Page 65 of Halftime

She’d stayed for years because of me and money and who knows what else. But I was gone, for all intents and purposes. With this inheritance, I wouldn’t need to live at home again. Mom had enough money to enjoy herself. Maybe she could even find someone who wouldn’t cheat on her. I knew it would take some convincing though. She’d been stuck for so long.

“Hey, Mom, why don’t you get your own place?”

The silence was deafening.

“I mean, you say how unhappy Dad makes you.” Our last call had been mostly about that. “Now you can move out. I’m taken care of, so you can just worry about you.”

Maybe I was being disloyal to Dad, but surely he’d be happier, too? I mean, he was always cheating, so he couldn’t be happy, right?

“Faith, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I know I’ve never been married, Mom, or had kids, but I grew up in that house. I know you’re not happy because you tell me that. I know you wanted things to be good for me, and you were worried about money, but now you don’t have to be. You can do anything you want.”

“I know that. And I do the things I want to.”

She’d complained about Dad for years. They fought. Over and over. What the hell was she talking about?

“You are still a child and don’t know anything.”

She’d complained to me most of my life. I did know something. “I know that every time Dad goes out of town, you stalk him online. I know that you’ve complained about his cheating for years. I know you’ve told me you can’t leave him because of me and money and whatever else. Well, I’m gone, and you have money.”

“Faith, you’re distraught. We’ll talk later.”

She hung up on me. She fucking hung up on me. It made me angry. I wanted to hit something. I couldn’t stay still. I told Penny I needed to cancel brunch, put on running gear and my shoes, and went for a run.

I knew I was just her daughter, and I didn’t know all about marriage, but she’d made me aware of their problems because she fucking complained all the time. And now, when she finally had a chance to start over, she was going to stay with Dad, try to catch him cheating, have a big fight, and do it all over again? How sick was that? It was totally sick. And twisted. And I refused to be part of it anymore. If she was going to do that, I was not going to listen. I was not going to be part of it. I was not going to be like my damned mother and live that life.

I would’ve liked to talk about it with someone, but I wasn’t comfortable enough with Penny to talk about Mom and Dad. I had to be careful around athletes, because my dad worked with them. If Seb—

That thought just pushed me to run harder.

I was sweaty when I got back to my room. Penny had gone for brunch without me, but she was back now. She wanted to show me some pictures of what I’d missed, but I needed to shower first.

I apologized for bailing on her. She told me it was probably just as well I hadn’t gone. Some of the guys from the hockey team had been there, and Seb, too.

A part of me curled up into a tiny ball. I wondered if he’d been there with someone.

Penny showed the incredible waffles she’d had but then quickly closed out of the app. I drew in a long breath. I understood why. I didn’t really want her to know how much I wondered about Seb, about what he was doing, and who he was doing it with.

I could look on my own—

Boom. It was like a puck to the head. I could stalk him online…just like my mother. I could live in a world of suspicion and jealousy…just like my mother. In fact, that was exactly what I was doing. When I didn’t get a message from Seb, I’d looked him up online. I’dexpectedto find him cheating and had immediately interpreted that picture that way.

I’d learned that behavior from my mother.

I’d confronted him, waiting for him to give an explanation that I would tear apart. I would’ve waited for the next time, the next picture, when he might not have had an explanation that I couldn’t tear apart.

Just like Mom.

I was my mother. And I’d destroyed my relationship with the best guy I’d ever meet, becauseI was my mother.

How the hell could I feel superior to her when I was doing the same damn thing?

20

Sebastien

We were back in the routine of school and games again. I loved it. It was better to be here with my teammates and friends than carefully skirting the outside of my parents’ lives. They weren’t happy with me and were showing their displeasure by not speaking to me. That was after they’d tried to blame each other for my decision.

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