19. Archie #2
She pauses to let that sink in, then looks me square in the eye. “Malcolm didn’t give me anything, and I don’t want anything from him ever again. But I don’t want Mom left with nothing. Without this house, she will be.”
I open my mouth to defend Dad, then remember how he treated me on the phone this afternoon. He barely let me talk. He didn’t listen.
I reckon I’ve been fooling myself that it hasn’t always been that way with him. That’s all on me. Frankie and Dex have warned me often enough about Dad manipulating me that I should have opened my eyes long ago.
Now that I have, I don’t want to turn around and do the same thing to Piper. She deserves to be heard. I point to the only spot to sit, right next to her on the bench.
She nods her permission.
There’s barely room for both of us. She’s wearing a patterned, flowy skirt that hits her at the shins. Her soft yellow shirt hangs off one shoulder, showing off her lightly bronzed skin. Our arms touch, and I’m disappointed when she moves hers away.
She smells faintly citrusy. Like the trees in Mum’s backyard in Aus. Last time I was there—years ago—I helped Mum pick oranges and lemons. Then we peeled and ate oranges, still warm from the sun, right there, smiling at each other as if we hadn’t spent years continents apart.
I’m tempted to share that memory with Piper, but I reckon that’s an alcohol-driven impulse, so I tuck it away for another day.
Then I lean my elbows on my knees and face her. “I meant it this morning when I said I don’t want to be like Dad.” My conversation with him has driven that home even more clearly than when I said the words.
But that doesn’t change the fact that the cash settlement I’m proposing will be better for Cynthia and Piper, so I return to that point.
“I know he’s hurt you and Cynthia, but I’m surprised you distrust him so much that you won’t consider the idea of her settling for anything besides this house.
You’ve seen the good qualities Dad has.”
My head’s still fuzzy. I haven’t explained my thoughts clearly, but I’m not sure I’d be able to even if I were stone cold sober. Everything I’m feeling is too raw and new.
Piper’s shoulders soften. She taps my knee with hers, dispelling my fear I’ve offended her while also sending a shock of electricity up my leg.
“Okay, let me try to explain the big picture here without turning it into a pity party.” She shoots me a quick smile, tinged with sadness.
“Things haven’t been easy for Mom. She was a single mom before she met Malcolm, and she really loved him.
I mean, she really did, Archie.” She turns to look at me as if wanting to make sure I believe her.
Which I do. I think back to how Cynthia would look at Dad. How happy she was to be around him. I haven’t thought about that for a long time. It’s a painful memory I reckon I’ve blocked.
“We had a great life with Malcolm. We had everything we wanted—except for your acceptance,” Piper adds, dryly, before giving my knee another teasing nudge. “When Mom learned he’d been cheating on her almost from the start, it broke her.”
I open my mouth, then close it, reminding myself that my job right now is to listen. I sit up straighter and give her my full attention.
Piper takes another deep breath. “For all Mom’s failings, she’s always taken good care of me. But Malcolm put her in a position where she couldn’t. When she married him, she became the kind of person who couldn’t take care of herself, because that’s what he wanted. Until he didn’t anymore.”
Frustration over my own situation bubbles back to the surface. As much as I’ve judged Cynthia, her experience feels too familiar to the one Dad’s put me in.
“Look, Malcolm was the closest thing I ever had to a real dad.” Piper lays a hand on mine. My eyes drop to the slender curve of her tan fingers against my skin.
“When he cut me off,” she continues. “I blamed myself. I questioned whether I was being selfish chasing my own dreams instead of doing what he wanted, especially after everything he’d done for me.
But when I caught him cheating on Mom, it freed me from that guilt, but I also lost every ounce of trust I’d ever had in him. ”
“I’m sorry.” I stare at her small hand and wish I could go back in time to be more empathetic. Less of a bully, at the very least. For the first time, I understand how much Dad hurt Piper and Cynthia.
“You’re not responsible for your dad’s actions. I’m sorry that I’ve treated you like you are.”
Piper shifts slightly, and I realize I was wrong about her wearing another flowy skirt thing.
