Page 119 of Poetry of Flowers

I remember when she used to slap me with her wooden sword until I let her piggy ride.

“I needed some time to think.”

She didn’t need to know what had happened. Of course, I was going to tell her, just not right now. I was tired and just wanted to talk to Mom about it.

“You missed a lot,” She sobbed without tears.

“What did I miss? Did Mom and Dad fight again?”

“Nash is home to help Mom with… with the divorce papers. Dad moved out because Mom kicked him and his stuff out of the house.”

She was divorcing him.

Why now, when had she feared him her whole life?

“You left a few details out, bug.” My brother’s voice sounded from behind me. Turning around, I saw him leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed.

Nash looked better than the last time I had seen him, his chocolate brown hair looked groomed with short back and sides. He seemed taller and more muscular from playing basketball for years, and his skin was sun tanned. His green eyes didn’t have bags under them anymore. He was already dressed.

“Go and wake Mom up, Faith. Tell her Kayden is home.” Our sister nodded and ran upstairs.

“Gently!” Nash called after her.

He walked up to me, looking me up and down before pulling me into a short hug.

“You okay?” He knew, Mom must have told him everything, or maybe it had even been on the news, but my brother knew what had happened.

“I’m going to be.”

“He’s gone, Kayden, he won’t come back.” Nash told me directly, so I would feel safe.

“But how?”

Patrick was always gone, but also always returned. He would never let my mother kick him out ofhishouse, he wouldn’t let himself look bad in the media as the man who lost his wife, house and children all at once.

“Mom called me and asked me for help, she knew he wouldn’t let her fight for herself, and you know how he has respect for me. I waited till she said everything she wanted to say and when he started to scream at her, I stepped in. I don’t want to recall everything I said, but she told him if he came back, then she would call the police and tell them everything they needed to know to lock him up. Trust me, he'd done enough to get life. The next day, we met up and agreed to terms, he will pay child support, and we will get the house. He will leave Grand Lee, and we won’t make any of this interesting for the media.”

I didn’t think, I would ever feel this kind of relief.

Since the age of six, I had always thought I would only be free once I could leave this house and move far away from my past.

But the war was over.

I was free.

“Thank you, Nash.”

My brother looked down and chuckled, “That’s what older brothers are for, I should have done that a long time ago, but you know how hard… I cannot say that this was easy, ask Violett, she big spooned me the entire night.”

There it was again, humor.

His coping mechanism.

Autumn and Nash were similar in countless ways.

“Violett is here too?”

“You think I would let him go through this alone?” a familiar voice asked, Violett came up behind Nash and wrapped her arms around my brother’s waist.

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