by Codi Gary
“I have cleaned up your puke and picked you up every time you’ve been too drunk to drive. I spent my adolescence taking care of you. Because of that.” He pointed to the shattered glass.
When his dad said nothing, Everett came forward. “Just, hey, what’s going on?”
“I’m still paying for your choices and mistakes and I’m sick of it.” Tearing past them into the kitchen, he started pulling everything out of the cupboards, shaking off his brother’s hands until he found the second bottle, the one Fred kept in a saltines tin.
“How many more do you have around the house, Dad? Huh?” Twisting off the cap, he dumped the Jack Daniel’s down the kitchen sink. “I am going to go through every fucking nook and cranny until I find every bottle. If I can’t have what I want, neither can you.”
Justin set the bottle in the sink, breathing hard. This time when Everett’s hand landed on his shoulder, he didn’t move, just sniffed back the tears he’d been fighting.
“I’m sorry, son.”
Justin wiped at his eyes and let out a bitter chuckle. “You’re sorry.”
“I am. You’re right. This is my fault, and I’d do anything to make it right.”
Justin turned around and shook his head. “Val got all the evidence Willis had against you. It’s out in my truck. Congratulations.”
“I was going to stop drinking anyways, I swear.”
“Yeah, right,” Justin said.
“Just listen to him,” Everett said firmly, and Justin closed his mouth.
Fred sat down at the table with a heavy sigh. “That weekend you were in True Love, I went to Boise to have some tests done. Depending on what they found, I didn’t want anyone to see me in Twin Falls.” Rubbing his weathered cheeks, he laughed. “I guess the drinking finally caught up with me.”
“Is it cancer?” Everett asked softly as a hard rock of dread settled in Justin’s stomach.
“No. I have chronic pancreatitis. Basically, I’ve drunk myself into such a stupor that I can’t regulate my blood sugars or even digest food properly. I’ll have to be on insulin and eat a special diet, but the most important thing is the drinking. I have to stop.”
Everett sat down at the table next to Fred and put his hand on his arm. “We’ll help you. If you think you need rehab or AA, whatever you need.”
Justin stared at the two of them, but he was still too raw to forgive his dad.
“I’m going to keep looking for those bottles.”
Ignoring his brother’s call, he left the room.
VAL WAS CURLED up on the couch with Gus, eating her way through a Marie Callender chocolate pie when her sister came home and dropped a green accordion file on the table. Papers scattered out of it, and with a mouthful, Val said, “Dude, what the hell?”
“I’ve given you the silent treatment for two weeks, ignoring what a pathetic mess you’ve become, but no more. You are not my sister; you’re a wimpy shadow of your former self. You aren’t even the pain in the ass, stick in the mud anymore; you’re just a lump of beaten puppy.”
“Thank you, now will you get your crap out of my way? I’m watching Shark Tank. These two sisters invented cookie dough you can eat raw without getting sick. Genius!”
“No, I will not get out of your way, and no TV until you listen up,” Ellie said, sitting down next to her and taking her pie away.
“Hey, I’ll kill you!”
“You do not need any more pie or cookie dough, you need to grow a pair,” Ellie said, sitting down on the coffee table. “I know Dad had something to do with your breakup and I’m trying to help you.”
Val paused and looked at the green file and its contents, currently spilled across the wood table. “By bringing me coupons?”
Ellie groaned loudly and flipped the file open, smiling triumphantly. “A few years ago I was riffling through Dad’s office, looking for the safe code, when I came across this locked box in his desk. Naturally curious, I opened it—”
“Broke into it.”
“Same difference. And I started reading. For a man who pretends to be so above it all, our dad sure likes to get his hands dirty.”
Val picked up a handful of papers and started reading, her eyes bulging. “Oh my God.”
“I know!” Ellie said excitedly. “So whatever bullshit he’s got on you, you now have the ammunition to fight back. This is why I’ve never been worried about him cutting me off. I copied everything years ago, and if he ever tried, I’d have him by the balls.”
Val continued looking through the papers and sighed. “Thank you, Ellie, but I can’t do this. I’m no better than him if I sink to this level.”
“But sometimes you need to beat him at his own game. It’s not like he’s Snow White here; this file makes him look more like Tony Soprano.”
“Except for the murder.”
“Still,” Ellie said, throwing up her hands. “You need to stop being such a team player and handle your business. Take your life by the balls or else I’m going to make you miserable.”
And with that, Ellie turned on her heel and marched toward the front door, slamming it behind her.
Val looked from the accordion file to her pie and sighed. Getting up and grabbing the phone, she dialed Caroline’s number. “Hey, it’s me. I need some advice.”
“What’s up?”
“How do you feel about blackmail?” Val asked, sitting back down on the couch.
“Odd question, but I guess it depends,” Caroline said hesitantly. “Who are we blackmailing?”
“Dad,” she said, her tongue licking some chocolate pudding from her fork.
“Then I think I’m pro blackmail. Why are we doing it?”
“Because he’s blackmailing my boyfriend’s dad and ruining my life?”
“Good enough for me.”
SOMEONE WAS BANGING on his door.
