Chapter 38
Deacon
“Nervous?” I asked, squeezing Riley’s hand.
“More excited,” she said with a smile. “I can’t wait to see the look on my parents’ faces when they see me.”
Her perfect body was tucked against mine in the backseat of the town car, and she rested her head on my shoulder as she stared out the window at the California landscape.
On Sunday afternoon, while Riley napped in my bed, I’d called Aiden at home. Breaking the news to him at the office that I’d fallen in love with Riley seemed unprofessional. He was surprised but supportive and refrained from questioning the quickness of our relationship. I wondered inwardly if Lina hadn’t been in his ear about Riley and me, but ultimately, I didn’t care.
I’d briefly explained the situation with Riley and her parents. Aiden had agreed to give her some time off but also insisted we not wait until the following week, urging me to leave for California as soon as the year end was finished. I’d booked our flights for Wednesday and loved the surprise and happiness on Riley’s face when she joined me downstairs after her nap and I told her about my conversation with Aiden.
Riley rubbed my thigh. “You never did tell me how your conversation with Richard went this morning.”
“It went well,” I said. “He’s agreed to the promotion, and once we’re back from California, I’ll take another week to help him settle into his new role.”
“That’s great,” Riley said. “He’ll make a fantastic CFO.”
“I think so, too,” I said. He was initially skeptical, but Aiden firing Rainer and Richard having to step up even with me at the office gave him the confidence he needed to realize he could do the job.”
“Good for him,” Riley said. “I’m looking forward to working with him.”
“You’ll be a good team,” I said, kissing the top of her head before inhaling the sweet scent of her shampoo.
She sat up, her curvy body tensing a little. “We’re almost to their house. God, I hope they’re surprised to see me.”
“How could they not be?” I laughed. “You didn’t say a word about flying here when you spoke to them on Sunday.”
“I’m so glad Mom is home from the hospital,” Riley said. “I texted Dad this morning, and he said she’s tired but doing well. She’s spending most of her time sleeping, but he said her infection has cleared up and that her next chemo appointment will still happen.”
“Will she need radiation as well?” I asked.
Riley smoothed her hands across her thighs. “I’m not sure. The doctor originally told them that he was confident the cancer was confined to her uterus, and the hysterectomy would remove it without the need for chemo, but I guess they were wrong.”
“You guess?” I said.
“Mom and Dad don’t share much of the details with me. They don’t want me to worry, I think.” She made a face. “I’ve told them a few times that being in the dark makes me worry more, but I can’t force them to give me the details.”
I squeezed her hand gently when the car stopped, and the driver said, “We’re here, sir.”
“Thank you,” I said.
Riley and I climbed out of the car, and she gave me another nervous look. “Why am I suddenly so anxious? Like a, I want to turn around and go right back to our hotel, anxious.”
“I think that’s normal,” I said.
Riley gave me an anxious look. “I haven’t seen her in over two years. Dad says she’s thin and pale, and the chemo has made her lose her hair. I don’t have much of a poker face, and I don’t want to upset her.”
I pulled her into my embrace. “You’re prepared for her to look different, and while it’s hard to see the people we love in pain, I’m confident you’ll be nothing but supportive of her.”
She rested her head against my chest and took a deep breath. “Thank you for being here with me.”
“You’re welcome, baby.”
She took my hand and smiled at me. “Okay, let’s do this.”
It was early evening, and after months of cold and snow, the warm air and bright sunlight were a welcome change. She led me up the sidewalk to her parents’ house. They lived in a modest looking bungalow on a quiet street lined with towering palm trees. I frowned as we grew closer. I could hear loud music playing, and several cars were parked in the driveway.
Riley paused, her head cocked to the side, as she stared around the side of the house. “The music is coming from the backyard, I think.”
She knocked on the front door, and after a few minutes, when there was no answer, she tried the door. It was locked, and she knocked again before frowning at me. “That’s my dad’s car in the driveway, but I don’t know who the other cars belong to.”
“Do you want to text them?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No, come with me.”
Still holding hands, I followed her around the side of the house. A six-foot-tall wooden privacy fence surrounded the property, but a sidewalk ran alongside the house, leading to a latched gate.
Riley opened the gate, and the music swelled, as did laughter and conversation. Her brow furrowed, she glanced up at me before leading me into the backyard. We rounded the house, and I nearly ran into Riley when she stopped with a soft gasp.
The backyard was large, with an in-ground pool, a patio, and an outdoor kitchen. More than a dozen people were in the yard. A few floated in the pool while the rest had gathered in small groups on the patio, talking animatedly with drinks in their hands. Music blared, and the smell of cooking meat drifted in the air. A large, balding man wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a novelty apron with the phrase “The last time I cooked, hardly anyone got sick.” printed on it stood near the barbecue. He waved a pair of tongs in the air and hollered, “Steaks are almost ready, folks.”
“Dad,” Riley whispered, her gaze on the man in the apron. No one had noticed us yet, and Riley stared up at me with a look of confusion. “That - that’s my dad.”