They’re trousers. As loose and free as a skirt—or how I imagine a skirt feels.
Don’t wear them much myself. But the realization hits me that the clothes she wears emulate her best traits.
Nothing can contain or mold her without her consent.
She’s sure and confident in a fluid, floating way.
And I’m envious.
I’ve been floating too, but not with any freedom.
I’m blown by the wind, here and there, with only one goal in mind: avoid being part of Forsythe Tech.
I’m starting to see, however, that the only reason that’s worked is because Dad hasn’t insisted.
He hasn’t threatened me—until today—the way he did Frankie and Piper, and I guess Cynthia too.
“Can I ask you a question?” She turns to me.
I nod, which is all I can do when I’m trapped in her amber irises. Without thinking, I turn my palm to hers.
She drops her eyes to our hands, hers resting on top of mine, our fingertips touching. “Why is it so important for you to keep this house? You let it sit empty for almost a year before Dex and Britta needed it, right? If you didn’t want to live here then, why do you want to live here now?”
Her eyes come back to mine and her tongue darts across her bottom lip. “Is it just to make things difficult for my mom?”
I take a breath and curl my fingers through hers. I want to answer her honestly, but I have to answer myself honestly first. “I didn’t want to live in the house after I found out Dad had used it for his own…let’s say, purposes.”
Her face twists with confusion, and she slowly pulls her hand away from mine. “But you helped hide it from Mom’s attorney by agreeing to have it put in your name.”
“I didn’t understand that was the reason at the time,” I say, hoping she believes me.
Already missing her touch. “I thought Dad was giving it to me because he’d bought it for Frankie and me in the first place.
Even though I traveled a lot coaching Dex, LA was our home base.
It was home, period. I reckon I held on to it just in case I might need it. ”
Piper’s eyebrows go up.
“Before you tell me how privileged or entitled that sounds, I hear it.” I wave my hands in defense.
“Cool. I’m glad we’re clear on that,” she says with a laugh almost as soft as her hand.
“I may have held on to the house for selfish reasons, but I’m glad I did. The gym and the proximity to the ocean are what Dex has needed for his recovery.”
“Okay, but Britta told me about their new place, so you’re not fighting to keep this house for them.” There’s an undertone of accusation in her voice, and the progress we’ve made starts slipping away.
I have to tell her the truth. “Dad is ordering me back to Brisbane to work for him at Forsythe Tech. I don’t want to go, and this house is the only leverage I’ve got. I’ve told Dad I won’t sign until he turns over my trust fund so I can use the money from it to start my own surf wear company.”
Piper tilts her head. “What happened to your ‘Surf City’ money?”
I stretch out my legs and run my hands down my thighs. I was hoping she’d focus on the start a surf wear brand part of that admission. “The ‘Surf City’ money is what went in the trust fund, which Dad is trustee for until I turn thirty. He gives me an allowance to live on.”
“Like he did with Mom,” she says bitterly.
I nod. Cynthia and I have more in common than I ever realized.
“I was sixteen when Dad suggested making him trustee over my ‘Surf City’ earnings.” I start, then tell her the whole story about where my money is, the allowance I’m on, Dad’s demands.
The one thing I don’t tell her is that he’d wanted me to send her packing.
“And the money you made coaching Dex? Did it go in the trust too?” The sympathy in her eyes encourages me to go on.
“I put it aside for Frankie after Dad cut her off. She’d refuse to take it if she knew, but I’m not touching it, anyway.
Not that it would be enough to live on for long if I did, let alone start a company.
I didn’t let Dex pay me much.” I stop long enough to rake a hand through my hair, forgetting there’s not a lot left to rake through.
“But if I sign the deed and don’t go back to Brisbane, Dad cuts me off, too.
I’ve got no money to stay in LA, let alone start Bombora. ”
“Bombora?”
“That’s what I want to call it—my company.”
She opens her mouth, and I rush to say something that will convince her my plan isn’t bonkers. “But if I hold out, we can all get what we want. Your mum gets money, and I get to sell the house or gain access to my trust fund. Either option means I won’t be dependent on Dad anymore.”
