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"I want you the fuck out of my house and I never want to see you again," I tell her, pointing to my front door.
"Seven… please…"
"I have nothing to say to you. Leave or I'll call the authorities to remove you. You won't do well in a Mexican jail cell and I sure as hell won't be bailing you out."
She stalls for a second but she's staring back at me with some fear in her eyes. I probably look like a man about ready to go on a killing rampage.
She starts heading out of the kitchen and straight for the door.
I hear the door open but then she speaks again.
"I don't expect you to forgive me or for this to be a good enough excuse to right the wrong I did to you, Seven. And I can't imagine you've ever experienced that feeling of being looked over for so many years that when that one person sees you, your whole world comes to life. That's what happened to me the day that Eli came home from overseas. After loving your brother since I was six years old, he finally glanced over from the sofa in your parent's living room and actually saw me. I think it was the first time he had truly seen me as more than the little tomboy who lived down the street and chased you two around the neighborhood.”
"While you were trying to get his attention, I was trying to get yours. When you agreed to marry me, I thought I'd won the lottery. We'd been dating for a year but I still couldn't believe you said yes. If only I knew that you’d be the biggest mistake I ever made."
"I had no idea that you felt that strongly about me."
Of course, that's her takeaway. Not the fact that I regret ever looking in her direction.
"That's because you're too self-absorbed to have seen anything outside of what you wanted for yourself. That's why you used my daughter to trap my brother. You didn't care that I wouldn't get to raise my own child and miss out on her first words—her first steps—everything. And you didn't care that my brother, who isn't in the mental state to care for a child, was forced to raise a child who wasn't his. Nor did you care that Cammy ended up being raised by an alcoholic father who would rather interact with random people playing video games online than attend a single one of her volleyball games, graduations, or birthday parties."
"He was so bad Seven. I thought finding out that he was about to be a father would pull him out of his darkness. I just wanted to give him something to look forward to."
I spin around to face her.
"Do you want to know what I actually think happened?"
She stands there waiting for my response.
"I think my brother came home, jealous about my NHL career and saw the one thing of mine that he knew he could have but all he wanted to do was prove that he could have it if he wanted it. So he slept with you for a couple of weeks to make himself feel better and then when he was about to leave you, you trapped him with my kid."
I can see in her eyes that I just hit a nerve because tears well in her eyes.
"I didn't trap him… he could have left."
"My parents would have disowned him if he would have left after you told everyone that the baby was his."
There's a silence for a moment and I can see the gear working in Josslin's head to come up with a way around this.
"Eli and I are separated and I'm moving to Seattle to be close to Cammy. I'm not saying that it will happen right away but over time, I think you'll come to forgive me and we can be a family."
"Josslin, you have one second to turn around and close that door before you end up sleeping in a jail cell until your estranged husband decides to wire money for your release."
Her face crinkles together like she's upset that she couldn't spin this into some long-lost family reunion.
What the hell was she thinking?
She finally leaves and closes the door behind her.
Then another thought dawns on me… Cammy.
I turn and head back down the hall headed for my Jeep.
What the hell do I say to her once I see her?
"Funny story… your mom should be in a straitjacket and I'm actually your dad?"
I'll work on my delivery in the car.