She suddenly marched forward, her hand gripping mine tightly. She pushed past the people on the patio and stopped a few feet from her father. “Dad?”
The man whipped around, staring wide-eyed at Riley. “Riley? What are you doing here?”
“What’s going on?” Riley asked.
She could barely be heard over the music, so I reached over and turned off the speaker. The buzz of conversation ground to a halt as Riley stared at her father. “Dad? What is this?”
“What… what are you doing here? Who is this guy?” He stared at our entwined hands before looking me up and down.
“Deacon is my boyfriend,” Riley said. “I’m here to see you and Mom. Where is she? Is she lying down?”
The patio door slid open, and a woman stepped onto the patio carrying a bottle of wine. She was tall, perfectly tanned, and fit and wore a bathing suit with a sheer cover-up. She held up the bottle of wine, grinning at the people on the patio. “Who shut off the music? It’s way too early for this party to end.”
Riley’s hand clamped down on mine, and she swayed on her feet. I put my arm around her waist, bracing her against my body. “Riley, baby, what’s wrong?”
She stared at me, chewing compulsively on her bottom lip. “She… she’s…”
The sound of a wine bottle smashing on the patio made Riley gasp and twitch against me. The woman in the bathing suit stared at Riley, her hands clenching and loosening, the wine bottle broken at her feet and bright red liquid soaking into the patio stones.
“Riley?” she said.
“Hello, Mom,” Riley said.
* * *
Riley
I watchedmy mother flit around the kitchen. She washed her hands, opened and closed a cupboard, put a big bowl of potato salad in the fridge, poured a glass of wine, drank it in three large gulps, and wiped compulsively at a non-existent stain on the counter.
My father came in from the backyard. He held a half-cooked plate of steaks and set them on the counter. “I sent everyone home, Bethany.”
“Right, okay,” my mother smiled faintly at him.
Beside me, Deacon’s steady presence comforted me more than I could admit. I hadn’t let go of his hand once, and more often than not, I was squeezing it so hard that my knuckles were white. He hadn’t complained or tried to free his hand. In fact, he scraped his chair even closer to mine and put his arm around me, tucking me against his body as we stared silently at my parents.
My father turned to us, an uneasy smile playing on his lips. “You really should have called us before coming, Riley.”
“Why? So you could tell me not to come?” I asked.
My mother looked apprehensive. “Honey, I just didn’t want you to see me when I was -”
“Don’t,” I said, holding up my hand before giving them a weary look. I was exhausted, and my entire body felt trapped beneath a thousand-pound weight.
I studied my mother before, my voice breaking, I said, “Did you even have cancer?”
“Yes,” she said quickly. She sat across from us and reached for my hand. I pulled it away, gripping Deacon’s arm instead.
“I had uterine cancer, Riley,” she said. “I had to have a hysterectomy.”
“And chemo?” I asked.
She hesitated, and my father said, “When we told you she might need chemo, that was true. But then the tests came back, and she was in the clear. The hysterectomy removed all of the cancer.”
“So, why did you tell me she needed chemo and that you needed help paying for it?” I asked.
My father pressed his lips together and looked away. I turned to my mother. “Tell me the truth right now.”
My mother gave me a guilty smile. “Honey, it was so sweet of you to offer to help us pay for it when we thought I might need chemo. We appreciated it because we would have needed help paying for it.”
“Except you didn’t get chemo,” I said. “What have you been using my money for?”
Mom gave Dad another anxious look. “Your father… well, he made a few bad investments, and we lost all our savings. And then, he took out a loan to invest in a sure thing that would get us our money back, but he was given bad advice, and it… it didn’t work out either.”
I stared silently at her, and she cleared her throat. “We needed the money to pay back the loan. The money you gave us was helping toward that loan.”
“You lied,” I said dully. “You lied about everything.”
“We didn’t have a choice,” she said. “We have to pay back that loan, okay? If we don’t…”
“What? You lose the house? Your car?” I said. “I gave you everything I had, Mom. I moved out of a place I loved into a shitty apartment in a bad neighbourhood. I drive a car that is constantly on the verge of dying, and I’ve given you every single penny of my savings. I took a second job so I could send you money. And it was never enough, was it? You were constantly calling and asking for more, suggesting I take the bus so I’d have more money to give you, telling me to walk because I was fat and needed the exercise.”
“I never said you were fat,” my mother said. “I never once said that, Riley.”
I rubbed my forehead. “I did all of this, and for what? Because you didn’t want to lose the house or… or declare bankruptcy?”
“It’s more than that,” my father snapped. “God, you have no idea what’s at stake here.”
“Then tell me,” I said.
My father crossed his arms over his chest and looked away.
“You went to a loan shark, didn’t you?” Deacon said.
My father’s face turned red, and his nostrils flared. I groaned. “Dad, you didn’t.”
“I had no choice!” he snapped. “The money I invested was our life savings, our retirement, Riley. If I didn’t get it back, I’d have to work until I was in my goddamn eighties.”
“Did you even lose your job?” I asked.