“Archie—” There’s warning in her tone.
“—Honestly, Piper, it’s the best thing for all of us…”
With a hard look, she stops me from going on.
“It’s not your idea I have a problem with.
” Her voice rises. “It’s the person you’re putting your trust in, and the fact you refuse to see that Malcolm’s doing the same thing to you that he’s done to Frankie, me, and Mom.
He’s not going to give Mom money or give you access to your trust fund.
Malcolm will never agree to any part of your plan because he’d have to give up control, which is what he lives for. ”
I hear the truth in what Piper’s saying, but I’m not ready to give up on my last hope for staying in LA. “It’s not control he loves. It’s winning. That’s why, if Cynthia says she wants a payout that’s less than what the house is worth, he might go for it. The trick is to let him believe he’s won.”
Piper shifts away from me and lets out a sigh.
“Malcolm’s already won. He’s cheated Mom in every way imaginable.
She settled for this house—which he doesn’t technically own—when she deserves so much more.
He’s taken her dignity and her self-worth, and all she gets in return is one house out of the dozen he actually owns.
” Her voice is calm and controlled until I shake my head.
I open my mouth to argue, but she’s already speaking.
“Instead of fighting him for giving away your house, you’re fighting Mom and me.
” Her voice rises, and she pulls back her shoulders.
“After everything she’s been through with your dad, you want her to fight him again?
You’re willing to fight me to force her to do it?
Do you get how messed up that is, Archie?
Because, if you don’t, you’re even more like Malcolm than I thought. ”
Her words cut deep. All the way to a truth I’m not ready to face: I don’t believe I can win against Dad. Anger is the only way to run from that realization.
“If your mum hadn’t been so brutal in her demands when she first filed for divorce, we wouldn’t be here. Dad wouldn’t have had to fight in the first place.”
Piper winces, and I immediately regret what I’ve said. “Are you really trying to make my mom out to be the bad guy in all of this?”
“No!” I protest. “I’m saying they’re both at fault, and we’re caught in the middle of it.
But if they both think they’ve won, then we win too.
If Cynthia gets cash—and we all know she doesn’t want this house—she’ll have the money to do whatever she does want.
She can pay off your student debt, buy you a car, even a house, if that’s what she wants to do. ”
I stand and face Piper, but when she stiffens, I step back.
I don’t want her to feel I’m trying to intimidate her.
“And Dad will feel like he’s getting a deal if he settles for less than market value,” I say more calmly.
“Yes, if I can keep the house, it works better for me—I admit that—but it works better for you and Cynthia, too. And I want that, Piper. Especially for you.”
Her shoulders soften, giving me hope, and I continue. “Your mum has moved on to someone else. She’ll be fine. But I want you to be okay, too.”
As soon as Piper’s jaw tightens, I know I’ve said the wrong thing. She stands and moves past me toward the door. “I don’t need you or Malcolm to take care of me. The only thing I need you to do is sign the deed. Then we can be done with all of this.”
I grab her arm. “Being done with this is exactly what I’m trying to do with the cash settlement. We want the same thing. If Dad gives your mum money instead of this house, you’ll have everything you need by next week.”
Her eyes drop to the hand I still have on her arm, and I slowly let it fall to my side.
“If you want to put your trust in Malcolm, go ahead, but I don’t.
Your cash settlement idea means going backwards, and Mom deserves to move forward.
She wants the house. She shouldn’t have to cave because you suddenly want it too. ”
Piper walks out before I can come up with a response. Not that I have one. Somehow, our conversation turned into an attack on Dad and me when what I want will be good for her and Cynthia, too.
I’m left questioning if Piper is right. Am I fighting her and Cynthia because I’m more likely to win than if I fight Dad? Those weren’t her exact words, but she implied it.
Maybe she’s right. Maybe I am fighting them because the stakes are lower than fighting Dad.
If so, she’s also right about something else…
I’m like my dad in the worst possible way.