Chapter 11 #2
Mr. Scanlon’s knuckles gripped the edge of Jack’s bed so tightly that they turned white. “A boy your age? I’m sure you’ve got your eye on a sweet pair of wheels for when you get your license. How about it? I’ve got a garage full of cars. Take your pick!”
“J-E-N-N-A,” Jack spelled her name out for her father.
“Ten thousand!” Mr. Scanlon said in a loud voice. “Cash! I can have it delivered to your room within the hour.”
“Ten billion,” Jack countered.
Mr. Scanlon’s eyes darkened. “Fifteen thousand is plenty generous for a kid your age.”
“Fifteen billion is even more generous.”
“Son, you’re getting on my last nerve.”
“Must be the morphine. You know, from when your wife had her bodyguards beat the shit out of me.”
Mr. Scanlon crossed his arms over his chest. “You do not want me as your enemy, son. Better you take the deal now before you walk away with nothing.”
“Wrong,” Jack told him. “I’ll be walking away with Jenna—and she’s worth more than any bribe you could try to hand me.”
“You forget, son, that Jenna is my daughter. I control her life.”
“Legally, yes.” Jack couldn’t argue that fact any more today than he could yesterday. The only difference today brought was that it was one day closer to Jenna’s eighteenth birthday. “But you will never control her, Mr. Scanlon. And if you loved her at all you wouldn’t try.”
“I am doing this because I love her!” the man shouted.
Jack didn’t doubt that. But he was also sure that Mr. Scanlon loved the power he had over his children too much to truly understand that love.
It was why he and Carolyn had problems too.
“Were that true, Mr. Scanlon, you would be stopping to ask yourself what Jenna wants and not what you think she wants.”
“And you think that’s you? You think that a white trash lowlife like yourself could possibly be what my daughter wants?
There is a chandelier in her bedroom that costs more than your friend,” he waved a hand at Mr. Zarin dismissively, “ever made while serving in the Marines. Which of the two of us do you think Jenna would choose if really given the choice?”
“Well, since you’re here trying to bribe me to stay away from her, I’m guessing me.” Jack couldn’t keep the pride or the humor from his voice.
“Wrong. She’s chosen to leave Port Townsend. She no longer wishes to be in this small town and I, frankly, support her decision. She’s leaving for boarding school in two days, Mr. Duncan.”
Jack’s heart hammered in his chest. The monitor started to beep frantically beside his bed. Mr. Zarin put a gentle hand on his shoulder, but it did not calm him. “What do you mean she’s leaving?”
“I mean,” Mr. Scanlon repeated, drawing out the word, “that Jenna has decided her future does not include you. I warned you, Mr. Duncan, to take my deal or walk away with nothing.” Mr. Scanlon tipped his head forward, his face smug. “Now, you have nothing.”
Jack shook his head. “You’re lying!” Jenna wouldn’t leave. She wouldn’t! Not after accepting his proposal the day before.
“Am I? Well, regardless of whether you believe me or not, Jenna is leaving.” He slapped the edge of the bed with his palm. “I wish you a speedy recovery, Mr. Duncan. Too bad your stubbornness kept you from providing a good life for your sister.”
Mr. Scanlon headed towards the door.
“You’re forcing her to go!” Jack shouted after him. “She doesn’t want to go but you’re forcing her to go!”
Mr. Scanlon spun around, walking backward out of the room. “Tell yourself that if it makes you feel better, Mr. Duncan. Either way, you’ll never see her again.”
Jenna sat on her bed as her mom and two maids were tearing her entire life apart.
Suitcases lined the wall by her door. They were packing up her room like she wasn’t coming back.
Well, screw this! It was clothes and knickknacks.
There was absolutely nothing going into those suitcases that Jenna couldn’t live without. Let them pack!
She still wasn’t going.
Jenna didn’t care what it took. She was not leaving Port Townsend.
As soon as she stood up off of the bed, her mom was right in front of her. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“To see Carolyn,” Jenna snapped, forgetting her determination to ignore her mom. She’d already been informed she was not allowed to leave the house. “Or is she someone I’m also not allowed to see?”
Her mom’s eyes narrowed. “Do not try to sneak out of the house again. I’ve already posted a guard at every door. They will stop you.”
Jenna had learned that the hard way that morning when she’d tried to leave out of the front door to get to the hospital to see Jack.
That was also when she learned her father had already left for the hospital.
Jenna had been a worried wreck ever since.
What was her dad saying to Jack? What was Jack saying to her dad?
Was her dad going to hurt Jack? Before yesterday, Jenna would have been the first to say that no one in her family would physically hurt another person.
