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Frankly, I couldn’t imagine a universe where all of us being one happy family could ever exist. But she was my mother, and some part of me was still hoping she might have a smidge of regret about what she’d done to us. “As soon as you apologize to Faith for all those big, fat lies you told her to make her leave me.”
While she chewed on the inside of her mouth, it twisted back at me as she shook her head. “Boy, she works quick. Doesn’t she?”
It wasn’t worth losing my peace of mind to try to explain anything to her, so I waved her off and turned for the pool house. “Okay. We’re done.”
Her ugly foam shoes with the holes in them made flumping sounds as she chased me across the bricks, keeping the front door open with her foot when I tried to shut it. “I realize you’re angry, but you need to step back and look at the whole picture.”
Racing back the hall to get this thing over with, my hands snapped away from my face. “Oh, I have the whole picture, alright. My eyes are wide open.”
Throwing her arm across the bedroom doorway to pin me in, she jerked her eyes toward the bathroom. “You must not be taking your medicine. You’re being very difficult.”
I yanked my suitcase from under the bed and shook my head before I pushed myself up again. “Unbelievable.” I tossed the bag on my bed and grabbed every hanger on the rod in one armful. “I’m almost forty fucking years old, and you still can’t respect my privacy?”
Fluffing her hair in the back like this whole drama she created was only boring her now, she shook her chin as I stacked the clothes on the bed. “No. Not when you’re acting like a crazy person.”
I bounced my finger at her on my way to the dresser. “Nice gaslighting. You must have been saving that one up for a special occasion like this, but I don’t have the time to play your sick little game right now.”
Jerking the entire drawer out, I paused and spoke to her reflection. “If you and I are going to continue to have some kind of relationship, you need to figure out a way to be comfortable having Faith around.” I dumped everything into my suitcase and slid the drawer back into the dresser. “She’s my number one priority now, and I’m not going to be putting up with you treating her like shit.” Another drawer came forward, and I took out a stack of t-shirts. “So, if you can’t behave yourself, just stay away from us.”
Dropping to the edge of the bed, she leaned back on her hand. Just from how she lowered her voice into that I’m-so-concerned-about-you-way, I knew she was already working on her next plan to drive us apart. “Is she aware of how sick you are?”
Another pile fell inside the case, and I shoved them all down flatter as I snorted a laugh at her. “You’re precious. You know that?” Like I somehow forgot about all those times I went to her in tears and asked for help didn’t happen, I rubbed my chin and squinted at her. “Aren’t you the one who wouldn’t let me take the pills in the first place because you said all I needed was Jesus?”
Making her glare at me like that when I turned her own words around at her was one of life’s little joys for me.
The edge of my hand scraped everything off the top of my dresser as I caught it in a plastic shopping bag. “The only thing that was ever wrong with me was not knowing what happened to Faith.” I stooped down a little as I passed her to flicker my eyebrows at her. “But since I have the facts now, I’m all good.” The bag twisted around itself, and I threw it on top of the rest of my things. “You’ll have to find some other way to occupy your time. I’m done being manipulated by you.”
Wedged deep in the corner, the zipper tab and I fought with each other until she grabbed my wrist to stop me. “Think whatever you want about what I did, but it was only because I love you.” A little toss of her shoulder completely dismissed me. “I thought she was the wrong girl for you, and I still believe that. You can do much better.”
I was ready to lay my hands on her — I won’t lie about that. I was so angry I wanted to tear that entire house apart. But that’s what she wanted, and I could see it in her eyes.
So when I only twisted her hand away hard enough to make her release me instead, I knew I was ready to deal with whatever she threw at me from now on. “What you think about anything means nothing to me anymore. Absolutely nothing. So, go on and do your worst.”
I folded all the clothes on hangers over my arm and grabbed the suitcase handle. Whatever I couldn’t carry with me could be replaced, because I wasn’t ever walking back through her door again. “We have no business with each other anymore.”
44
Scars
Faith
I closed the garage door behind me and caught the sound of hangers sliding against the closet rod down the hall.
Yelling at the bedroom door, I set the groceries on the counter. “I’m home.”
Before I had the fridge all the way open, Dom grabbed me from behind with his lips on my ear. “God, I’m glad you’re back.” Twisting my shoulders until I faced him, he gripped my cheeks and pushed his mouth onto mine. “I’ve been so damn bored without you.”
When he finally broke away from me, I nodded toward the bedroom. “Were you able to get everything moved today?”
Crossing his arms, he leaned against the island and nodded as he looked over what I had bought. “Yep. The moving process goes much faster when you don’t have much.”
Though he smiled at me, how he rubbed his chin and jerked his eyes told me of the trouble growing in his mind. “How can I be almost thirty-nine years old and not acquire more than a truckload of possessions? What the hell have I been doing with my life?” He laughed at himself in that humorless way. “Pathetic. Isn’t it?”
Leaving the groceries on the counter, I went back to him and poked my finger into his belly. “You can stop that right now.”
From the most confident person in the world to a doubt-filled child with only a word from his mother, he sank into his skin when I touched him. “You’ve been busy saving lives, Dom. That’s not pathetic.” I tapped my finger on his temple as my other hand went around his hip to bring us together. “You have more here, and” — I laid my hand on his heart — “here than anyone I’ve ever met. That’s not pathetic either.”
My eyes moved over everything around us. “Now we have this amazing house and our amazing friends.” Gripping his shirt in my fists, I playfully jerked him. “This place will pop from every seam with how happy we are from now on, and that’s definitely not pathetic.”
