“Tell me why, Joseph?” Katherine prodded.
Joseph took a deep breath and turned his back to her. Something was weighing heavily on him, but he struggled to talk about it. But Katherine was going to know, and she would know before they went any further. If they were in it together, they had to be together completely. They couldn’t do that with secrets.
“Joseph?”
His breathing increased. He held onto the rail as if he were in distress.
“My father was not a good person,” Joseph whispered. He released the rail, turned around, and gestured toward the deck furniture. “Come. Sit down.”
Katherine took a seat, and he sat next to her.
“My father was very abusive to all of us, but especially my mom. For most of her adult life, my mother was miserable, only finding joy in her children. When we got older, Jon and I were able to keep my dad from hurting my mother. When we started college, she built up the courage to leave him. And she did.”
Joseph’s eyes welled with unshed tears. Katherine rubbed his back in hopes of soothing his pain.
“But he found her. He stalked her and threatened her until she felt like she was losing her mind. He promised to kill her if she didn’t return to him, and he tried to make good on that promise. One night, I came home from school to surprise my mom. I barely made it up the front porch before I heard the screams. I kicked her door open. He was yelling so loud, he didn’t even hear me come in.”
Joseph dropped his head and sobbed in his hands.
“It’s okay, honey,” Katherine whispered with tears pooling in her own eyes.
“N-no,” Joseph choked. “It’s not.”
Katherine wrapped an arm around him and kissed the top of his head.
“He was beating my mother with a bat. She was a bloody mess. He beat her so bad, I couldn’t recognize her. I pushed him away from her, but when I went to check on her, he hit me with the bat. I fell on my mom, and he hit me again. I was dazed, but I managed to get up. My mom was crying, begging me to run, but I wasn’t leaving that house without her. When my dad swung the bat at me again and missed, I tackled him into a glass table and punched him. I stunned him, but he was still fighting. He grabbed a shard of glass, stabbed me in the side, and pushed me off him. He climbed over me, prepared to stab me again, but I kicked him and scrambled to my feet. Somehow, I managed to take him down. I started hitting him. At first, I just wanted to subdue him, but I looked over at my mother’s swollen, bloody face and an unstoppable rage took over.”
Joseph raised his head, his eyes red from crying. It was a side of him she’d never seen. He was so hurt, so broken, Katherine would have done anything, given up anything to make the pain go away. She’d once thought Joseph’s family was perfect, but she was realizing that no family was.
He swiped a tear from his cheek, inhaled a deep breath, and looked her directly in the eye. “When it was all over, Katherine, I had killed my father.”
He paused for a breath, but it didn’t seem to help. Joseph was inconsolable. Katherine pulled his head to her chest and held him tight.
“I beat… I beat my father to death!” he cried.
Katherine rocked him gently while rubbing his head. “You had to, honey. You had no other choice. He would’ve killed you and your mother.” Tears trickled from her eyes as she kissed his head. “You saved your mother’s life.”
“I know, but the guilt… it eats at me. Every time I look into my brother’s eyes, I think about how I deprived him of a father.”
“Was your brother angry at you?”
“On the contrary, Jonathan said if he’d been in my shoes, he would have killed him too.”
“And I believe him.” Katherine raised Joseph’s head, forcing him to look at her. “I know it hurts, honey. But try to imagine how much pain you’d be in if it was your mother who died that night.” She wiped his face dry and smiled. “Listen here, Joe. This is our last night on the beautiful island, and we’re not gonna waste it shedding tears for the man that tried to kill you and that amazing woman you call Mom.”
Joseph blessed her with a boyish grin that surprisingly made him look even more sexy. “You got it, sweetheart.” He pulled her onto his lap and captured her lips for a quick kiss. “Come on. Let’s hop in the tender and go to that party.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
KATHERINE
Katherine noticed an envelope on the floor when she entered the apartment. She stepped over it and carried her groceries bags to the kitchen counter. She thought of checking the answering machine but changed her mind. Lately, all the recordings were vicious threats from anonymous men.
After putting the groceries away, Katherine walked over and picked up the envelope. She opened it and pulled out a note with letters made out with cuttings from newspaper:
“You’ll never make it to court, bitch!”
Katherine folded the note and tossed it in the kitchen drawer with the rest of the written threats she’d received. She and Joseph had returned from the Bahamas six weeks ago. That was when the calls and letters started.
