Page 109 of Have a Bear-y Little Christmas
It was a simple statement, perhaps even a throwaway one, but it dinged at something in my head. How many times had I heard my father wishing that he had a son to carry on our family legacy? And when I had told them about our leader, they’d mentioned that as a daughter, my greatest gift to them could be marrying well.
Was this why they were here? Or was I just too paranoid?
“It’s Wolfe.”
“What was that, now?”
“Our last name. I had it legally changed. I’m surprised your PI didn’t tell you that.”
“Oh, I’m sure he did. It just slipped my mind.” My mother recovered quickly however, reaching across the table as if to rest her hands over mine. I quickly jerked away. While I believed in healing and forgiveness, I also believed it needed to be earned. My parents hadn’t earned it yet. “But technicalities aside, don’t you see? This was meant to be!” The fact that she used something I had thought about Remy and me so often just rubbed me the wrong way. Like she was co-opting language she didn’t deserve. There was nothing magical about them showing up at my door. They had hired a freaking private investigator.
“I can’t imagine how difficult it’s been for you, going through this all on your own, but you don’t have to now. We’re here. We can help with babysitting, doctor’s appointments, taking little Max to service.”
“Service?” I blurted with so much disdain I was surprised my coffee didn’t boil itself in my cup. “Are you guys still involved in the commune?”
They gave me such aghast expressions, likeIwas the weird one for having a strong reaction.
“Of course, sweetie, why wouldn’t we be?”
All of that anger that had no place to go for so long found its place, virulently forming into a spear that was ready to bury itself in the people who had hurt me so terribly.
“I told you, your dear and glorious leader came on to me. He cornered me at my own birthday party and tried to kiss me.” I was speaking loud enough for all the tables around us to hear, but I didn’t care. I was tired of allowing these people to hide in secrecy and shadows. If I wanted to shout to the whole world that they were willing to pimp out their daughter for social currency, then I damn would. “I ended up having to run away because you and everyone else in that stupid fucking cult punished me for not wanting to sleep with a man who was fifty years old and already had two other wives!”
My mother clicked her tongue, and I was instantly transported back to my youth. “You always were so dramatic about things, sweetie. It was never like that.”
“Yes, it was. Don’t try to pretend it wasn’t. You two were basically trying to serve me up on a silver platter!”
“Cut the theatrics. We didn’t travel all this way for you to get hysterical.” That was my father, of course, and his response was so old that I could have said it verbatim without him even opening his mouth.
“Juniper,shhhhh!You’re making a scene.”
“That’s not my name. And I’ll make a scene if I goddamn want to make a scene! You don’t get to pretend to be all high and mighty, to hunt me down in my own home and violate my peace, and then pretend like nothing happened. That man sexually harassed me, and I came to you for help.”
“Jeannie, honey, it was just a miscommunication. Leader Camden explained everything. Really, if you just come home and give him a chance to explain, you’ll understand. That way, everything can finally be settled, and Max can have acommunity. No kid should have to grow up with no family. Don’t you miss everyone?”
“He does have a family, and I trust them with my life.” I stood, red-faced, finger pointing, and my father reacted in kind. He was about to bellow at me, a thing that would have once made me cower, but I wasn’t that little girl anymore. I hadn’t been in a long time.
“You listen here—” he started, but he quickly learned that was the absolutely wrong thing to say.
“No,youlisten here, you ass backward, brainwashed old kooks. If you’re so sure that your actions are right, then you should be fine with everyone hearing how you were willing to sacrifice your own daughter for clout when I was fifteen. And how you let it go on for a year and a half until she was driven from your home.
“Go on. Look at everyone’s faces. You see that? Do you see that? That revulsion? I think some people are even filming. That’s because you’re disgusting! You sicken me, and you will never be part of me or my child’s life!”
“Jeannie, you don’t mean that.”
“I most definitely do,” I countered, satisfied in how they were rapidly packing themselves up and heading toward the door. I was definitely feeling cathartic, like I was taking the power back from two people who didn’t deserve to have it. “And if you dare try to hire another PI to bother us, or show up at my door again, or even so much as send a greeting card to anyone in this city, I will personally smack you down with enough restraining orders that you couldn’t so much as take public transportation.
“I will plaster your faces and my story all over the internet. I will make sure it goes viral so the entire commune can’t show their faces anywhere in this country. Do you understand me?”
“You’ve never learned,” my father snapped as he opened the door for my mother. “We try to do what’s best for you, but you always insist on fighting us every step of the way.”
“You never cared about what was best for me, only yourself and continuing your family legacy. You are bottom feeders among the bottom feeders, and after this, I will never spare you another thought.”
That seemed to be the final straw. They hurried out the door and down the street. I stood there, chest heaving, allowing myself to fully feel my feelings.
There were a lot of eyes on me, but I didn’t care. Some would consider what I had done a waste of energy, but I had finally shut the door on my past. Now, I could move forward into my future.
I still had a lot to learn, still had a lot to heal from, but I had just taken a huge step in the right direction. I was proud of myself.
