Chapter 39 #2
It might not be my place, but I chose to step in.
“Sir. Frankly, none of your children trust you or want your involvement in their lives. I’ve talked with most of them at this point, Erin especially, and they all agree you’re just trouble.
Please, for the love of god, go through therapy and figure out why you’re so obsessed with your daughter. This really isn’t healthy.”
He stared at me, gobsmacked. “This is between me and my children!”
Logan challenged that immediately. “No, it’s not. Because we don’t want to deal with you anymore. Just go. All right? Just fucking go.”
Raymond’s brows screwed together in this perplexed manner. “I’m just making sure my daughter has enough money for college, is that so wrong?”
“I repeat, again, she won’t accept a dime from you. You’re wasting your time.”
“No one turns down money!”
“But it’s not just money with you. There’s always strings attached. Erin’s learned that painfully well.”
“I wasn’t going to ask for anything!”
I snorted because even I didn’t believe that.
Logan pointed to me. “He barely knows you and even he knows better. There’s always strings attached. You’re obviously using money to open the door again. But Erin’s nailed that door shut. May have welded it shut, really. She wants absolutely nothing to do with you or your wife.”
He looked crestfallen all over again. “I can’t even help her?”
“No.”
For a long moment, we awkwardly stood there.
Raymond, I think, was on the point of tears.
He was lost on what to do next. I think he really believed his ploy would work.
Why, I didn’t understand. Logan had gone to several lengths in order to support his baby sister.
Did the man really think he’d given all the money away and not given Erin anything? Seriously?
Or had he gambled, hoping this ploy would make his daughter talk to him again? If so, it was a poor ass bet with very low odds.
He stared at Logan for a long moment. Then at me, strangely. He seemed really focused on me. “Don’t you know what he was like as a teenager, how much a reprobate he was?”
Oh he fucking did NOT. “Sir. Your son has no secrets from me. Nor I from him. And with your question, it shows you haven’t changed at all. You leave right now. I’m calling the police in three seconds.”
“No, I didn’t mean—”
“I guess I’ll always be the screwup to you,” Logan said harshly, and oh his expression was furious. Like a storm sweeping across Lake Superior. It was cold, too, an icy fury. “You’ll never acknowledge your part in it, either. Go fuck yourself, asshole.”
Raymond seemed to realize he had put both feet in his mouth, and had somehow crammed a hand in there as well. I don’t know why he thought undermining Logan in front of me was a good idea. Maybe he was trying to break Logan’s support to get to Erin? I don’t know, it didn’t make sense to me.
But he did realize he wasn’t going to gain ground here. With a heavy sigh, he turned and trudged away.
“What,” I bit off, “the ever loving fuck was that?”
“Oh, that’s usual tactics from him. Whenever I told him no, that’s what he always did in return—try to tear me emotionally down.”
“Woooow. What an utter asshole.”
“You see now why Erin wants absolutely nothing to do with him. Him and my mother both are the worst emotional blackmailers you’ve ever seen.”
“I thought my mother was bad, but he might rival her.”
“Sadly, yeah.” Logan let out a long breath. “Hopefully, though, he’s finally gotten the message.”
“Hopefully.” And if not, I’d call Zar and make this police official. Zar would back us up one hundred percent.
I felt like Raymond needed a little fear of repercussions put into him.
Really, Logan’s whole family was as screwed up as mine.
Maybe Raymond was a result of his father’s emotional abuse.
It would make a lot of sense. I knew, through Logan, his father had eventually gotten the DNA test done.
He really was his father’s child. Logan held mixed emotions, because it had been spiteful to push the entire family aside on a suspicion that proved unfounded.
It was so senseless, to live in that dark depression, cutting off ties to family. Grandpa McNair had a lot to answer for.
But that wasn’t our focus today. “Ignore him. We don’t have time to dwell on him anyway.”
Logan grimaced. “True, I have a full bar to move. Alright, let’s get hoppin’.”
“Sure.”
We made a good team, he and I, and we loaded up the truck pretty quickly. It would take multiple loads to get all of this done but I was determined to stick with it until the job was done. I wouldn’t leave Logan to do all of this himself.
I climbed into my truck with a grin. With the future this bright, I’d need shades pretty soon.
I really had to find the right time to propose, though. Busy as we were, god knew when I’d manage it, but I was determined to do it within the next two months, at least.
Maybe Riggs’s magic scheduling powers could help me find one clear evening in the next month or so?