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I feel his angry gaze on my face so I turn to glare right back at him. “Stop what?”
“That’s enough now,” my mother chirps next to my little brother. “Isaac was just confused.”
But no one is paying her any mind. The focus is on my father and me right now and a very different stare-down than I just shared with my twin.
“You know damn well what,” he grits through his teeth. “We don’t talk about such deadly sins at the table and you know it.”
“How could love be a sin?” I argue.
“Lucas, stop,” Adam mutters in frustration.
Caleb is watching our dad across the table as if he’s ready to pounce, waiting for me to tag him in like this is a wrestling match. I’m the brains, and he’s the brawn.
“That’s all Isaac is asking about,” I say. “He doesn’t know any better. What’s so wrong with asking if I want a boyfriend?”
“Because it’s a sin,” he grunts.
“And I asked how two people loving each other could be a sin.” I’m poking the bear, and I know it.
“Lucas, that’s enough,” my mom snaps. It grates on my nerves that she asks me to stop but not him.
My dad’s face is red and I imagine smoke billowing from his ears. At this point, I’m too energized by his frustration to stop. I want to see just how mad I can make him.
“How can it be a sin?” he argues. “Because the Bible tells us so, and no son of mine is going to speak against the word of God. Now don’t you dare go and put those disgusting ideas in your innocent brother’s head, you understand me? I don’t care that it’s your birthday. One more word out of you, Lucas Goode, and I’ll remove you from this table myself.”
I swallow down the bile rising in my throat. The dining room falls silent as I turn my clenched jaw expression down to the uneaten cake in front of me. Slowly and quietly, everyone starts eating again, but the room is bathed in so much tension that I can’t move.
Overwhelming hatred for everything swarms inside my head. Hatred for my father and his hypocritical lies. Hatred for my older brother who feeds into everything he says. Hatred for my mother who never stands up against my father but just tells us pretty lies to keep us happy.
That familiar desire to run away floods through me. Every time we get into one of these fights, I resist the urge to run. And these fights have been happening more and more lately. But where would I go? I am stuck in this prison for five more years.
Once I’m old enough, I’ll get a scholarship somewhere and I’ll never look back.
I lift my gaze from the plate and stare at my little brother across the table. His bottom lip is quivering as he resists the urge to cry.
Who’s going to stand up for him when I’m gone? If I don’t do it now then Isaac will never learn that we can and we should stand up against our dad. He’s not God. He’s not a king. He’s just a man. And I’m not afraid of him.
“What kind of God would condemn someone for who they love?” I mutter under my breath.
“What did you just say?” my dad barks.
“I won’t worship a God who condemns people for who they love.”
I barely get the words out when all hell breaks loose.
I see Caleb burst out of his chair as a heavy hand clamps down on the back of my neck. My chair tumbles backward as my mother screams, and I’m hauled out of the dining room.
“Truett, stop!” she shouts, but my father puts up a hand and huffs in her face.
“Mel, sit your ass down! These boys need to learn some discipline.”
All I can see is the floor as my father holds me with a punishing grip on my neck. I’m wincing in pain, but the fear is worse. The fear of what awaits me when he gets me alone.
I already know Dad will win. He always wins.
Caleb tries to pry Dad’s hand off my neck, but then he’s shoved violently away. He crashes against the wall, knocking a family photo from the nail as it comes crashing to the floor and shatters at his feet.
Isaac wails in fear as my dad continues his tirade, forcing me away from the rest of the family. I stumble on the steps, falling onto my face before he picks me up again and continues the march toward his office.
