“It wasn’t like that,” she said, pleading with her voice and eyes for me to understand something that would never make sense to me. “I’m so sorry.”
“Please, Elijah,” Jack said from the doorway. “She’s on complete bed rest because of a high-risk pregnancy. It’s too soon, and our son won’t survive if Brandy goes into labor now. She can’t take this kind of stress, brother.”
“Don’t you call me that, Jack. You’re fucking dead to me,” I snarled. His cautionary words had the effect he wanted though, because no matter how much I hated them, I would never want to cause harm to their unborn son.
“Take it out on me, br… Elijah. I deserve it; I can take it. Please leave her alone.”
“Outside now,” I commanded.
Jack followed me, head held high, and took his ass-whooping on his front lawn without trying to defend himself or even deflect my blows. It was a good start, but it did nothing to slake the bloodlust pumping through my veins. The sky opened and pelted me with rain, but even that couldn’t diminish the fires raging through me. I left Jack lying nearly unconscious on his front lawn in the pouring rain and drove to the nearest bar to find trouble. I found it fast. I took on three of them who were as angry about life as I was and willing to fight back.
I woke up in the hospital a few days later thinking I’d been in some sort of accident and Brandy’s betrayal with Jack was nothing more than a bad dream. One look into my mother’s eyes told me otherwise. Anger rose swift and hard inside me. “Get out.” She should’ve told me instead of letting me find out like that. Tears streamed down my face as I recalled seeing Brandy’s pregnant stomach because she was supposed to cradle my babies beneath her heart, not my… Jack’s.
“Son,” my father, Jack Sr., said in his thunderous voice. I didn’t know he was even in the room. “Don’t take this out on your mother.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked between racking sobs.
“We didn’t know how.” My mom reached for my hands, but I jerked away from her.
“Don’t touch me.”
“Do not talk to your mother like that,” my father snarled. The gunnery sergeant was as gritty and badass as they came, except when it came to my mama. “What happened to you is terrible, but we can’t undo it. We just need to find a way to move forward. Adapt and improvise.”
“How easily would you have adapted and improvised if mom fucked Uncle Stan while you were in Vietnam?”
My father’s growl snarled in his throat, and he balled his fist in preparation to fight me. It was obvious just hearing the words brought out a murderous rage in my father’s heart. “You can’t even stand hearing the words, so you try to imagine seeing it with your own eyes, Jack.” He stopped being my father in that moment. “You can shove ‘adapt and improvise’ up your ass, Jack, and both of you can get the fuck out of here.”
“No, Elijah,” my mom said tearfully then turned to my father. “Stop being such a hard-ass. What they did to Elijah is inconceivable.”
“Jack is our son too, Brenda. Are we supposed to cast him aside over Brandy’s infidelity?”
“Did she drug him before she fucked him?” I asked sourly. Don’t get me wrong, I was furious over Brandy’s betrayal, but it wasn’t hers alone. It took two to fuck me over. His precious namesake owned half of the blame too, but he didn’t want to hear that. Jack could do no wrong in his eyes, not even getting my wife pregnant while I fought a war. I had begged my whole life for the man’s attention, even joined the military to follow in his footsteps hoping it would make him proud. It was a hateful reality to know that he’d choose a lying, philandering asshole for a kid over me. “Don’t give him a pass because he’s your firstborn and namesake.” I left off favorite, even though it applied as well.
“I’d think someone in as much pain as you’re surely in would be a little smarter,” he sneered at me. “You don’t get to suck us into a war between brothers over a piece of faithless ass.”
“I also don’t have to give a shit about a parent who can’t spare an ounce of compassion for his son who just had his motherfucking world turned upside down! Get out!” My blood pressure soared, making the pain in my head throb worse, and sounding the alarms for the nurses. “I don’t need you! I don’t need anyone! Get out!”
My mom cried harder with every word I shouted, but I couldn’t stop myself. Right then I felt she was as complicit as the others in my betrayal because of her silence. “Please forgive me,” she whispered as the nurses shoved past her and administered mind-and pain-numbing medications that helped me slide into a blissful, dark hole.
Something yanked me from my turbulent sleep; I came out swinging and snarling as piercing pain seized my heart. I rubbed my hand over my chest, but it did nothing to alleviate the agony that those memories elicited in me. I eventually repaired my fractured relationship with my mom, but in the past ten years, I hadn’t stepped foot in their house, or talked to my father, Jack, or his wife. I knew that Jack and Brandy had a few kids together, but I’d never met them.
I heard Maegan’s metal gate slowly creak open from beneath my window, putting me on high alert. I eased out from beneath the covers and softly walked to the window.
“I wonder if she’s home?” a teenage boy asked hopefully.
“You’re just hoping to get a glimpse of her tits,” a sullen teenage girl replied. I imagined her eyes were rolling up in the back of her head.
The entire thing would’ve been funny if I’d been in the right mood. I yanked my curtain open and peered down at the two kids as they entered Maegan’s gate and headed across her yard. Sure enough, they left the gate hanging wide open.
Fury lit my ass up, and I jerked the window open. “Hey, assholes! Close her fucking gate! You left it open the other night and Lulu got out. Luckily she didn’t get hit by a motherfucking car.”
“Oh no!” the girl said, covering her mouth. Her eyes widened when she saw my bare chest, and her face turned pink for reasons other than embarrassment.
The boy wasn’t nearly as impressed. He puffed up like a fucking rooster and challenged me with a look before he opened his mouth. “Who the hell are you? The gate police?”
I grabbed my wallet off the dresser and flipped it open for him to see my Blissville Police Department badge. “Gate Detective,” I clarified, “but I’ll answer to Detective Markham also.” I closed my wallet and pointed at the punk. “Stop creeping around here trying to get a glimpse of Ms. Miracle’s tits! That’s fucking pervy and the first step to becoming a serial killer.” Okay, that was probably overkill because any straight dude with a pulse would want a peep at Maegan’s tits.
The girl’s giggle was muffled by her gloves, but we both still heard it. Her male companion didn’t find anything funny about the exchange and stomped back out of Maegan’s yard.
“We’re sorry, Detective Markham,” the girl said.
I nodded. “Don’t cut through her yard anymore. It’s rude.”
“Yes, sir,” she said, closing the gate and scrambling after her friend. She caught up to him two houses down, and I smiled when they started to argue and gesture toward my window.
I closed the window and curtains then returned to my bed. A smile spread across my face over the incident until I realized the real reason for my ire wasn’t that the boy wanted to see Maegan’s tits, it was because I didn’t want anyone else besides me seeing them. Ever.
Fuck! Nothing good would come from this.
