Chapter 38 #2
“I think we do so much damage calling people monsters,” Yas said quietly.
“The people who do monstrous things are just normal, everyday people. That’s what makes them so dangerous.
But I think it’s hard because we all want to believe that we’ll be able to see the bad people among us.
That we can protect ourselves from them because we’ll know.
Saying ‘monster’ dehumanizes them when they’re all too human. ”
“I think you’re right.” Zeus scrubbed his hand over his face.
“At the time, I felt like my dad was a monster, though, and I was the only one who could see it. He was good at hiding it. Like you said, he was all too human. My mom and I were the only ones who knew the truth, and she wanted to hide it as much as he did.”
“What happened after that?” Yas asked after a long moment. Her head was still burrowed against his shoulder.
“My dad told me that if I betrayed him like that again, he’d kill me and tell everyone that I’d run away.
Because I was a liar and a bad seed.” Zeus snorted, shaking his head.
“The worst part was, I think most people would have believed him. So, I kept my head down and went along with it, rather than provoke him and risk him doing something worse to me or my mom. Spent my whole junior year working. My parents told everyone that they’d forbidden me from being on the football team as punishment for my big lie.
Everyone conveniently forgot that I’d started my job before my black eye. ”
Yasmine
Squeezing Zeus tightly, Yasmine’s chest burned with righteous anger.
She wanted to march down to his hometown and rub everyone’s nose in how they’d failed a woman and child.
Expose the truth to them. Make them apologize on bended knee to Zeus and his mom.
And then make his mom apologize to him, too.
Even though she knew things were never as easy as they appeared from the outside of a situation, she just could not imagine betraying her own child.
Lying about it and setting him up to look like a liar to everyone.
She had never met the woman, but she wanted to find her and smack some sense into her.
As for his dad…
Well, there was a song by The Chicks about men like him and how to handle them. Not that Zeus was Wanda, but his mom might be, and Claudia would make a hell of a Mary Ann. An apology would not be nearly good enough.
She knew there had to be more, though. Zeus had said his parents were calling. Even though his mom had betrayed him once, Yasmine knew that wouldn’t have been enough.
Zeus sighed.
“I came home from work early one day, the summer between my junior and senior year. When I walked in, I didn’t know what had set my dad off, but he’d fucking lost it. My mom was on the floor, and he was kicking her. She was bleeding from her mouth.” Zeus’ voice was flat, with absolutely no affect.
Yasmine’s stomach tightened in sympathy. She couldn’t squeeze him any tighter, but she wished she could.
“I lost it then. I attacked him. And I was a lot bigger and stronger by then. I beat the ever-loving shit out of him until my mom grabbed my arm. Pulled me off him.”
His voice got quieter. Reflective.
“He’d found a stash of money. Cash. Hers.
Almost four thousand dollars, scrimped and saved from the money he gave her for food and things.
I still don’t know how long she was putting it away.
She gave it to me. Told me to go. Go and never look back.
I asked her to come with me. Begged her.
We had her money. I had about two thousand dollars saved up at that point. ”
His voice trailed off.
“She didn’t go with you,” Yasmine guessed. It was possible his mom had tried to leave with him, and his dad caught up to them…
“She did not. She stayed with him. I left. I turned eighteen in October. I bounced around on friends’ couches before that, but their parents didn’t believe me about my dad, so I wasn’t really welcome anywhere.
So, I took the GED test, got my diploma that way, and joined the Army during what should have been my senior year of high school.
” His head fell back against the couch. “And that’s that. ”
“You haven’t talked to them since then?”
“Well… a few times.” She felt his shoulder lift in a shrug.
“I went back a few times. Imagine my surprise when my parents had the town greet me like I was a long-lost hero. The prodigal soldier son.” Bitterness tinged his voice.
“They liked to parade me out any time I went home. Show me off. My dad would talk about how proud he was of me and how I was a chip off the old block.”
“You weren’t. You aren’t anything like him,” Yasmine said fiercely.
Zeus made a soft sound of amusement, not quite a chuckle. He probably didn’t feel much like laughing. Neither did she. “You haven’t even met him. But no, I’m not too much like him. Everyone likes him when they first meet him. I tend to piss people off upon first meeting.”
Huh. Yasmine wondered if he did that deliberately, as a way of not being like his father.
“When was the last time you saw them?”
“About five years ago. I went home for Christmas. My mom had a face full of makeup, every day, from the moment she walked out of her room. I confronted her about it. She told me that she’d just tripped and fallen and landed poorly on her own hand.
” Zeus snorted, but somehow even that sound was sad.
“She couldn’t even look me in the eye while she said it.
I begged her to leave with me. Told her she didn’t have to be with him.
She told me to get out if I was going to disrespect my father like that.
“I told her that was the last time I was coming to see them. To let me know if she wanted out, but not to contact me otherwise. She called me the next year for Thanksgiving to see if I was coming for any of the holidays. Then he called me about Christmas, and I hung up on him as soon as he started talking. They haven’t called again since then. ”
“Until now.”
“Until now.” Zeus reached down to rub his hand over his pocket where his phone was, his voice so quiet, she could barely hear it. “They left a voicemail this time.”
“Do you want to listen to it?”
“Not really, but I probably should. Just to see why they keep calling.” He sighed again. “If you don’t mind.”
“I don’t. You can tell me what they say if you want, but you don’t have to.
I’m just going to keep holding on right here.
” She squeezed him again for emphasis. Felt his hand lift from her shoulder and his fingers slide through her hair before he shifted to reach into his pocket with his other hand.
Being here for him was the least she could do.
Even if things eventually went badly between them, she would never regret this decision.
“Thanks, Yas.”