Page 29 of Wood Riddance
“I can protect myself.” Leaning down, I gave her a hug and a kiss on the head.
“I know that, Dad. But wouldn’t you want someone to help you fight off the aliens?”
With that final question, she turned and skipped toward the front door, leaving me confused and exhausted.
* * *
“We’re going to have to sell. There’s no way around it.” Owen’s voice was tinny through the phone’s speaker, but that didn’t hide the seriousness of his tone. Jude, Gus, and I sat around the table, with Owen on speaker.
Cole had been included on the text chain, but he hadn’t bothered responding. And Noah had appointed Jude his proxy, completely checking out of his responsibility. Typical.
Of all my brothers, I was closest to Owen. Probably because we’d had the same goal growing up: get out. And we both had. He was smart and focused, and he’d always known what he wanted.
A stable career, big city life, and plenty of distance from our dad.
He was an accountant by trade and was the CFO of one of the largest construction companies in Boston.
He was tall, but that’s where the physical similarities between the two of us ended.
His hair was darker, and he wore Clark Kent–style glasses.
He could chop wood and climb trees like the rest of us, but that wasn’t his style.
He was all skyscrapers and trendy restaurants. His condo in Seaport had a wall of windows that looked out over Boston Harbor.
He was also the only one of my brothers who’d visited me from time to time when I was stationed in Virginia. And he loved to spoil his niece. Not that she acted even the slightest bit spoiled.
“We sold off a bunch of land and machinery,” Gus protested. “That had to have helped get us out of the red.” His normally tan face was pale. He was taking this hard, and I didn’t envy him. This was his life. Carrying on the family legacy meant everything to him. He had taken Dad’s betrayal the hardest, and he’d struggled to come to terms with what the man had done. He wanted to believe that it was all a giant mistake, that Dad was innocent, but deep down, he understood that it wasn’t. Didn’t make the pill any easier to swallow, though.
He was the oldest, and he was a quiet, contemplative guy. He lived on several acres in a vintage Airstream he had gutted and renovated a few years ago, enjoying his solitude and the quiet of the forest. If everything fell apart, I truly wasn’t sure how he’d cope.
“And Finn’s flying for the Gagnons,” Jude said. “That’ll cover the plane expenses.”
“I can do this,” Gus said. “We can turn things around. Dad kept me on the outside for so long, but now that I’ve got more control, I can fix this. I can run the business.”
Owen sighed, the sound of it crackling down the line. He hated this. Crushing dreams. Always being the voice of reason.
“I’m not doubting you, brother. But the books are a mess. I can’t tell which transactions are legit or which income came from Dad’s criminal empire.”
Every time I thought about it, my stomach roiled and bile rose in my throat. My dad. A murderer. A drug dealer.
There was no love lost between us. I had kept my distance from a young age.
When I was a kid, our family looked picture perfect from the outside. My mom truly was a superhuman, wrangling five boys, putting home-cooked meals on the table every night, and volunteering at school and with various organizations around town, all while keeping the massive house my dad had built for her spotless.
My dad was my hero, at least in my younger years. He’d taken his grandfather’s business and had made it a huge success. During a time when most people around here were suffering, Hebert Timber grew and thrived. We had grown up having everything we ever wanted: trips to Disney World, the best sports equipment, and parents who doted on us.
But that only lasted a short time.
I was seven years old when my world fell apart.
My mom and dad sat us down and told us they were getting a divorce.
Turned out my dad had been having an affair with his twenty-year-old secretary. And she was pregnant with my youngest brother, Cole.
Mom filed for divorce, moved us to a much smaller house, went back to school, and got her nursing degree. She did almost all of the child rearing while my dad went off and married Tammi.
He was in and out of our lives when it was convenient for him, plying us with extravagant gifts rather than the time and attention we craved. Putting up a compelling front so that just about everyone we knew believed he played an active role in raising us, yet only involving himself when it suited him and leaving my mom to do all the hard work.
