19. Alison
Everything happens at once.
Victor grabs me. Mom shoves Tobias toward Walter. Dad grabs Mom.
“Take him!” Mom screams.
“No!” Tobias twists away from Walter, reaching back for her. “Mommy!”
“Walter, take him!”
Dad jerks Mom backward hard enough to make her stumble. “Where the fuck do you think you’re going?”
“Get your hands off me!”
“You’re not taking my son!”
“He’s a child, Roman!”
“He’s MY fucking child!”
Tobias screams. Walter catches him tighter, pulling his face into his shoulder. “Hey. I’ve got you, little buddy.”
“My Walter.” His arms lock around Walter’s neck. “My Walter.”
“I’ve got you.” Walter looks at the house. “Danny!”
Danny is there in an instant. Walter starts to hand Tobias over, and Tobias panics. “No! My Walter!”
“Come here, Little Frog.” Danny takes him and turns his small body into his chest. “I’ve got you.”
“No!” Tobias reaches for Walter. Then Mom. Then me. “I want Ally!”
“I know.”
“I want Mommy!”
Danny pulls him tight. “I know.”
Arthur turns. “Danny, don’t remove him from the property.”
Danny looks at him. “He doesn’t need to fucking see this Arthur!”
“Danny—“
“He doesn’t.” Clifford steps up beside his son. “I’ll go with them.”
“Clifford.”
“He’s not watching this, Arthur.”
Then they’re moving, Danny carrying Tobias toward the Harringtons’ with his face buried in his shoulder, Clifford right beside them.
“ALLY!”
“Go, bug!”
“COME WITH ME!”
“I will!”
“PROMISE?”
My throat closes. “Promise!”
I watch them cross the yard. Tobias is safe. He’s going somewhere Dad can’t touch him. He’s—
Victor jerks me around. “What the fuck is going on?”
Pain tears through my shoulder. “Let go of me!”
“What did you do?!”
“Nothing!”
“Don’t fucking lie to me!!”
“I’m not!”
“What did she give you?”
“Let go!”
His fingers dig straight into the bruises on my arms. I cry out. “What the fuck did you do, Alison?”
“Nothing!”
He shakes me. My teeth snap together. “Stop!”
“What did you send?”
“LET GO OF ME!”
“ANSWER ME!” He shakes me again, and it drops me straight back into Thursday. Dad’s hands on my arms. My body snapping back and forth. Our baby.
“No!” My hands fly to my stomach.
“GET YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF HER!” Ryan. He comes for us. Arthur catches him and nearly goes down with him. “LET ME FUCKING GO!”
“Ryan!”
“HE’S HURTING HER!”
“I KNOW!”
“THEN GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY!”
X is right behind him. “Let him go!”
“Xander, stay back!”
“HE’S GOT HIS FUCKING HANDS ON HER!”
Victor shakes me again. “Tell me what the fuck is going on!”
“STOP!” Mom is screaming, fighting Dad’s grip on her arm. “STOP SHAKING HER! LET HER GO!”
I scream. Dad wheels on me. “SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH!”
Victor jerks me again. Pain shoots down both arms. I scream, and Ryan roars my name, and X is trying to claw around Arthur to get to me, and Walter is coming, and Theodore is screaming at Dad, and through all of it Iz is moving. Quiet. One step. Another. Trying to get close enough to reach me.
“STOP SHAKING HER!” Mom screams.
Victor doesn’t. “ANSWER ME! WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?”
Mom tears against Dad’s grip. “STOP SHAKING HER! YOU’RE GOING TO KILL MY GRANDBABY!”
Silence. Complete. Impossible. Silence.
Victor’s hands stop. Dad stops. Ryan stops fighting Arthur. Walter freezes. Theodore goes still. Iz stops three steps away. Mom’s eyes meet mine across the yard, and I watch her understand exactly what she just did.
Victor looks at her. “What?”
Nobody answers. His eyes move to me. Then down. My hands are covering my stomach. My sweater hides most of it. Not all of it. Not anymore.
His grip loosens. “No.”
Dad looks at me. “What the fuck did she just say?”
Victor stares at the small curve beneath my sweater. “You’re pregnant.”
Mom rips herself out of Dad’s grip. She gets between us, tears Victor’s hands off me, and drags me behind her.
“Don’t touch her!” Victor barely notices. He’s looking at my stomach. Then my face. Then Ryan. Ryan is staring at him like he wants to take him apart with his bare hands.
Victor understands. His face changes. “His?”
Dad’s head snaps toward Ryan.
Victor points at him. “Is it fucking his?”
Ryan doesn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
Dad’s face empties. Then fills with something so vicious I take another step behind Mom. “You.” Ryan looks at him. Dad starts forward. “You fucking touched my daughter?”
Ryan’s whole body goes rigid.
“Roman,” Arthur warns.
“You knocked up my fucking daughter?”
“Don’t fucking talk about her like that!”
“She’s eighteen fucking years old!”
“And she chose me.”
Dad lunges. Walter and Theodore both move. Arthur gets between them. “Roman!”
“You think you can fuck my daughter under my roof—“
“Don’t you fucking talk about her like that!” Ryan tears against Arthur. “You put your hands on her, beat the fuck out of her, sell her off to him — and you want to stand there and talk to ME about what I did?”
“You ruined her!”
Ryan goes feral. “YOU DID!”
“RYAN!”