Her mom had called her a na?ve little girl—and she’d been right. Just not on what she thought Jenna was na?ve about. No, Jenna’s eyes had been opened to just how cruel her family could be and how they really treated those they felt were beneath them.
Jenna stormed out of her bedroom, down the hall, and into Carolyn’s room without knocking.
Her sister’s room was pitch black, aided by the fact that she’d painted her walls black, had blackout curtains on her windows, and all her furniture was black.
Her sister’s snores told her that she hadn’t even woken up yet that day.
Then again, she probably hadn’t gone to bed until the morning.
Jenna turned on the overhead light, not caring if it woke her sister. She went straight over to Carolyn’s nightstand where her private phone sat in its cradle. No surprise, it too was black.
She dialed the operator to connect her to the hospital. Then she had to wait to be transferred to Jack’s room. It rang several times before someone picked up.
“Hello?”
“Mr. Zarin!” Jenna said loudly, excited. Then she lowered her voice, conscious that her mom might be trying to listen in. “Mr. Zarin, it’s Jenna. Please, I have to speak with Jack.”
“Are you safe, Jenna?”
Her laugh was dry. “My room is being packed without my consent, I’ve been imprisoned in my own house with guards posted at every door to keep me inside, and I am being shipped off to a boarding school across the country against my will. But safe? Yeah, sure. That’s the one thing I am.”
There was a pause before Mr. Zarin said softly, “Stay strong, sweetheart. This might just be something you and Jack have to endure for the foreseeable future. Hold on a second. Let me get him situated. He was laying down after your father left.”
Jenna closed her eyes, hanging her head in shame. Jack was hurt and did not need the added stress her dad’s visit would have brought with him. She heard the murmur of their voices after Mr. Zarin put the phone down but couldn’t pick up on any words except her name.
Then there was some rustling. “Jenna?”
“Jack.” Tears flowed down her cheeks. “Jack, I don’t want to go! I swear!”
“I know, baby. I know. I didn’t believe it for a second.”
Relief filled her that he hadn’t doubted her commitment. “What did he say? What did he do?”
“He tried to bribe me to break up with you but I told him ‘no’.”
“Stupid,” Jenna chastised. “We could have used that money to run away together.”
Jack chuckled before groaning into the phone. “Don’t make me laugh, baby.”
Jenna winced. “I’m sorry. How are you?”
“Better now that I’m talking to you. And don’t worry—I’ll take the money if he offers again. Still won’t stop me from marrying you though.”
Jenna couldn’t help the smile, but it was bittersweet. “What are we going to do? I don’t want to go.”
Jack let out a long sigh. “I know, baby. I don’t want you to go either. But our hands are tied. As much as we hate it, your dad does have the right to send you off to boarding school across the country.”
“I’ll come back!” Jenna vowed.
“No,” Jack snapped and then hissed. “I am not having you traipse across the country on your own just to get back to me. Seeing you is not worth your safety, Jen. We will figure something out. Talk every day on the phone. Write letters. I’ll figure out some way to come see you, even if I have to work my ass off to pay for a plane ticket. This isn’t the end of us.”
“Jack…” Tears continued to fall down her cheeks. “You don’t understand. It physically hurts when I think about leaving you.”
“You think it doesn’t hurt me? I could take a thousand beatings from your mom’s thugs and I still wouldn’t feel a fraction of what I’m feeling at the idea of not seeing you again for months or years.
But the knowledge that I will see you again will keep me going.
The knowledge that you’re taking a piece of me with you.
That even across the country, you’re still mine. ”
Jenna felt like she couldn’t breathe. “I love you, Jack.”
“Fuck, baby, you have no idea how good it is to hear you say that. Even better to finally be able to say that I love you too. I’ve wanted to since that first kiss.”
“First of many,” Jenna swore through her tears.
“Damn straight.”
“I’m going to try to sneak out of here to see you.”
“Only if it’s safe, Jen. Don’t get yourself into trouble or put yourself in danger just for me.”
Christ, she loved how growly his voice got when he ordered her around like that. Why was that so hot? “Jack.”
“Yeah, baby?”
“Did you mean it yesterday? When you said you’d take me over your knee if I apologized again?”
He groaned, but whether that was in pain or…something else, Jenna wasn’t sure. “Fuck, Jen, you can’t ask me that while there’s a catheter in my dick.”
Her eyes went wide and her cheeks flamed. “Oh God! Is Mr. Zarin still standing there?”
“Yup.”
She slapped her palm to her forehead. “Jack!”