“So, I’ve heard,” Katherine muttered. She moved to walk around her mother, but her mother grabbed her arm and flung her around. She raised her hand to strike Katherine, but Joseph caught her by the wrist. No one, not even her mother, would ever hurt Katherine again.
“How dare you touch me!” her mother raged. She looked at him like he was beneath her, like his poor hands didn’t have the right to touch her rich skin. “Get your hands off me!”
Joseph flung her hand away from Katherine and took a step toward the vile, uppity woman. He made sure to look her directly in the eye. He needed her to understand that Katherine was no longer her punching bag.
“Mrs. Chase, please hear me when I tell you that if you ever put your hands on Katherine again, I’m gonna make you feel pain.”
Elizabeth Chase’s mouth flew open from shock. She looked over at Katherine. “You’re going to stand there and let this animal threaten me?”
“Yep. And trust that he means what he says.”
Joseph felt Katherine’s hand on his back, urging him toward the door. He wrapped his arm around her waist and placed himself between the two women as they walked toward the steps.
“Your father is dead!” she shouted at their backs.
Katherine froze.
Joseph tried to gauge her reaction, but she had no reaction, not even a hitch in her breathing.
“They’re saying he hung himself. It’s all lies. Your father was only going to serve three years. He would never hang himself.”
Katherine took the first step toward their apartment.
“Katherine, they killed him!” her mother cried. “They killed your father!”
Katherine walked up the steps without so much as a glance back at her mother. Joseph unlocked the door and held it open. She stepped into the hall and took the stairs to their apartment.
“They killed your father!” her mother screamed as he closed the door.
Joseph followed Katherine up the stairs and waited for her to unlock the door. After she got it open, they stepped inside. He locked the door, watched her walk over to the sofa, plop down and kick her shoes off.
Joseph took the seat next to her and rubbed her thigh. “Are you okay?”
Katherine sighed. “I am.”
She was giving him nothing. He couldn’t tell how she was really feeling.
“Are you sure?”
Katherine turned to him and nodded. “I’m sure, honey. I’m absolutely fine. In fact, I feel nothing.”
Joseph dropped his head in shame. “You’ve had to learn to be okay with a lot, sweetheart.”
He was partly talking about the fact that he’d killed a man, actually two men.
“Maybe, you’re right, honey. But that doesn’t change the fact that I am. I’m truly okay.”
Joseph pulled Katherine closer and kissed her forehead. “I love you. I hope you know that.”
Katherine caressed his jaw and smiled. “I do know that, honey. And I love you too.”
* * *
KATHERINE
Katherine entered the chapel. She’d arrived two hours early with hopes of not running into anyone. She slowly made her way down the aisle, feeling as if she were walking the plank. When she reached the coffin, she looked down at her father. He was small and gray, not much different than when he was alive.
Katherine didn’t know why, but she’d had to see him before they put him in the ground. She’d prayed for his death for years and had waited for the gratification that should have come along with it. Still, she felt nothing but the assurance that he’d never be able to hurt another child.
