I didn’t want to answer, but the truth was pretty clear. “Yes, assuming this latest stunt doesn’t backfire. You were hurt by a kid at a birthday party for foster kids.”
“I didn’t save his life.”
I nodded. And the boy was nowhere near traffic. But nobody looked deeply into sports stories. “If she gets away with it, then yeah. She’s helping your career.”
“But it’s not how I want to be helped,” he said, his voice flat and cold.
“So why do you let her?”
“You know about Cassie.”
“Yeah, but Cassie isn’t the same vulnerable girl she was a few years ago. The woman I saw today was strong. Capable.”
“Really?” Hope rang clear in his voice.
“Yeah, really.” Though Cassie had been visibly shaken, she’d stood up to Sophia like a true champion. I was about to tell him that, to let him know how grown-up she’d been. But then he started talking about Sophia.
“Did I ever tell you about going to Disney World when I was a kid?”
“No. What happened?”
“It was close to the end with Mom. Dad had started drinking. Sophia did everything at home. Cooking, cleaning, everything. And in the middle of all of this, Cassie started talking about Disney World. One of her friends had gone, and she’d come back telling everyone it had been the most magical trip in the world. Cassie hung on to those words—the most magical place in the world.” He chuckled. “She was young enough then to believe in magic. It was as if she thought Mickey Mouse could make Mom well or something.”
“Oh God, that must have been awful.”
“It could have been, especially since Cassie was like a dog with a bone. She thought Disney World was the answer to all our prayers.”
“Could your family afford it?”
He snorted. “Not really. And even if we could have found the money, Dad could barely get himself to work and back. No way could he manage us on a vacation.”
“What happened?”
His lips curved into a smile. “Sophia got my coach to take us.”
“You’re kidding.”
“And not just us, but the whole baseball team. It was all Sophia’s doing. She talked to the parents, got a travel agent to do the work, and even managed fundraising. Everything.”
“Sophia got out and did car washes and things?” I couldn’t imagine it. She was too prissy to get her hands dirty.
“She washed cars, badgered people into giving bake sales. She made baseball cards for all of us and sold them to my teammates’ grandmothers and fond aunts for a crazy amount of money.” He pointed to his mirror where a baseball card with his eleven-year-old face on it was pressed into the frame. “That’s been with me since I was a kid. It made me believe I would have a real one someday. I looked at it all through college and the minors. It kept me going when I didn’t think I could.”
“That’s amazing, Connor. But that’s not about your sister. That was—”
“For a trip to Disney World for Cassie. We went on that trip. Mom and Dad didn’t go, but the three of us did, as well as half my baseball team plus their families. It was the best trip I’ve ever had. I hung out with my friends and Cassie fell in love with the Animal Kingdom. I think that’s where her interest in biology began. She started sparking in the sciences, and all of it was because of Sophia.”
I didn’t know what to say. In my mind, Sophia was a lying, manipulative bitch, but it was clear she’d also been a loving sister and had done a lot for her siblings. She’d been there when her parents couldn’t be. And I wanted to admire her for that. I just couldn’t reconcile that Sophia with the attention-starved witch I knew now. “What happened to make her change?”
“I think it was that trip,” Connor continued. “We had a great time. Everyone loved it. Everyone thanked her—me, Cassie, my teammates. But you know who didn’t say a word? You know who didn’t seem to notice at all?”
“Your mom was sick.”
“Yeah, she was. I can forgive her for that, but Dad never acknowledged all the work she’d done. He didn’t even thank her. She got nothing except, ‘Get me another beer.’” He exhaled. “I think that’s what broke her.”
Ouch. It sounded horrible to say, but I thought it was a good thing his dad was dead. Otherwise, I might be tempted to give him a piece of my mind. Sure, his wife had been dying, but he’d still had three kids. How could he totally abandon them like that?
“Sophia was everything to us, our entire lifeline. I should have called my uncle. I should have reached out to someone, but Dad was so against it. And we were doing okay. I had baseball, and I just didn’t see anything but that.”
