I answer the call and push past Cole, who barely moves, so I can step out of the room.
“Hey, Mom.”
“Jake.Oh god.Honey, we need you.Dad needs you.”
I glance at my watch.“Mom, I’m at work.It’s half past four.”
“Well, you know how he gets this time of the year.Thanksgiving.Holidays.It’s stressful for me.”
It’s stressful for many people, but we don’t all go fucking day drinking.
Yet my long-serving guilt activates as it always does, and I let out a sigh, rubbing my hand over my face.
“Where is he?”
“He’s down at the bar.Cliff phoned.You know we can’t just leave him there...I’m worried he’ll...drive.”
Of course he won’t because she knows I will go get him.
“How long has he been there?”
It must be a while if Cliff has called.He only does that when Dad has had way too many and causes problems.
Usually multiple times a week.
“Four or five hours.”
Jesus Christ.
“Did he go to therapy on Monday?”I ask, referring to the sessions I’ve been paying for the past few months.
“You know they only upset him.”
Goddamn him.
I can’t talk about this while I’m at work.
Cole walks past me, giving me a dark look, and I run my hand through my hair, walking further into the empty office.
“I can’t leave, Mom.I’m in the middle of work, and this is important.I have a new job and an important case I’m working on”
Silence.
Then a sniff.
Fuck.
That’s all it takes.A vision returns of her crumpling to the floor when I came home in the police car, Dad in the hospital...and she knew before we told her.
And Becca wasn’t with us.
She never would be again.
And it was my fault.
––––––––
THERE’S NO WAY I canfocus after I end the call, so I tell the team I have a family emergency and head downstairs to my car.Cole is there, tossing his gym bag into the trunk of his own vehicle.