Justin stood up in his boxers, cursed the bottle of Jack he’d smuggled home from his dad’s stash and gone to bed with, and went to answer it.
“What?”
Ellie stood on his doorstep, her eyes raking over him appreciatively before she seemed to catch herself.
“My sister loves you and you’re lying in bed like a loser while my father plays her like a fucking puppet. Where’s your chivalry?”
“I tried talking to her, Ellie. Believe me, she doesn’t want to be with me.”
“Yes she does. I just gave her everything she needs to fight for you, but she won’t if you don’t give her a reason to.”
“I’ve called her, shown up at her door . . . nothing’s worked.”
“Try again.”
“Ellie—”
“If I’m wrong, fine, you can blame me for bad advice, but if I’m right, you get back the woman you love and I get a sister who doesn’t cry all day while stuffing her face with pie.”
The mention of a sad Val gave him a little hope that maybe all wasn’t lost. The Val he’d come to know never cried. Still, he felt a little bad that the thought that she’d been moping around made him feel so good. “She’s been crying?”
“Does a bear shit in the woods?”
“Give me an hour.”
“I’ll make sure she stays put.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
* * *
“THERE IS NOTHING wrong with my Internet, Ellie, and I’m not going to sit here all day waiting for something I’m going to get stuck paying for,” Val said into the phone.
The doorbell rang and her sister squealed. “There he is!”
Before she could say anything else, Ellie hung up and Val went to tell the repair guy she didn’t need him. But when she opened her door, Justin was standing there, his arms crossed over his chest, looking furious.
“What are you doing here? I told you—”
“I told you from the minute this thing between us started that I wanted you. Just you. This needed to be about what we felt, what we wanted—not what was good for us. So I’m going to ask you this once, but I’m in no mood for your self-sacri
ficing lies and bullshit. Why won’t you fight for us?”
She blinked at him for half a second before her temper flared to life and she snapped, “How dare you show up here and talk to me like that, you cocky son of a bitch?”
“I’m not cocky, I’m pissed at you. I thought you were the type of woman who went after what she wanted, but you’re willing to give up on us, for what?”
Scowling at him, she yelled, “He was going to have your dad arrested. I was trying to make things right.”
“We could have come up with a solution. Why wouldn’t you want my help?”
“Because you have this attitude like things will just work out, but that isn’t how the world works. Sometimes shit happens and you can’t get out of it or fix it.”
“But without you, I’m not okay, Val. I’m half alive. How is that better for me?”
Heart pounding and eyes stinging with unshed tears, she tried to laugh, but her throat clogged. “Come on, you’re fine. You’ll find some nice girl to marry and have kids with—”
He shook her a little. “Are you listening to me? I don’t want to find a nice girl. I don’t want anyone but you. I love you. I love your wildness and your heart. I love that you try hard to be strong, to take care of things without asking for help, but I am telling you, I am here. You have someone. Someone who loves everything about you, from your webbed toes to your bad temper. I told you I wanted to see how far this thing could go, but I think it can go on forever.”
“Stop it.” Her response was weak even to her own ears.
“No, I won’t stop it. From the first minute I saw you, I knew you were mine. You stayed with me. Whether we travel the world, shaving dogs’ butts and eating bad diner food, or stay right here, carving out our own version of perfection, I don’t care. With you, Val, I feel like I’ve finally come home.”
Her chest was so tight she was having trouble drawing a full breath. “You want kids and your dad wants grandkids and—”
Cupping her face in his hands, he whispered, “I promise we will have kids; it doesn’t matter how they come about. We will have them, but even if we don’t, all I need is you, Val. You are my center, my world.”
She closed her eyes, fighting the prickling sensation of tears, and his lips pressed against her closed lids, traveling across her cheeks until they found her mouth, coaxing her to respond.
“Just let go, baby. Let me love you.”
Val felt the tears escaping down her cheeks and choked back a sob. Still, he continued to kiss her, whisper to her.
“I love you, Val. Please don’t keep me waiting long.”
Before she could protest, he was walking back to his truck, and the cold wind hit her wet cheeks like stinging nettles.
She went inside and closed the door, sliding down the wood with her fist in her mouth, trying to close the floodgates. Gus came around the corner and pushed his way onto her lap, and she wrapped her arms around his thick, muscular neck as she cried loudly.
It felt like she sat there for hours; her shoulders and head ached with it. For over half her life, she had held in all her pain and missed out on so much because of one man’s will. She prided herself for being tough, for being a fighter, but she had almost let Edward Willis destroy her.
What the hell had she been thinking? How could she have let him almost win? She’d almost blown her chance at happiness because of that man. She’d tried to play fair, to be good, but it had never fit for her.
He wanted to play dirty? She could do that.
Pushing herself up off the floor, Val grabbed her jacket and headed out the door, a sense of purpose in her step.
She climbed into her Chevy and turned the key, taking the main streets toward the north side of town, where her father’s house sat, large and imposing. It wasn’t even her home anymore, and maybe it never had been. It took warmth and love to make a house a home, right?
