Page 55 of Feels Like Falling
“I’ve never cared about the money. I still don’t.”
“I know. But your mother had been manipulative. If I’d been thinking more clearly, I would have known that your grandparents never would have put something like that in the conditions. They weren’t loving, but they were decent people and they were thrilled to have a granddaughter.”
My mother’s parents had passed when I was young, too young to remember them. My father’s parents had been much the same—it was why I’d so eagerly taken up a place at the table with Nan and Grandad.
I craved the affection and they’d given it freely.
“What about all the years you were barely there? All the times youleftme with her.”
“It wasn’t by choice,” he says quietly before meeting my gaze. “There were a couple of times I threatened to leave her, the contract be damned, but”—his voice breaks on the last word—“she would’ve taken you and no judge in the state of Tennessee would have changed that. So,” he says tiredly, his shoulders sagging with the admission, “I had to keep my distance to keep you safe. I couldn’t risk her leaving in the middle of the night—you would have been gone forever.”
“What changed?” I ask, my mind reeling, “What changed now?”
“I was contacted by a…reporter,” he says wryly, an odd inflection onreporter.
“Really? Isn’t that confidential?”
“It wasn’t about that specifically, but our conversation raised enough questions that I did some digging of my own.”
“And?”
He sighs and the sound encompasses decades of a miserable life, not just the present. “And your mother is worse than we thought.”
“Unlikely.” He raises an eyebrow at me so I shrug. “I’ve known it for years; I just couldn’t escape her.”
“I’m sorry for that too.”
“Honestly? I can’t dwell on that anymore. I’m here and I’m happy and I want to build a life with the man I’ve loved since the day we met.” My father blanches so I say, “I hope that you can find your happiness too.”
His phone buzzes in quick succession and he pulls it out of his pocket, barely glancing at it before handing it to me.
SHERRI ANN: You better get back to Savannah before people start talking, Evan.
SHERRI ANN: You’ll be nothing without me. I won’t let you and Ellison ruin everything I’ve worked for
SHERRI ANN: I’ve done everything for this family and you had one job and you still messed it up!
SHERRI ANN: I won’t let you get away with this. I will take every dime and you’ll be left with nothing. You disgust me—crawling back to that godforsaken town.
SHERRI ANN: Answer me!
“Wow.”
He snorts. “I have to survive the divorce first.”
I nod, because that’s no exaggeration.
26
MONTANA
MONTANA: Meet me in the field
ARCHER: Beer?
MONTANA: All of it
ARCHER: Oh boy…
