Chapter 61 #2
“She started seeing him three months before the accident. They were engaged after a month, and he moved in. Then, a few months later, he pawned off her ring to pay his dealers before smoking and drinking the rest of the money away,” Chris replies for her in a detached voice.
Glancing over at him, my heart breaks at seeing his blank face watching his mother repeatedly deny the truth and it hits me smack in the face.
Three years.
For three years he’s been trapped here with the person who did this to him and trapped with a mother who won’t stand up for her son.
Julie seems to shake herself out of whatever fog she’s in and wrenches her arm out of my hand as she sneers at Anthony.
“Get off my property or I’m calling the police to report you for trespassing and harassment,” she hisses and Chief Riggs sighs.
“I never thought I’d see the day my sweet little Julie, the same Julie that used to follow her older brother around everywhere, could be this blind.
” He pauses as he looks between Chris, Anthony, and finally back at Julie.
“I just hope that when you finally come back to your senses that your family will forgive you.”
He turns, pats both Anthony and Chris on the shoulder before walking back to his car and drives off. Julie continues to glare at Anthony, but I turn my attention to Chris, determined to help him in any way I can.
“Chris? What do you want to do?”
He blinks, and my heart breaks even more when he seems surprised by my question. That I care about what he wants to do.
“I want to go back to the clubhouse with you and Uncle Reaper.”
Julie’s expression falls but she quickly masks it.
“Fine. If you’re going to repay everything I’ve done for you, everything I broke my back to give you, everything I’ve done to take care of you by going and hanging out with these criminals, then fine.
Your stuff will be on the curb by morning. You can come and pick it up. Or not.”
She turns to go inside but I snag her arm at the last second, spinning her to face me, but before I can say anything, Chris beats me to it.
“Everything you did and broke your back for?” he scoffs and shakes his head.
“Ever since Roger came into your life, I’ve been an afterthought.
Even after he took my ability to walk away from me.
The motorized wheelchairs that Uncle Reaper bought me?
One after another, he tampered with them until they finally broke beyond repair.
After the second time it happened, I put cameras out and caught him doing it to the third wheelchair Uncle Reaper got me.
After that, I told him not to bother and just used a normal wheelchair.
I didn’t want him wasting money when Roger was going to ensure it wouldn’t last for long.
Same for the chair lift. I got to use it for a year and that was only because I kept fixing it myself when Roger wasn’t home until he broke it so badly it was beyond repair. ”
A tremble works through Julie’s arm that I’ve still got a hold of and I glance at her out of the corner of my eye.
Shock runs through me at the surprised and stunned expression on her face.
Did she seriously not know Roger was pulling all this shit?
Or is she so naive that she believes everything he tells her?
“All the money you sent each month, Uncle Reaper? Roger takes almost all of it, leaving us with just enough to pay the bills and fill the fridge a couple of times a month. He takes Mom’s paychecks as well.
I’ve had to get a job after school to pay for my clothes and other necessities, though if I’m not careful with them, Roger destroys them when I’m at school.
I couldn’t even continue my physical therapy after a few months because of him. ”
The lethal stare Anthony pins Julie with has her shrinking back against me, but I’m right along with him in how pissed I am.
“When did you place the cameras, Chris?” he asks him while not breaking eye contact with Julie.
“A couple of months after the accident. For the hard to reach ones, one of my friends came and placed them for me.”
“Are they still recording?”
“Yes, I have them backing up to an external hard drive.”
“And your room? Is it the one on the ground floor that I kitted out for you?”
Julie’s gaze lowers as she swallows thickly, and I know the answer before Chris even speaks up.
“No. Roger declared it his and Mom’s room. The main floor office became his card room and where he does his drug deals. My room and Grandma and Grandpa’s rooms on the second floor, he trashed and basically made them uninhabitable.”
I stare at Chris in shock. Then my blood boils even more. Where the fuck is Chris staying? I know for a fact that the house doesn’t have a basement.
“I still have stuff in my old room, but Roger boarded up the door. I tried once to undo it to get my things. All that got me was a beating and him threatening to put a bullet in me if I ever tried again. Any time I stood up to him about needing my medicine or clothes or hygiene items, it ended in a beating and if I wanted something, then he said I should get a job. Mom tried telling him that’s what the money you had sent was for, but he wouldn’t hear it and would then beat her too. ”
How the fuck could Julie stay with a man that continuously threatened her son? Threatened her?
In two steps, Anthony is in front of Julie and he grasps her chin, making her look up at him.
“Did you seriously put your disabled son in the fucking attic?! The attic that has no heat, no air? The attic, where the roof is so low, he’d bang his head on the rafters even with sitting on his ass and scooting around?
That you allow that piece of shit to live in my house and threaten both of you? To beat you?”
“You don’t understand,” Julie pleads and Anthony drops her chin like he’s been burned.
“I understand plenty. I’m glad Riggs didn’t hear any of this. It’s also a good thing Mom and Dad aren’t here to see what you’ve been putting Chris through, either.”
I look between them, confused. Are they related to Chief Riggs?
“Riggs is Reaper’s Old Man’s best friend,” Loki whispers into my ear. “He’s also Julie’s Godfather.”
Oh, that explains a lot.
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” Anthony says as he stares down Julie.
“Chris is going to head inside and take anything with him that he wants to. I don’t give a fuck what room it’s in, if he wants it, it’s his.
Then, you have until Friday to get the fuck out of my house.
You’ve taken advantage of me for the last time and I refuse to allow Chris to be in an abusive environment for a second longer.
I know either you, Roger, or maybe even both of you had to have threatened him to not say a word to me because you know I’d have had his ass out of here the very next second and taken you to court for custody. ”
Julie’s lower lip trembles and she ducks her head, letting her dark brown hair fall forward, hiding her face.
“Now, you are going to step the fuck aside and keep that worthless piece of shit asshole in the living room. He doesn’t approach Chris, talk to him, or even fucking breathe in his direction.
When we’re done, you will only have contact with Chris if and only if he wants contact with you.
If you try and contact him, I’ll bring you up on charges of neglect and abuse. Am I understood?”
“Yes,” she weakly replies. I let her arm go.
She steps inside and a second later, yelling breaks out and I can hear the sound of a smack from where I am.
Anthony and a few others storm into the house. I’m about to follow when someone grabs my wrist. Looking back, I realize it’s Chris.
“He’s just come off a bender. I don’t want you hurt, too, Aunt Lark.”
Worry clouds his eyes and I nod as I crouch down next to him. “I understand, but even with how pissed I am at your mom, I’m not going to let her be abused by him—physically, mentally, or emotionally. I know of someone that can help her. If she’s ready to take that step, that is.”
My mind instantly goes to Mary and Mae and the new joint venture they are thinking of doing together. So far, it’s in the very early stages, but I don’t think they’d turn down offering to help Julie.
A war of emotions flit across his face before it falls. “She was a good mom before he came into our lives.”
Nodding, I pat his arm. “Let’s get inside. You can get your things while I try to talk to her.”