She parked in front, behind several Mercedes and BMWs, and walked in through the front door, not bothering to knock.
Theresa caught sight of her and rushed over, her hands out to shoo Val away. “Your father has guests for dinner.”
She tried to smile, but her cheeks felt stiff and her eyes hurt. “I won’t take up much of his time.”
Passing the protesting housekeeper, Val walked through the double doors of the dining room and stood at the end of the table. Several couples sat along each side of the rectangular table, including Kyle Jenner and a date. At the head was her father, his face twisted into a dark scowl.
“Valerie, dear, you look terrible. Why don’t you go into the other room and I’ll be with you shortly?”
“Don’t trouble yourself; this will be over soon,” Val said, putting her hands on the back of the chair at the other end of the table, her mother’s empty seat. “You are a cold bastard, Edward Willis.”
The others in the room gasped and her father opened his mouth to speak, but she stopped him.
“I used to think there was something broken in all of us—Caroline, Ellie, and me—because we had everything we could want and yet we still made awful decisions. Caroline coped with men and I coped with anger, but nothing helped because we weren’t getting what we needed from you. You were supposed to be our father. To be there for us. Instead, you sat back and berated us for our horrible choices, but the worst ones we made were because they were things you wanted.”
“Oh, and I suppose I’m responsible for you being arrested for indecent exposure?” Her father sneered at her.
Her smile was immediate. “Are you kidding? That wasn’t even close to a horrible decision. That was fun. You sent me away when I was sixteen because you held a grudge against a man for doing what he thought was right, but I let you keep me away. I married Cole for you and I was miserable, and when he spread all of those rumors about me, you never defended me. Who doesn’t protect their own child? Every decision any of us have ever made has either been for you or to spite you, and yet we’ve never been happy. You are toxic to us.”
Edward started to stand. “I would like to apologize for my daughter. As you can see, she’s a bit unstable.”
Laughter bubbled up out of Val’s throat, really not helping her case, but she couldn’t stop herself. “I’m crazy? I didn’t follow my grown daughter to a matchmaking festival to tell her that she needed to fall in line. I didn’t try to force her by threatening to cut off her little sister. I didn’t tell her boyfriend’s father that I was going to destroy his family’s life unless he convinced his son to break things off.”
“You are emotional and not thinking clearly—”
“And I don’t have a folder full of nasty dealings that I keep hidden. Because how would it look for the wonderful future Idaho state senator, Edward Willis, if people found out he was nothing but a fraud, a cheat, and an ass—”
“That is enough, Valerie!” Her father’s face had drained of color.
She had him.
“It is enough. The funny thing about all of this is, everything you did just proved to me what I’ve known for years: I’m not the broken one. You tried to destroy my relationship, but that man stood on my doorstep and said he didn’t care if he lost everything because I was more important. That he loved me and I was all he needed. And then it struck me: In my entire life, you have never put any of our wants or needs before your own.” Her voice cracked with another sob, despite her resolve to stay strong. Her father’s chest was rising and falling rapidly, and he reminded her of a cornered horse.
“You are the broken one. You know nothing about love or sacrifice or family, and I am done with this whole toxic merry-go-round. You can keep your good press, your big house, and your politics because I am done with all of it. I don’t need anything from you. I have my sisters and a man who loves me. I don’t need a single thing from you anymore. I found happiness in spite of you, and I won’t let you destroy it.”
“You little bitch,” he snarled. “You have been nothing but a thorn in my side since you were born.”
“Get out of my way, Kyle,” her father growled.
“Sir, if you attack Valerie in front of us, you’ll have a dozen witnesses in the assault case. I can’t tell you how ill-advised that would be.”
Her father seemed to get his temper under control and hissed, “You leave this house right now and never come back.”
Val stuck her hands in her jacket and nodded. “With pleasure.”
As Val walked through the large entryway for the last time, a weight lifted from her shoulders.
You’re finally free.
JUSTIN WAS ON a tractor, turning soil in the south field, needing to keep his mind on anything but Valerie and where they stood. He had pretty much split his heart wide open for her, and now the choice was hers; she could live her life scared of what her father might do or be happy with him despite the consequences.
His cell phone went off against his thigh and he stopped the tractor, pulling it out of his pocket. “Hello?”
“Hey, bro, just so you know, there’s some crazy chick in a truck tearing across the field. I think it’s Val, but just in case—”
Justin twisted around in his seat, and sure enough, Val’s Chevy was bouncing over the dirt, kicking up a dust storm behind her.
“I see her.”
“Congratulations, bro,” Everett said as he hung up.
Justin pulled up the emergency brake as she brought the truck to a stop next to him.
She jumped out, her face a puffy mess, and yelled, “Justin Silverton, I have something to say to you!”
“Well, I figured you didn’t peel across my tilled earth to give me the silent treatment,” he said, grinning down at her.
She walked around the front of the truck and stood looking up at him. “Are you going to come down here or am I coming up?”
He climbed down the side of the tractor and dropped next to her. “Well? What’s got you all fired up?”
“You! You have pushed and prodded and made me want things I’d told myself I didn’t need.” She was breathing hard.
