“Scars like that, he hit you so bad, he made you bleed,” he gritted.
“He went to prison for it, Hutch.Lost his own kids.His wife was messed up too.Stood by his side.So her folks, who were not okay with any of this, because he did it to their grandchildren as well, took her to court for custody.And they won.They were good people.They kept in touch.Still do.So do my cousins.They got on with it.There were supervised visits and stuff like that, but they never went back to them.”
She paused for breath.
Then kept talking.
“But I never saw either of them again.Though, I know he’s still preaching.She’s still his sycophant.They didn’t have more children, and he had a record and a reputation, so he doesn’t have a very large flock.But they weren’t invited to graduations or weddings.Maybe they don’t care.But I bet they do.They paid.And now they have grandbabies and they aren’t in their lives.So they’ll keep paying.”
This was all said, not with no emotion, but it was still matter-of-factly.
“Therapy teach you to be this adjusted?”he asked.
She smiled.“Mostly, yeah.”
“What’s the other part that’s not ‘mostly?’”he pressed.
She blew out a breath and played with the lock of hair that always curled around his ear.
She also answered.
“I don’t want to give the man credit, that shifty guy who turned out to be my father, but he had this absurd idea that humans are animals, which of course we are, and animals survive in the wild, or they don’t.So my early years, with almost zero parental or even adult input, I learned to survive.And when I say that we, I mean the other kids there and I ran entirely amuck.We ate whatever we wanted.We took baths when someone noticed we were dirty.”Her eyes caught his.“But don’t think I was roughing it.I had a princess room in a mansion.The man was a flake, among other things, but he was loaded.There was plenty of food.Plenty of people around.I had the most expensive clothes and toys you could buy.”She grinned.“I had a Barbie dream house that was taller than me.I still miss that thing.”
With this conversation, the puzzle of Mabel was falling into place.
Self-sufficient.
Not only finding a multitude of ways to fill it but also enjoying time spent alone.
Even so.
Fuck that shit.
“I know you want to blow this off, May, but I’m not finding any of this funny.”
Her gaze turned hyper focused, and she replied, “I just don’t want you to think I’m strange.Or broken.Or…I don’t know, when I tell people my stories, they sometimes look at me like I’m something pathetic.Something to be pitied.When I’m not.Not at all.”
“Her name was Molly.”
Her gaze flickered and her body froze.
“Graduated college, enlisted in the Navy.Knew I wanted to be a SEAL well before I became a SEAL.Had a bud, his name was Teller.He got through BUD/S training, but the man was scared as shit of heights.He thought he could best it.He couldn’t.Washed out in parachute jump school.”
“What’s BUD/S?”
“Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL Training.”
“Right,” she mumbled.
Hutch kept going.
“I fell in love with Molly.Hard.”
She ran her top teeth over her bottom lip but that was all she did.
“She was it.The future.Babies.So sweet.Smart.Funny.Pretty.”
“Okay,” she whispered.
