“Maybe it’s best we all sit down and get this moving along,” Wills announces as he watches his brother-in-law pace the room.
The four of us sit huddled together as a visibly tight unit, with Stephen on the couch across from us.
“Dad, why don’t you start by telling us why you’re here now, after all this time,” Sadie says with a shaky voice.
Stephen sits tall and takes a deep breath. “If it’s okay with you all, I’d rather start at the beginning. It will make more sense that way. Of course, interrupt me with any questions.”
We all nod, encouraging him to begin.
“If you didn’t already know, I met your mother at Princeton our senior year. She was beautiful, smart, and I was completely enamored with her. Thinking back on it, I’m sure part of it was that I got caught up in the fact that she liked me. I mean, the rich girl with a trust fund whose last name was on our finance building likedme, the poor boy from Brooklyn who was there on scholarship and got kicked off the rowing team for smoking pot. A whole year went by, and everything was perfect. She was nothing like her catty friends or stuck-up family, and I knew one day I would marry her.” He shakes his head and continues, “How stupid must I have been? She was the one who brought it up first, so she wasn’t happy when I told her I was excited to marry her, but that I thought we should wait. I wanted to travel the world before making my debut in corporate America.”
I look around and see even Jack’s eyes are glued to him, eager for the next part.
“After informing her of my plans, I invited her, of course, but she blew me off, and soon after, everything changed. She set me up to get caught for possession of cocaine, linked with someone who had just overdosed the day before. She knew that because I had a record of marijuana, it would stick, plus her last name meant everything at that school… and with the police.”
“Oh my God,” Sadie whispers. “Why would she do that?”
I want to add that it’s because she’s an evil fucking bitch, but I keep my mouth shut.
“Because she needed a husband when she graduated, not a year later. It was the only way for her to gain access to the rest of her trust. In addition, since she was an only child, her father stipulated that she must marry a man with an Ivy League education to take over the business since, of course, they wouldn’t allow a woman to do it in those times. So she played me, and when it didn’t fall into place as she thought, she blackmailed me. Go to prison, or marry her.”
Jack stays quiet, but his grip on my hand tightens into a harsh squeeze while Sadie’s starts to sweat profusely in my other hand.
“So, why are we here now?” Wills asks, getting right to the point.
He is not a patient man.
Their dad leans back and drags his hand down his face. “I had no choice. I married her. My family was poor; we had no money or connections. There was no way to fight back. She became a complete psychopath, and we lived separate lives until about four years later, she threatened to tell her father about “our” scheme. At this point, I respected her father. He was nothing like your mother, and I didn’t want him to know anything. In exchange for her silence, I promised to give her two kids.” He looks between Sadie and Jack. “I’m so sorry. I thought I could protect you.”
“You fucking didn’t,” Jack finally snaps. “You made it so we were alone in that house, moving around it like a shadow and letting Mom treat Sadie like she was garbage, verbally abusing her constantly.”
Stephen’s face drops. “What?”
“Oh, don’t act stupid now. You’ve had years of that already.”
I squeeze Jack’s hand. “All right, calm down.”
Stephen nods. “I truly didn’t know, but that doesn’t make it right. I knew she wasn’t kind, but I didn’t realize how bad it was. I thought I was taking the brunt of it.”
Sadie sucks in a deep breath. “What does that mean?”
“Well, I guess that leads to why I’m here now. When Jackie—sorry,Jacksonwas born, your mother wanted nothing to do with him. She wanted kids for the persona alone. So, I vowed to be everything for Jackson—the mom and the dad. I was trying to figure out how to leave without her family coming after me. Before I could leave, she demanded a second child. I put up a fight, but she had the upper hand, so I gave in and she got pregnant with you, Sadie. After you were born, her behavior shifted again. Your mother was jealous of my relationship with the two of you and started to threaten terrible, terrible things.” He leans his head back, taking a deep breath, and wipes a few tears that have started forming.
“W-what terrible things?” Sadie asks.
“I don’t even want to say.”
“Just go on. If we’re here listening, tell us the facts,” Jackson utters.
“I’m so sorry,” he says, looking between his two kids. “She threatened to hurt you, beat you, and on more than one occasion, said she would send you where no one would ever find you and tell the world you were kidnapped.”
Oh, God. I look between my two favorite people—Sadie’s head is buried in Wills’s chest, and I can see Jackson is holding back all his emotions.
“Then what?” I prompt.
“What else was I to do? I was locked into this life, but I didn’t want either of you to suffer unnecessarily at her hand, so I did what she said. I stopped talking to my own kids, pretending they didn’t exist. I tried to talk to you in secret when you were younger, but she found out. She took all her anger out on me. I wasn’t the type of man to hit back, and it wasn’t just physical abuse, but mental and emotional too. Over time, it wears on a person. I couldn’t leave, because if I did, I knew she would take it out on you both. And I couldn’t get us all out, because she threatened to go to court and show them everything she’d been fabricating against me. She once threw herself down a flight of stairs, took pictures, and then went to the hospital claiming herhusband‘didn’t mean to do it.’ Taking you would have given her even more ammunition. She’s an evil, manipulative person. I’m so sorry. I thought I was doing what was best in a lose-lose situation.”
I put my arm around Jack and lean my head on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry,” I whisper, and he gives me a slight nod.
