“Rory was just fucking leaving,” Ryan said.
“Because of Harley?” Devon asked in an unreadable tone, drawing her gaze to him. He smirked at her.
She knew, without being told, he’d seen the videos, too. If she had any tears left, she would’ve cried, but she was empty.
“I’m leaving for Boston soon,” Grant told her, sitting next to her again and giving her a quick, tight hug.
“I’ll tell Roxy to give you my room. You need your dad and your grandmother.
It is so easy to ignore them while you’re here.
Bailey feels disrespected by how much you adore Aunt Zoann.
If you’re there, her thinking might come around.
Besides, you need to heal.” He sidled a glare at Ryan, Devon, and Rory. “Away from these fuckheads.”
“I’m trying to heal,” she whispered, and suddenly tears pooled in her eyes.
She wasn’t sure if Aunt Zoann was pregnant or not and she wanted to be there for her aunt, but Harley desperately needed her mother.
She wished to rewind her life to last September with her current understanding.
It wouldn’t have mattered that CJ was Molly’s partner.
Harley would’ve believed what he told her.
“It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t been so mean and hateful, Mommie and Daddy wouldn’t have grown apart.
Pillar of Earth wouldn’t have gotten to me. ”
Grant hugged her again. “It isn’t your fault, Harley,” he told her gently. “There were cracks in their marriage for it to have so easily crumbled. And Pillar of Earth had fucking help. He couldn’t have done it without Ryan.”
“You can’t seriously blame my brother,” Devon said.
Grant didn’t release her. “I’ll blame you, your fucking brother, and motherfucking Rory. Because, fuckhead, I know you saw those videos, too, you fucking creep.”
“I knew that bitch was lying,” Devon cried, his tone so resentful, harder than Harley ever knew him to be.
“What bitch are you referring to?” Rory asked. “There are several to choose from.”
“Rebel,” Devon spat. “Rebel swore she would keep my secret and told me to look after Ryan. She couldn’t wait to blab to Grant, CJ, and Diesel.”
Ryan laughed. “In your fucking dreams. If she’d told Diesel, you’d be in no fucking condition to make your stupid fucking accusations.”
“Diesel couldn’t do me a motherfucking thing,” Devon snarled, the bitterness in his voice frightening Harley.
That was how Nardo’s abuse began. She hugged Grant tighter, wanting Daddy or CJ.
“Ignore those motherfuckers, niece,” Grant whispered, trying to inflect humor into his voice.
“You want to know what the fuck Diesel can do to you, fuckhead?” Ryan snapped and revealed exactly what Diesel had done to him. “Now, you still fucking believe Rebel told that fucking psycho?”
“I don’t!” Rory squeaked.
“She told somebody,” Devon insisted. “How else would Grant know? That’s why I’m so fucking pissed with her, Mattie, and this sniveling bitch—”
Devon grunted.
Harley lifted her head and widened her teary eyes. Judging by Devon’s bloody lip, Ryan had punched him.
“I’m on your side, Ryan!”
“Not if you’re blaming them,” Ryan retorted.
“I’m not even on my fucking side. But I’d stake my fucking life that Rebel didn’t open her mouth.
She said she wouldn’t because of Mom, and she won’t.
It’s our behavior, Devon. Especially yours and Rory’s.
Until recently, he was all up CJ’s ass. Now you two stupid motherfuckers are all up each other’s. ”
Harley shrank into the corner, close to hyperventilating, barely able to form any thoughts as the boys argued.
“Ryan’s right. Rebel didn’t tell me,” Grant said in an ugly tone. “Rory just fucking admitted to watching the videos in so many words. Like Ryan said, you two are suddenly buddy-buddy, so that shit’s easy to figure out.”
“Uncle Christopher knows, too,” Devon admitted.
“Well, fuckhead, pray Mortician doesn’t find out. He’ll kill all three of you fucking perverts and put you out of your goddamn misery,” Grant said.
Rory swallowed. “But our moms…he’d never hurt us because that would devastate them.”
“That means Diesel can’t do us anything either.”
Ryan snorted. “You don’t fucking get it, incel.
Use your fucking brain. Uncle Christopher is looking at the situation as the head of the entire family.
CJ’s overdose and Rebel’s near drowning just happened weeks ago.
He can put himself in Mom and Aunt Kendall’s places if something happened to us.
But Diesel? Diesel doesn’t give a fuck. Diesel doesn’t fucking play at being a psycho.
He is one. He wants me dead. I’ve been spared.
He won’t allow both of us to live, Devon.
And you, Rory? He fucking hates Uncle Johnnie.
Since you’ve become Mini Johnnie, Diesel will not care. Trust me on this. As for Harley—”