“YOU FUCKING DID! LOOK AT HER ARMS! LOOK AT HER FACE! YOU DID THAT!”
“She’s my daughter!”
“THAT DOESN’T MAKE HER YOUR FUCKING PROPERTY!”
Victor laughs. Dad turns on him. “Shut the fuck up.”
Victor’s face hardens. “You might want to remember who you’re talking to.”
“And you might want to remember whose daughter she is.”
Victor stares at him. Then laughs again. “Your daughter?” He points at me. “I fucking bought her.”
The words hit harder than his hands did. Nobody moves. Mom makes a sound beside me. Ryan stops breathing.
Victor looks at Dad. “I bought her. Don’t start pretending to be a father now because somebody else got there first.”
Dad goes for him. Arthur shoves between them. “ENOUGH!”
“You watch your fucking mouth!” Dad roars.
“No, YOU watch yours!” Victor screams back. “You took my money. You took my family’s money. You signed the agreements. You made the fucking promises.”
“She is still my daughter!”
“And you sold her to me!”
“STOP!” Mom screams. Neither of them even looks at her.
Victor points at my stomach. “You guaranteed me she was untouched.”
Ryan explodes. “STOP FUCKING TALKING ABOUT HER LIKE THAT!” He’s fighting Arthur again, X right there with him. “Let me fucking go!”
Gideon catches X.
“HE JUST SAID HE BOUGHT HER!” Ryan roars.
“I HEARD HIM!”
“THEN WHY THE FUCK IS HE STILL STANDING?”
Victor looks at him. “This changes nothing.”
Ryan stops fighting. “What?”
Victor’s eyes move to me. “This is a problem. Problems can be handled.”
My hand covers my stomach. Mom’s hand covers mine. “No.”
Victor steps toward us. “We’ll deal with it before Switzerland.”
Ryan loses it completely. “YOU TOUCH MY FUCKING BABY AND I’LL KILL YOU!”
“Ryan!”
“I’LL FUCKING KILL HIM!”
Arthur shoves him backward. Victor screams right over him. “YOU THINK GETTING HER PREGNANT MAKES HER YOURS?”
“SHE WAS NEVER YOURS!”
“I BOUGHT HER!”
“SHE ISN’T FOR FUCKING SALE!”
“She was when her father took the money!”
Dad shoves Arthur aside. “Enough!”
Victor turns on him. “No. You don’t get to be offended now, Roman. You knew exactly what this was.”
Dad gets in his face. “You were supposed to marry her.”
“I still will.” My stomach drops. Victor looks at me. Cold. Certain. “I can handle the minor issue.”
“No.”
His eyes narrow. “What?”
“No!”
“Alison.”
I step out from behind Mom. My knees feel like they’re going to fold under me. I’m terrified. My whole body is shaking. But I look at him. “I will not marry you.”
“You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“I do.”
“You’re upset.”
“I've been upset since the day I was told I had to marry you.”
“You’re coming with me. We are getting married.”
“I would rather fucking die than marry you.”
Victor goes silent. So does Dad. Ryan stares at me. Mom grabs my hand.
Whatever polish Victor had left disappears. “What did you say to me?”
I can’t stop shaking. But I say it again. “I would rather die than marry you.”
“You ungrateful little bitch.”
Ryan lunges. “CALL HER THAT AGAIN!”
X goes with him. Arthur catches Ryan. Gideon grabs X.
Walter gets directly in Victor’s face. “Back the fuck away from my kid.”
Victor shoves him. “She’s not your fucking kid.”
Walter shoves him back. “She is now.”
“WALTER!”
“I’M DONE, ARTHUR!”
“So am I.” Theodore. His voice rips through everything. Everybody turns. He comes forward — not slowly, not cautiously. Furious. “I’m fucking done.”
Dad stares at him. “This doesn’t concern you.”
Theodore laughs. It sounds broken. “Doesn’t concern me?”
“Theodore,” Arthur warns.
“No, Arthur. Fuck that.” Arthur reaches for him.
Theodore jerks away. “You don’t get to calm me down.
” He points at Dad. “I have known you for years, Roman.” Dad’s jaw clenches.
“I’ve sat at your table. You’ve sat at mine.
Our kids grew up together. Our families have been tangled up longer than half the people standing here have been alive. ”
“Theodore—“
“I know you.” His voice breaks. “I know exactly what kind of man you are, because I spent half my life surrounded by men just like you.”
Dad steps toward him. “Watch yourself.”
“No. You watch me.” His eyes are wet now. “I did what I was told.”
Katya isn’t here. Becca isn’t here. They don’t need to be.
They’re written all over his face. “I married Hartley when the woman I loved was somewhere else, because that’s what people like us did.
We smiled. We made the right marriages. We protected the right names.
We kept the right secrets.” Dad says nothing.
“And look where it got us.” His voice cracks. “My daughter almost died.”
Everything quiets.
“I watched Becca nearly die because of this fucking world. I watched her lose her baby.” Ryan’s grip on Arthur goes slack.
Theodore points at Dad. “I watched her bleed. I watched her break. I watched her blame herself while the men who built that nightmare hid behind their money and their names and their lawyers.” His voice rises.
“And now I’m standing here watching you put your hands on your pregnant daughter? ”
“Theodore—“
“NO!” Dad actually flinches. “Not another girl.” Theodore’s voice breaks completely. “Not another daughter.” He wipes his face. “Not another baby.”
Dad looks away.