Chapter 30 #2
He nods long and slow. “I get it now, but I think you forgot one thing,” he says, but the way he says it, I know to brace.
“Your mom was a fucking liar who spent years poisoning my mom against me. You wanted me to say ‘bummer,’ but I couldn’t find it in me.
You want to know the truth? Lisa was a lying, selfish bitch, and the world is better without her.
The day you called to tell me was one of the best days of my life. ”
I know Jack is delusional enough to think the house that was legally and rightfully given to me was his.
I’ve read enough of his emails to know he’s not a fan of me.
I’d have to have even a minuscule amount of respect for him to care.
He’s a small loser of a man, and I have more respect for the dirt on the bottom of my shoes than I do for him.
Nothing he says could faze me, except, it turns out, for one little thing.
“Don’t say her name.” I haven’t heard my mom’s name said aloud in months, and hearing it come out of his mouth feels like a punch in the face.
Pain ricochets up my arms and straight through my heart as the protectiveness I’d thought I lost long ago rushes to the surface so violently that if it weren’t for Tate’s hand at my back, it would’ve knocked me over.
“She was my sister,” he snarls. “I can say whatever I want to say about Lis—”
I shove a finger in his face and cut him off before he can finish.
“Don’t you dare say her fucking name.” Acid strong enough to corrode metal drips from my voice.
“You have no idea what she went through or who she was. You weren’t there after my dad died.
You weren’t at the hospital with her when she never left Grandma’s side.
You weren’t there for any of it. You lost the right to say her name years ago. ”
My vision narrows beneath a red haze. I’m so focused on the man in front of me that I don’t realize Tate isn’t the only person at my back anymore. Jack’s eyes drift over my shoulder, and for a moment, I think I see fear, but it happens so fast, I can’t be sure.
“You think I don’t know who she was because I wasn’t there?
You don’t have to be an engineer to know a train wreck when you see one, sweetheart,” he sneers, his decaying teeth a far cry from the bright smile in the pictures that hung in my grandma’s house.
“And if you were by her side during all this, what does that say about you?”
His words are a dart laced with poison, and he hits me with pinpoint precision. I rock back on my heels, unable to argue with the truth.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I don’t?” he asks, cruel satisfaction lurking behind his malicious smirk.
“That’s where you’re wrong, because I know exactly what I’m talking about.
Lisa was a walking disaster for as long as I can remember.
She relied on everyone around her for her entire life, and my mom catered to her bullshit until it finally killed her.
She was a user, a thief, and, when she wasn’t hiding who she was to try to get something out of someone, a fucking bitch.
Which is the only reason I’m not shocked the apple didn’t fall far from the bitch tree. ”
I can practically feel the color drain from my face as horrified gasps erupt at my back. The anger rolling off Tate hits me like a wave and the restraint he was clinging on to finally snaps.
“That’s enough.” He steps in front of me and is immediately flanked by Silas and Mr. Jacobs. The three of them tower over my uncle like a trio of dark knights. “It’s time for you to leave.”
“Who the fuck are you to tell me what to do?” Jack tries to sound tough, but the tremor in his voice gives him away. “Last I knew, this was a free country and I can be wherever the hell I want to be.”
“Then last you knew was wrong,” Tate says. “Because if you think you’re going to come to my town and talk like you’ve lost your fucking mind to any woman, let alone mine, you don’t know where the hell you are.”
“I thought Texas was the land of free speech,” Jack says.
It’s an unwelcome reminder that while he’s never been the sharpest tool in the shed, he was always the loudest idiot in the room, and we share genetics.
“Free speech doesn’t mean no consequences,” Tate says, and Calvin tightens his grip on his son. “Keep talking and I’d be happy to show them to you.”
“Is that a threat?”
“No,” Tate says, and I can see the vein in his neck throb. “It’s a promise.”
Jack steps forward, but before he can say anything, Silas slides in front of him and holds a hand up to stop him from coming closer.
“I don’t know who you are, and honestly, I don’t care.
You don’t seem worth our time,” Silas says.
“What I can tell you is that in Celestial, we protect our own, and Luna? She’s ours.
You can make the wrong decision if you want, but you should know nobody will come running to your rescue if you do. ”
“You’re all crazy if you think she’s worth doing all this for.
Just wait and see—she’s exactly like her addict mother, and if you’re not careful, Luna will put you in an early grave just like her mom did to her dad.
” He steps to the side and strains his neck so that he’s only looking at me as he shouts his final parting line.
“And if you think I’m not getting every cent from my mom’s house, you’ve got something else coming. ”
I’m not often prideful, but I can’t let this asshole get the last word. I muster up all the strength I have left and shout at his retreating back, “I’d love to see you try.” My voice echoes against the metal bleachers and empty booths, but he doesn’t look back. “I look forward to it.”
A massive crowd still mills around. Strangers stare with morbid curiosity, their expressions dripping with disdain as hushed whispers rise above the deafening silence beating against my eardrums, but it’s Gabby who rushes to my side.
“What the hell was that?” Her beautiful face twists with concern I thought I’d seen the last of. “Are you okay?”
“That”—I point to Jack’s retreating back—“was my uncle Jack.”
She’s heard about him before. “Fuck,” she whispers.
“Yeah,” I say. “You’ve got that right.”
The cool breeze blows across my heated skin, and my teeth start to chatter as the reality of what just happened starts to set in.
Gabby walks in front of me, blocking me from the view of curious bystanders all the way to the car.
Pam drapes her arm over my shoulder, Ciara holds my hand, and humiliation claws at my throat as this perfect family is forced to face this walk of shame because, no matter how hard I try not to, I inevitably ruin everything I touch.
Pam and Ciara try to distract me during the walk to the car, but I don’t hear a single word they say.
I can’t hear anything at all over the unwelcome thoughts flooding my brain.
And as the realization starts to settle deep into my bones and the numbness I thought I’d escaped wraps around my body, I look up at the night sky, and there, in all its blazing glory, is the wink from the Universe I’ve been waiting for.
A message from my mom.
But this time it’s not telling me I’m in the right place, it’s reminding me of who I am. I’m not meant to have forever. My uncle might be an asshole, but there was truth in his words. I am my mother’s daughter and where we go, destruction follows.
I thought I could run to Celestial for my fresh start, but I was wrong.
You can’t run from what you are.
And I do not belong here.