56. Chapter 56
Chapter 56
Sharing what David knew about Jacob’s abuse with Valerie turned out to be the most unpleasant conversation he’d ever had with her, although not needing to deal with Jacob nearby or having to wait until he fell asleep did help a little. Expecting his mom to cry, he was shocked when she didn’t, and just sat there, stone-cold angry and looking as close to murder as he’d ever seen—and this was a woman who didn’t like to kill spiders.
When he was done, she took a deep breath and said, “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yes. You don’t need me to fall apart right now.” She reached over and squeezed his hand. “Besides, I have a close, personal relationship with God, so I know everything is going to be … fine.”
David blinked at her. “You have a close, personal relationship with God? Since when, Mom?”
“Oh, since you were barely five and knocked out your two front teeth.”
He groaned, shaking his head at the memory; the worst part had been his replacement teeth not coming in for almost two years.
Her expression turned to one of motherly concern, and she returned to the original topic of conversation. “I imagine Paige was really upset after hearing all this.”
He really didn’t want to talk about Paige right now, but there was no way to avoid it. “Yes.”
Valerie nodded sympathetically. “She probably feels Jacob’s abuse on a level that we can’t, which means she understands it better and will be an invaluable source of support for him. And for you, too, of course.”
David didn’t respond to that, because he was still in such turmoil over the blindness he’d displayed at what had been happening right under his fucking nose … because his focus had been elsewhere. And that deep shame was eating away at all the joy he’d been feeling for the past few months, corrupting it.
“So, what happens next with Ashley and her abusive, asshole boyfriend?” Valerie asked, drawing him out of his bleak thoughts.
David told her what Lauren had said would probably happen with her report and the possibility of a Plan B, and when he was finished, Valerie once again took a deep breath. “Okay.”
Shortly after, he took his leave and drove home to find Casey and Jacob watching the tail end of Monsters, Inc. To David’s surprise, Jacob jumped up off the couch and ran over, and David immediately picked him up and squeezed hard. The details of the meeting with Lauren were still terribly fresh in his mind, and seeing his little boy, now with the knowledge of what he’d been through, almost brought David to his knees.
“I can’t breathe,” Jacob half-laughed, half-wheezed.
“You can’t? Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
Reluctantly, David released him a little. “Is that better?”
Jacob nodded, before laying his head on David’s shoulder. Then, essentially one-handed, David paid Casey and walked her down to the parking lot to watch until she drove away, all while Jacob clung to him.
Back in the loft, David turned off the TV and most of the lights, then carried Jacob to the bathroom for a quick bath. While the water was running, they fell into their nightly routine, with David grabbing clean underwear and pajamas from Jacob’s room, and Jacob picking out the toys he wanted from the bucket under the sink. When David returned to the bathroom, Jacob was in the process of peeing, which didn’t take long. He quickly flushed the toilet, then began taking his clothes off, and David watched, noting that a great deal of Jacob’s self-consciousness was gone.
Once Jacob was in the tub, David picked up the small pile of clothes, and as he was going through all the pockets and checking to make sure they were empty, his fingers closed around a small object. Pulling it out, he saw that it was a shiny black rock, similar to the one Paige had ‘loaned’ him a few nights ago, and which he still hadn’t returned.
Seeing the rock in David’s hand, Jacob became still and for a brief moment, looked … uncertain.
Pretending like he didn’t know what it was, David asked, “What’s this?”
After a brief pause, Jacob answered, “That’s my crystal.”
“It’s pretty cool.”
Jacob nodded, then with more animation, said, “It came out of a volcano.”
“Really?”
“Uh huh. Lauren let me pick it. She said it has powers.”
“What kind of powers?”
“Powers to protect. It helps you if you’re sad, or scared. It helps you in the future, too.”
“Wow.” David kneeled down next to the tub and set the crystal on the porcelain ledge. “Well, you better make sure you don’t lose it, then. Otherwise you’ll have to climb into a volcano to find another one, right?”
Jacob gave a soft laugh at that, but the slight shadow which had crossed his face when he was talking about being sad or scared, was still there, and it made David do something he probably should’ve waited on until after the situation with Ashley was wrapped up. But he didn’t, because he realized it needed to be done, especially since David had no intention of ever letting Jacob be within a mile of Liam ever again.
“You know what will also help you if you’re sad, or scared?” David asked. “And help you in the future?”
“What?”
“Me.”
“You?”
“That’s right.” David leaned forward, setting his forearms on the tub’s edge, and holding Jacob’s gaze. “And one way I’m going to do that is to make sure you never see that man, Liam, again.”
At the mention of Liam, Jacob swallowed hard.
“Lauren told me about him tonight,” David said. “I know what he did to you when you were staying with your mom.”
Looking down at the soapy water, Jacob whispered, “He was mean to me.”
“Yes, he was.”
“I hate him.”
“I hate him, too.” David waited until Jacob glanced up. “And if I ever see him, you know what I’m going to do?”
“What?”
“I’m going to use my superpower and punch him in the face, really hard.”
“You will?”
David nodded emphatically. “A bunch of times.”
“Your superpower is punching people?”
Deciding that didn’t sound as good as he’d initially thought, David made a quick adjustment and raised his right arm, flexing it. Pointing at what he hoped looked like a really impressive biceps muscle, he told Jacob, “This is my superpower. Being really strong.”
“But you can use it to punch bad people?”
“Yes, but I can use it for other things, too. Like …” he trailed off, momentarily struck blank, before coming up with, “Moving heavy stuff. Remember when you told Paige that I can move heavy stuff?”
Jacob nodded.
“That’s why I can move heavy stuff, like chairs. Because of my super power.”
Jacob blinked at that, impressed. “How many bad people have you punched?”
He was clearly more interested in David’s punching abilities, than his ability to move chairs, so David decided to go with it. “Only one, so far,” he admitted, not sharing it had been way back in the eighth grade.
“Oh.” Jacob seemed a tad disappointed at that. “But you could probably punch out like, a hundred bad people if you wanted, right?”
“That’s right.”
David waited while Jacob appeared to be envisioning that scene in his head, before finally saying, “Okay.”
“I also know what he said to you,” David told Jacob softly. “Terrible things like you’re a ‘pain in the ass’ and a ‘little shit’, neither of which are true. Liam also told you I’d be mad at you for being a ‘cry-baby’ and a ‘tattletale’ if you told on him, and those aren’t true, either. It’s also not true that I wouldn’t love you anymore, or want you around, because I will always love you and always want you around. He was lying to you, trying to scare you, because he’s a horrible, evil person, and he deserves to be punched in the face every day, for the rest of his miserable life.” David’s voice lowered a notch. “And I swear that he’ll never hurt you again.”
“He won’t?”
“No. Because I’m going to make sure you won’t be spending any more time with him. Starting with this weekend.”
The look of relief on Jacob’s face was priceless. “He won’t … be there?”
“You won’t be there,” David corrected him gently. “You’ll be here with me.”