Chapter 58 #2
Sweat rolled down my spine but my voice was steady. "You promised me you'd leave him alone. If I went to California, you wouldn't do anything to him."
"Call it an insurance policy." The sneering laugh that followed made me wish I'd broken more things on my way out here. "What's the point of all this?"
"The point is that I am finished with you and your manipulations."
He scoffed and turned back toward the grass. "Don't waste my time with these theatrics."
"Just tell me why you sent him the ring," I said.
"For the last time, we know nothing about a ring," my mother said. "Is this a real thing? You're sure you haven't dreamed it up?"
"Oh my god," I muttered to myself.
"What's going on here?"
Glancing away from my parents, I found my sister crossing the yard. She wore a blinding white sarong over a black bikini and a straw hat that could shelter five people in a storm. A pair of children came up behind her, along with a middle-aged woman with several beach bags over her shoulders.
I really, really didn't want to see my sister today.
"Audrey's convinced herself that we stole a ring from her years ago," my father said, his words sopping up his disdain. "She's come here to scream at us about it."
A predator's grin spread across Cassidy's face as she stared at me. "Nanny, take the babies inside," she said. "We wouldn't want Aunt Audrey frightening them again."
She didn't look at her children or the woman whose name probably wasn't Nanny as they filed into the house. I'd met her kids a handful of times. They'd been too young to remember, still too young to remember much, but it was important for her to toss in the again.
Holt's first birthday party was one of those times, because my mother had sworn Cassidy wanted me there but was too nervous to ask directly.
I should've seen the lie for what it was but I'd missed it.
Just as I'd missed all the food at this party triggering my bridge troll gut.
Me hastily handing one-year-old Holt to his father so I could make it to the bathroom in time had turned into me being unsafe around children.
Yes, that was a real thing my family said.
The other time was my mother's sixty-fifth birthday party, a big country club affair with an unironic Gone With the Wind theme.
She'd allowed me to believe she was dying and she wanted her whole family together one last time.
Except she hadn't been dying, not imminently.
She'd needed a pacemaker. In the three years since that party—when I'd held little Cassen and he'd accidentally headbutted me, leaving him screaming and me with a split lip—she'd been fine.
"Someone lost a ring?" Cassidy asked, sweet venom in her voice.
My mother waved an exasperated hand in my direction. "Audrey believes we've robbed her of something. Honestly, as if I have the time for this kind of drama."
My sister crossed her arms over her bare torso, that eerie smile still stretched across her face. "Was it that cheap little flower ring? That purple one?"
All the blood left my body and in its place, ice water. "How would you know, Cassidy?"
"I did you a big favor and mailed it back to that grungy boyfriend of yours when you went off to college.
" She cupped a hand around her mouth like she was letting me in on a secret.
"Made sure he knew it was dead, done, and over, if you know what I mean.
That's what you wanted, wasn't it? That's why you left it at home when you moved out. Right?"
It was good that ice pumped through my veins now. That I was frozen from the inside out. Because I gave Cassidy nothing but stone-faced silence.
"Why are you asking about it now?" She shuffled her sandals against the patio decking. "It's been a million years."
I held up my hand, wiggled my fourth finger where the ring now sat. "Because I recently got it back."
Her eyes widened. She didn't have the decency to look guilty when caught in her lies and she didn't apologize. She gave me a dismissive flounce and strolled toward the house. With a hard chuckle, she said, "Good luck with that. You're gonna need it."
"Audrey, please tell me you haven't taken up with that boy again," my mother said. "We've done so much to correct for your mistakes and paper over the messes you made. We're not going down that road again. And what will Brecken—"
"I am not marrying Brecken," I snapped.
My father whirled around, the club leveled inches from my face. "You will do what we damn well tell you or—"
I snatched the club away and flung it into the pool. "Or what? Explain it to me. I'd like to know. I have a job, a home, and my own money. I haven't taken a cent from you in years. So what is it you intend to do to me?"
"Watch your mouth, young lady." My father's face turned the color of an overripe tomato. "You'll show me respect when you're in my home," he seethed. "Or I'll toss you out of here on your ass. Good luck making it without me then."
"That's what you think you're demanding? Respect? Because it sounds a lot more like compliance."
"We stopped you from ruining your life," he roared, spittle flying with every word. "If we hadn't stepped in, you would've run off with that delinquent and he would've dropped you as soon as he realized you didn't come with a blank check."
"No, you save the blank checks for the spineless sycophants because they cut you in on their backroom deals and give you these sweetheart spots pulling the strings with their political action committees.
You don't care who they are or what they take as long as you're close enough to get high off the power. "
"Stop it right now." My mother jolted to her feet. "I don't know what's happened to you but that's enough."
I met my father's vicious glare. I could almost see steam rising off his head. "You better clean up that mouth by the next time I see you or you can kiss any inheritance good-bye."
"Here's the thing." I pressed my palms together, tapped my fingers against my lips.
"When I leave here now, I'm going to go find that delinquent—the one who still loves me despite the utter shitstorm you rained down on him—and ruin my life the way I should've a long time ago.
I'll be too busy with that to care about what happens to me when your life's over. "
"You'll regret this," he shouted.
"The only thing I'll ever regret is not walking out the first time you threatened me."
I turned toward the house as my mother said, "We are not finished here. Don't take another step."
"Just think of all the time you'll have for Cassidy and her kids now," I said. "You always liked her better anyway."
"There won't be a penny from us," my father yelled.
I nodded, giving them a thoughtful glance when I reached the threshold. "I think I'll be okay without it."
My whole body shook as I walked through the house, their angry voices dulling into the growing distance between us. I paused near the front door, where the glass had already been swept away. So I flipped over the table.
I went on shaking as I drove to the ferry terminal, my mind soft in a blur of sunlight and summer hydrangeas and the sound of wind through my open windows. My ribs and shoulders ached from bracing myself for so long.
I knew I'd crash soon. I'd come down from this almighty adrenaline rush and feel like the morning after the high of Janet's ecstasy. But for right now, I rolled the windows all the way down and let the ocean air fill my lungs.
I walked straight into the fight this time and I'd survived. All I had to do now was show up for the next fight.