“No,” he snapped. “But we need the money from my job to cover our living expenses. The money you sent us paid our monthly loan payments, but the interest is… high. The more you could send us, the faster we could pay off the loan.”
“You lied to me. You let me believe that Mom was dying, so I would send you money,” I said.
“We never said she was dying,” Dad said. “Besides, what does it matter the reason behind why we needed your help?”
“It matters because you lied to me!” I shouted. “It matters because I gave up everything for you.”
“Like we didn’t do the same for you?” my father shouted. “We sacrificed plenty for you when you were a child, but now that we’re asking you to sacrifice for us, suddenly we’re bad parents? We gave you everything you wanted as a child and -”
“No, what you gave me was crippling anxiety and self-esteem so shitty that I’ve been taken advantage of by nearly everyone in my life - including my own fucking parents!” I tore free of Deacon and stood up, my hands curled into fists. “You’re terrible parents. Scratch that - you’re terrible people. All those lies you spewed - and the detail, and the time and effort you put into those lies. Who does that to their own fucking kid? So many lies - we can’t pay our utility bill, we don’t have any groceries, your mom is in the hospital, and -”
“I was in the hospital last week,” my mother said quickly. “I was, Riley. That wasn’t a lie.”
“Why were you there?” I asked.
My mom hesitated, glancing at my dad before saying, “I was having chest pains, and I was worried it was a heart attack.”
“Was it?” I asked.
My mother cringed at the lack of sympathy in my voice. “No, it, um… it was just bad heartburn.”
“Of course it was,” I said before gazing at my father. “But you used it as an opportunity to get more money from me because you’re a horrible, selfish person.”
“You should be happy to be helping us,” my father snapped. “If you weren’t so sensitive and so -”
“Shut up,” I said. “You lied to me for months, and now you stand here in your fucking kitchen and try to gaslight me into thinking it’s my fault?”
I glared at my father and then at my mother. “I have let you treat me like garbage my entire life. I have made excuses for you and pretended that how you treated me didn’t matter. I did everything you asked of me and tried over and over to make you proud, to make you love me. I failed repeatedly because you’re narcissistic sociopaths incapable of love. You’re monsters. Both of you.”
My mother started to cry, and my father, his face bright red, snarled, “You watch your fucking mouth, Riley.”
Deacon stood. “You’ll watch yours, or I’ll put you on your ass.”
My father took a step back, his gaze darting to my mother. “Bethany, call the police. Tell them there’s an intruder in the house.”
“Don’t bother, Bethany,” I said. “We’re leaving.”
“Riley, if we don’t repay the loan, your dad will be in a lot of trouble… we need your help,” my mother said quickly. “I’m sorry we lied, but we were desperate. I know we’ve failed you in many ways, but you don’t want your dad to be hurt, do you? Please, take some time to calm down and then call me, okay? We can get through this.”
I took Deacon’s hand, drawing strength from his touch. “How much money do you owe on the loan?”
“Three hundred and fifty thousand,” my mother said.
I studied my childhood home, knowing it would be the last time I’d ever set foot in it. “Sell the house. That’ll give you the cash to pay the loan.”
“But it’s our home,” my mom said.
“You want to punish us. Is that it?” my father asked.
I shook my head. “What I wanted were parents who loved me. That’s it, Dad. That’s all I ever wanted.”
“We do love you, Ry,” my mother said.
“No. You don’t.” I stared at Deacon. “And I know that because for the first time in my life, I have someone who does love me. Who wants to take care of me and thinks I’m amazing.”
Deacon squeezed my hand and kissed my knuckles as I turned to stare at my mother. “I don’t want or need you in my life anymore.”
“Riley, you don’t mean that,” my mother said.
Still holding hands, I tugged Deacon toward the front door, and we walked out of my parents’ home. I didn’t turn around, not even when my mother called my name.
Deacon and I walked rapidly down the sidewalk. He didn’t stop until we were a few blocks away. He pulled out his phone and called the car company, directing them to our location before he ended the call. He stared at me and then pressed a kiss against my mouth. “I’m sorry, baby.”
“Me too,” I said.
He studied me solemnly. “I’m so fucking proud of you right now.”
I took a shuddering breath. “I think I might be in a bit of shock.”
“Not surprising,” Deacon said. “It’s a lot to process, and even I’m overwhelmed. I can’t imagine how you’re feeling.”
“Honestly, I don’t even know how I’m feeling. Beyond that this whole thing will cost me a boatload in therapy,” I said. “I may have to get a second job again.”
Deacon smiled at my weak joke before smoothing my hair back from my face. “Filthy rich, remember?”
“You so did not sign on for this kind of trauma,” I said.
He put his arms around me and gave me a serious look. “Riley, I’m all in with you. I love you, and whatever you need, I will find a way to give it to you. I promise.”
“I love you too,” I said. “I don’t deserve you.”
“Don’t say that,” he said. “You deserve nothing but happiness, and I will spend the rest of my life making sure you get it.”
He used his thumbs to wipe the tears sliding down my cheeks. “We’ll get through this, baby.”
“I know,” I said. “I love you, Deacon.”
“I love you too, Riley.”