Page 63 of One Last Chance

Chapter 24

I didn’t sleepat all that night, certain that every bump and creak I heard was Dad coming to punish me for having a man in my room. I couldn’t imagine that mom would just ignore the situation. It wasn’t like I’d just invited Kash over for dinner or something. She had to have noticed that his pants were barely above his ankles. And if she’d missed all that, what other reason could I possibly have had for sneaking him into my room in the dead of night?

I was still waiting for my inevitable demise when the sun came up. Still, nothing happened. The smell of coffee filled the house and I heard the washing machine start, and still nothing. I began to wonder if I’d imagined the whole thing. Or maybe my mother told my father and he had a heart attack. Croaked right where he sat in front of the TV watching the fight. Mom was probably silent about it, in that ‘served you right,” kind of way. After all, he did put his hands on her. If any man slapped me the way my father slapped my mother that night – and apparently, many nights before, I can’t say I would have shed a tear over his heart going still inside his chest. Somehow, I doubted my father was dead.

“Well. Better go face the music, since the music doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to face me,” I told myself.

My heart raced as I dressed. I couldn’t tell if it was from anxiety or exhaustion, but it didn’t really seem to matter. I would be going out there shaky and unprepared regardless. Mom was cooking breakfast. I hesitated for a second, wondering what I should do, before deciding to just slide into my seat like I always did.

“Good morning,” she said brightly.

“Good morning,” I said cautiously. “How did you sleep?”

“Like a baby,” she said. “That new prescription the doctor gave me is working wonders. And you? How did you sleep?” Her brow furrowed with concern and she put a hand on my forehead. “You look sick.”

I shook my head. “Just tired. Didn’t sleep very well. Um—about that—”

She held up a hand and looked over my head, into the living room. “Good morning, David! Coffee?”

He mumbled something incoherent in response and mom turned around to make his coffee. She didn’t give me any kind of look, but she didn’t need to. She clearly hadn’t told him and didn’t seem like she was planning to either. Puzzled and feeling seasick from skipping out on my sleep, I sipped on coffee and frowned at nothing in particular.

“It’s Saturday,” Dad growled. “You don’t have work. If you’re gonna be that grumpy about it, just go back to bed.”

I ignored him. I was too tired to get into it with him, and too groggy to come up with an acceptably neutral answer. Plus, I was still working on biting my tongue. One day, I’d make enough money to drag mom and myself out of this town and away from him. I didn’t care how much she would likely rebel. I didn’t care that somewhere deep down, maybe she really did love him. He hit her. And even if he wasn’t going to pay for it now, he’d pay for it eventually.

I spent the day in a sleepy, anxious haze, waiting for the other shoe to drop. It never did.

The next day was even worse; by the end of it, I’d chewed my nails down to the cuticles and had a relentless headache. Mom made no indication at all that she’d even seen Kash, let alone that she’d discovered him in such a compromising position. But she did mention new medication which had me thinking that maybe she went blind.

It wasn’t until Dad left for work on Monday morning that she decided to bring it up. This new job of his had him out the door half an hour before me, so we had a little bit of time to ourselves. She called me into the kitchen and sat me down with a look on her face which straddled the line between stern and nervous.

“We need to talk about Friday,” she said.

Relief burst in my chest. Freaking finally. “Okay.”

She stirred her coffee slowly, looking deep into her cup as if it held answers she needed. “I understand that Kash is your person,” she said. “I expected this. I didn’t expect you to be so reckless about it, though.”

I frowned. “Reckless? What do you mean?”

She gave me a wide-eyed, exasperated look. “Daisy, you had a man crawl into the house through your bedroom window. It doesn’t even matter that it was Kash, if your dad walked in on any man crawling through your window he’d fill him full of buckshot in a heartbeat. You know this.” She pursed her lips firmly and looked back into her coffee.

“Okay, so that was probably a little stupid,” I admitted.

She shook her head. “It’s not just that. Listen, Daisy, I don’t know what you two have been doing. I don’t know if you’ve been out on dates or over to his place, but I hope you haven’t.”

“Why?”

Her eyes were full of the same fear I’d been battling inside myself for months. “Because your dad won’t hold back. If he finds out that you’ve been with Kash, he’ll be out for blood. All the cops in town know the history—if your dad beats the hell out of Kash, the department will turn a blind eye.”

She stopped and sighed heavily, chewing on the inside of her cheek. “That’s not the worst of it, either,” she said quietly. “He won’t just be after Kash, Daisy. He’ll take your actions personally. He’ll feel betrayed and humiliated by you, and he’ll lash out. I don’t know how, exactly—but it isn’t far-fetched to think that he’d kick you out at the very least. Maybe even—” She bit her lip and shook her head.

“You think he’ll hit me? The way he hits you?” My tone was harsher than I’d intended but I couldn’t help it. I was still pissed at her for letting him get away with treating her that way.

She hesitated. “I don’t know,” she said after a moment. “But I can’t say for sure that he won’t, and that worries me, Daisy. You’re my daughter and I love you. I don’t want you to get hurt, but if your father finds out…at least emotionally, you’ll be in a lot of pain. It’s not worth it.” She glanced at the clock on the wall behind my head and sighed. “You’d better finish getting ready.”

“And what about you, mom? Are you just as opposed to me seeing Kash.”

She rubbed at her temples. “He was convicted for your brother’s murder.”

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