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Karl looked from his mother’s television and stereo system to his father-in-law, who shrugged. “I admit to being a cheat and a liar, but I’m not a thief. Well,” he amended, “I borrowed money from Vivy. I’m going to return it, though.” At least one person in the world believed Vivian would get her money back.
Still, Yap’s bald honesty about his faults raised Karl’s brows. Vivian had said her father was well aware of his shortcomings, just not how they affected other people, so he trusted all his mother’s stuff would be in the same place they left it.
* * *
VIVIAN WAS WAITING for Karl in the kitchen, her arms folded under her chest and resting over the bump of her pregnant belly. “Why would you make an offer like that? Do you think I can’t handle my own father?” She stopped herself from wagging a finger at him and becoming an actual barefoot, pregnant, nagging fishwife.
“You’re misinterpreting my offer,” he responded, with all the calm in the world. “I think you are capable of telling him no until the cows come home. And every time you tell him no, he’ll remind you of some good time you had growing up until he’s poisoned all those memories for you. Let me help you preserve those memories.”
Her hands fell to her sides as she thought about what he was offering her. She had wanted everything the world could give her, not thinking the world would or could let her keep her father and Karl and her child in her life together. Karl was offering more than she had thought possible. “And you would trust him with our child?”
“No. I barely trust him not to steal the crucifix off my mom’s wall, but I trust you with our child. You say your father won’t hurt our children?”
Vivian didn’t miss that it was the second time Karl had referred to children, plural. “No. Other than the lying and the cheating and the constant moving, he was a good dad.” She realized it was a bit like saying that, other than the burning, hell was like a warm beach. “He was the best dad he knew how to be and he protected me from harm—always.”
She had to believe that her father never would’ve gotten her mixed up with Frank and the cheating scheme if he’d thought she might get hurt. And he did believe he’d pay her back the money he’d taken. She didn’t believe it, but he did. Plus, she would be there to provide a buffer for her children, a role no one had been able to fill for her.
“Then I’ll let you judge how often he can see our children. If he won’t harm them, they deserve to know both sides of their family.”
“He won’t harm them.” She knew that as surely as she knew the sight of her own face in the mirror. “I love your mother, but my dad will be the most fun grandparent our child—children—could ever know.”
Karl put his hands on her shoulders again. This time Vivian didn’t think he was doing it to reassure her, but to reassure himself. “I’m going to make him sign a contract, and I wasn’t kidding when I said I’d hold him to it.”
Vivian grabbed his wrists. Karl closed his eyes for a moment, and she waited until he opened them again before responding, “He believes you.” She squeezed his wrists, both in reassurance and emphasis. Her father had made it this far in life without landing in jail by recognizing the people who could put him there—and staying far, far away from them.
“Good. I’ll give him the money as he leaves town. I don’t want my father-in-law in Chicago with that kind of cash.” Karl’s face hardened, a sign he was struggling with conflicting emotions. She’d been around him long enough to recognize the signs. “I have a reputation to uphold.”
“Why did you make the offer?”
“I want you to come home with me.”
“And that is worth fifty thousand dollars?”
“I was willing to give you more so you could buy Healthy Food.” His hazel eyes warmed, even if his face was still a solid block of stone. “I just agreed to give money to a man I’m pretty certain is a felon. And I agreed to keep giving him money while letting him have contact with my child. It should be obvious why I did that.”
