Page 77 of Until Joy

“Coming right up. What about you, Joy?”

“The same.”

July cut three pieces the same size and two of us sat down with glasses of water and July poured herself a glass of milk. If I’d known they were coming, I would have had a bottle of wine waiting for them.

Miss Laverne took a delicate bite of her cake and set down her fork. “Girls, I need to catch you up on something important.”

Kayan looked up from her cake. “What's going on?”

“Joy never told her family about what happened in London three years ago,” Miss Laverne said. “Not a single soul back home knows she was stabbed.”

July's fork clattered against her plate. “Are you fu— uhm, serious?” She glared at me.

“Kind of,” I mumbled around a mouthful of cake.

“Joy.” Kayan's voice carried that same tone as when she found out I’d been giving all my extra cash to the same guy at the freeway entrance day after day. She told me if I felt a need to donate, I should give to the local food pantry instead. “You were fucking stabbed?!” She looked over at Miss Laverne. “Pardon my French.” She looked back at me. “But seriously Joy, what were you thinking, not telling your family?”

“I wasn't thinking straight, okay? I was totally out of it for the first two days, and by the time I was thinking straight, I knew they would be horrified and descend on me like a cloud of locusts and eat me alive.”

“You were in the hospital two days?” July leaned forward.

I took a gulp of water, trying to unclog the cake. “Three days,” I admitted.

Miss Laverne reached over and patted my hand. “The poor thing was scared and hurt. She made the best decision she could at the time.”

“But three years?” Kayan shook her head. “Joy, your mama probably thinks you spent your time in London as Mary Poppins, singing with chimney sweeps and dancing with children.”

“Pretty much,” I admitted.

July set down her milk glass. “Okay, so we need to figure out how you're going to tell them. Especially with everything that's happening now.”

“I can't tell them.” My stomach twisted into knots. “They'll want me to come home immediately. There’s no way I can leave Graham. I just won’t do it.”

Miss Laverne cleared her throat. “What if we start small? Maybe just tell the women in your family to begin with?”

“The women?” I asked.

“Your mama, Esperance, your Great Aunt Patty, and your Aunt Lettie.” Miss Laverne counted on her fingers. “Get them all together on one of those video call thingies. Tell them about London first, then work up to what's happening now.”

July nodded. “That's actually brilliant. Women handle this kind of news better than men anyway.”

“Speak for yourself.” Kayan snorted. “I wanted to hunt down this creep the second I heard about him.”

“But you didn't immediately start planning to lock Joy in a tower,” July pointed out.

“True.” Kayan took another bite of cake. “Your dad and brothers would probably drive straight here tonight if they knew.”

My chest tightened. “Definitely my brothers. Then they would also be gunning for Graham. Talk about a shitshow.” I winced and glanced over at Miss Laverne. “Sorry.”

Miss Laverne leaned back in her chair and laughed. “I think shitshow just about sums things up if we don’t handle this correctly. But you do know your family loves you. They're going to want to help.”

“I know they do. That's the problem.”

“So, we start with the women,” July said. “When can you set up a call?”

“I don't know. Maybe tomorrow afternoon?”

“Good.” Miss Laverne smiled. “You tell them about London first. Get that out in the open. Then we'll figure out a way for you to bring up the current situation.”