Page 121 of A Heart So Haunted
“She’s a grown woman. She didn’t even show up to her funeral,” I bit, blood starting to bubble. “Why should she get anything when she only cares about filling her pockets so she can spend it at the ABC store and get wasted in the middle of the road downtown? Why should I enable her any more than I already have?”
“Because she won’t—”
“Do you not see what I’m saying?” I cut in.
The line went silent. For a moment, I thought he hung up. Then I realized why it was quiet. From the corner of my eye, even Sayer stood by the dead rosebush, frozen, staring at me.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d cut my dad off.
A whistling breath. “I see what you’re saying, Lan. I’m asking you to see whatI’msaying.”
I ground my teeth. I wanted to be petty. I wanted to ask, “Why should I when you weren’t here when she left me for three days and bounced off to some casino in Virginia and left me to eat stale ramen and curdled milk?” but I didn’t.
I’d called him. I’d asked for this. I was an adult. Being combative would get me nowhere.
“What I’m saying,” he started again, “is that your mother doesn’t just need money. She needs a clinic, but she won’t take it. Giving her a roof is the only thing that can help right now unless—”
“She is not living with me.”
“Then admit her, Lan.”
My eyes narrowed. “Why, so you don’t have to?” Not just pay for it, but wipe himself of responsibility?
“I tried,” he snapped. “Twice.She did the time, she got out, and relapsed. Both times in the last four years.”
I stared at a particularly tall blade of grass. “You had her admitted to a clinic?”
“Yes. And she will only get help if she wants it. I’ve tried to help her, I have paid her more than enough alimony over the last however many years, I’ve paid her bills, I’ve paid everycollectionshe accrued,everything. The rent, the water, the insurance—every last dingy bit of that hellhole she picked, I paid for. She’s had enough opportunity, and I refuse to give her another.”
My cheeks started to tingle.
I’d always thought—Mom never said anything about her not paying the bills. Then again, I wasn’t surprised by that. Just surprised that Dad still paid for it all. That he’d known where I lived this whole time and never once stopped by.
Why would he pay to keep our lights on, knowing she had a problem, but then leave me behind at the end of the day? Return to Penny, continue his sideways love affairs, and turn his back on the person that needed him the most?
Why would he help her, but he never helped me?
Vomit ate at my lungs. I shook my head. Closed my eyes. The birds singing mitigated the anger only so much.
What more of an answer did I need?
“I’ll figure it out,” I whispered. “Thanks for your help, Vince.”
“Landry—”
I hung up. Almost immediately, his caller ID blinked on-screen, but I declined it. Below the declined call appeared a text message bubble—this one not from my father.
My heart leaped into my mouth; immediately, I wiped sweat from my eyes and beelined back to the house. She’d seen it.
“What did your dad want?” Sayer asked, cautious.
“More of the same. Just a bunch of excuses.” I picked up a hand trowel and an extra set of gloves. “I can clean this up.”
“Where are you going?” Sayer picked up the dead rosebush and tossed it into the bramble. It floated on the live bushes, but he left it, then balled up his gardening gloves and trailed after me.
“I need to meet someone in town really quick. I can pick up lunch, though.”
“Emma said she’d bring something back. She went to The Blue Corduroy to finish her work.” Sayer followed me into the living room. I grabbed a water and a protein shake out of the fridge, chugged one, then sipped the other.
