Page 5 of Bear Haven
Chapter Two
“I knew you’d come around.”
Beck stared into the fire. It was the first time in days he’d been warm and it would likely be his last until everything was said and done. He didn’t know what would happen after he left the cabin, if his father let him leave at all.
He’d been shivering when his father opened the door earlier and ushered Beck inside immediately. For a time, all the harshness and anger between them disappeared while he was taken care of, fed, and a fire started to warm the cabin.
But that ease was coming to a close.
Beck knew his father would never harm him or wish for anyone else to do so, but the pain was inevitable.
“I haven’t come around. Not like you mean, anyway,” Beck said. He didn’t look at the man everyone back in Dandridge calledthe Mayor. He only watched the flames as they flickered inside the fireplace.
They weren’t alone in the cabin. Three of his father’s closest friends, Beck’s Uncle Richard were with him. Though, there was one Beck hadn’t seen but a few times over the years. He didn’t even know the man’s name. He’d only seen him come and go before and after a hunt.
He stayed in the kitchen, near the window looking out over the side yard and the trail that would lead back to the ghost town a few hours southwest of the cabin. The trail that would lead anyone to Gus and Luke if they so chose to go for a walk. The trail that could spell a mountain of doom if he wasn’t careful in his conversation with his father.
“Haven’t you?” His father said, interrupting Beck’s thoughts. “You’re here.”
“She’s my daughter.”
“So they say.”
“So I say.”
“She’s that animal’s spawn. She’s not of my blood.”
“Is that why you hated Jolene? Is that why she never let you near Bex? Because she knew what you’d see every time you looked at her? That you’d see both me and the bear looking back at you?
“Stop! I will not listen to this garbage.”
“You will listen, Father. You lied to her, to everyone. All my life you let them all believe I was dead. She died believing I was dead. I loved her. How could you do that to me? To her? How could you be so cruel?”
“She wouldn’t have wanted you. Not when she saw what you’d become.”
“You mean, you didn’t want me, right? You didn’t want anyone to see what you had to live with?”
“That’s not true. You’re my son. I loved you. I took care of you.”
“But you were never there. Even you couldn’t stomach looking at me. You left. You were gone. Hired nurses to care for me, look after me.”
“I gave you everything you ever wanted.”
“Except a choice.”
“Ungrateful son of a…”
Beck glared with his one good eye. “Don’t say it. Don’t you dare. She was the only good thing about our family and we both know it.”
“Your mother would’ve never accepted this.”
“She would’ve acceptedme. She wouldn’t have been ashamed ofme. And she wouldn’t have kept Jolene in the dark.”
“I did you a favor. I gave up my career for you, my dreams for you.”
“Oh, please, Father. You played the martyr along with judge, jury, and executioner. You had no right.”
“I have every right to take from them as they took from me.”
