“What? Say it.”
She glances into the house before stepping closer to me so she can keep her voice down. “I don’t… I miss my son, and I really need you to think about what you’re doing to this family.”
I nod. “I see. Choosing to be delusional as usual. Thank you for your concern. I’d like to speak to your husband now.”
Miranda shakes her head. “I get it. I’m not the best mother when it comes to letting my son express himself how he wants to. I don’t even know why, Laiken. But you have to see?—”
“That’s the difference between you and me. Idounderstand what I’ve done, and I agree I fucked up big time. However, I’m not the person tearing apart your family, Miranda. And neither is Lie. Our actions, our relationship, aren’t the poison in your family right now. Even you can see that.”
She can. It’s reflecting in her eyes as she takes a step back. Without another word, she disappears into the house. I step off the deck, away from the house. I move close to our property line. Where I think it is, anyway. We tore down the fence as soon as I moved in. There’s nothing separating our properties anymore and hasn’t been for nearing two decades.
Somehow, I see a line as if it’s visible.
“What?”
I turn at Nason’s voice. He hasn’t stepped off the deck and stands there with his arms crossed over his chest. My throat is tight for a minute because I fucking miss him. I miss my best friend so damn much.
“Are you ready to listen to an explanation yet?”
He rolls his eyes. “What the fuck can you possibly say to make this okay?”
“Nothing. I didn’t say I could make it okay. But you’ve turned into an absolute jackass toward your son, and Nason, that’s not you. You and I and everyone else on Kala knows that.”
“Don’t pretend?—”
“That I know you?” I interrupt. “Are you really going to spew that bullshit right now?”
Nason doesn’t answer.
“I know you’re angry. You should be. You have every right to be. I fucked up, Nason. I know that. I deserve your ire. But are you really going to alienate your son? The person you have loved more than any other living thing in this entire world?”
He still doesn’t answer.
“I know we hurt you, but you should know that doesn’t give you permission to hurt him.Youmake him fucking cry, Nason. Does that not bother you? Are you seriously going to continue to push him out of your life?”
I’ve said something that finally penetrated his anger. I can see it flash in his eyes. So I push on.
“When he was nine and someone pushed him at school, making him scrape his knee, you were ready to hit the kid over the head with a baseball bat. You have spent every single day with Lie, who’s not just your son but your best friend. You’ve been prouder of him than anything else in your life. You’ve protected him from the world, so he always had a smile on his face. Do you not see what you’re doing to him now? I know you do. But how the hell can you stand to do it? I thought there was nothing at all that could come between you two.”
“Except you,” he snaps.
I shake my head. “No.Youcame between the two of you. I’m not the one making him miserable, Nason. That’s you. I’m not?—”
“Stop being such a fucking martyr, Laiken. You fucking groom my son, seduce him, and steal him from me. Right in front of my face. Under my nose this entire time. How long haveyou preyed on him, Laiken? How long? I used to let him spend the night at your house when he was a kid! Did you?—”
“Stop!” I shout. “Do you even hear the words coming out of your mouth? You don’t believe that for a second, but you’re so blinded by righteous jealousy that you’re listening to the fucking gossip mill as if it’s the gospel.”
“You stole my son!” he demands. “You’re fucking sick. He’s my child.”
“He’s youradultchild. He’s twenty-one. I didn’t even see him as anything other than a child until about eight months ago. When, I might add, he was very much an adult.”
“He’s my child!” Nason screams. “You’re fucking vile. How can you stand here and-”
I don’t bother listening to any more. Nason’s words stop abruptly when I turn away. “Fuck you,” I mutter. “I hope one day you wake the fuck up and look around you, Nason. And see everything you lost because you can’t get over the anger that’s blinding you.”
Nason sputters some more repeated bullshit as I follow the line between our houses and walk away from him. Fuck him. Fuck that noise. Fuck my stomach for churning. Fuck my emotions for stinging my eyes right now.
I won’t be spoken to like that.
