CHAPTER 93
Troy
I PASS THE plate of roasted potatoes toward my dad, while staring into the giant salad bowl, expressionless.
Feeling Dimitri’s concerned gaze on me, I mouth him a, what?
So it’s a day later and I’m still not over any of it, officially scaring both of my brothers by how quickly I accepted the invitation to join them for dinner tonight at Dad’s house.
At least Ana’s presence doesn’t haunt these walls, but then I remember.
The banquet.
Fucking in my dad’s office.
Fucking in the backyard.
And my fork slips out my fingers, the memories killing my appetite.
When my dad speaks, for a moment I’m so dazed that I miss that the conversation has directed itself toward me.
“You used to make fun of hockey for being too violent,” he says. “So why is that I find out my own son punched one of my captains hard enough that he has a black eye now?”
So that’s why he invited me for dinner tonight.
Jackass.
“Do you know the bad press this is going to stir?” he continues. “What the hell is wrong with you?!”
“Carter did something terrible to Ana,” I say, keeping my voice low simply because I have no energy to fight with him right now, “and he deserved far worse.”
“I don’t care what he did to your little girlfriend, Son. You don’t punch my players.”
Maybe if he didn’t throw in the word girlfriend I’d still have kept myself fairly collected.
Instead, I slide my plate away with a careless shove, turning to face his seat at the head of the table.
“When your players hurt people I care about,” I say, “expect them to get punched, Dad. But I don’t expect you to understand that.
You have never cared about anything other than your team.
Even the sons you’re actually proud of, did you bother to notice that Karl was injured last season?
No. You were too busy kissing Carter’s ass and the rest of the team who’d drop you if your stats tanked tomorrow. ”
It's like as soon as I started speaking, my tongue had plans I wasn’t aware of. But I feel lighter than I’ve felt in years around him, and the energy ticks along my lips, waiting to be emptied.
“Watch your tone, Troy.”
“Or what?” I lift from my seat, wearing a crooked smile. “You’ll disown me? Banish me? You can’t stand hearing the truth. You never could. Not with me. Not with Mom.”
He lifts from his own seat, my brothers dropping their utensils, dreading to watch this unfold.
“Troy, I said, watch it.”
I try but,
I can’t stop.
“You never wanted people to know why she’s gone. Not even one of your own sons. Do you remember why she’s gone? Or should I remind you?”
“Dad,” Karl asks, his voice nervous, “what is he talking about?”
“Troy,” Dimitri warns as I watch my father clench his teeth into his lips like the damn coward I lost respect for a long time ago.
“Should I tell him?” I say, filled with an astounding level of anger. “Or is he still too young to know the truth?”
“What truth?” Karl demands, growing impatient.
“That mom killed herself, and Dad just let it happen.”
My father’s arm goes flying through the air, smacking me hard across a cheek.
“Dad,” Dimitri scolds, his expression stunned.
The sting from the hit registers a second too late, when the sound of a chair scraping along the wooden floor reaches my ears, and I realize what I’ve just done.
“Karl!” I yell after my younger brother.
But he’s already gone.