Redemption (Cambria University #2)

by Sadie T. Williams

  “No more, Van,” I say as I break my lip lock with him. “No more lies, omissions or secrets because I love you too.”

  “Then why the fuck did you bail?” he asks, wincing a little.

  “I needed a minute to process. How are you feeling?”

  “I’ll be fine. Ribs are sore and will be a pretty shade of purple, but I’m good,” he says. “You needed the ocean. Chet was right.” He wraps his hands behind his neck and tilts his head toward the sky, letting out a deep breath.

  “Chet.” I cringe at the mention of his name, but I need to know it all. “What did he tell you after I left?”

  Van shakes his head and looks down at me. “The truth. It’s a lot, Maisy. Are you sure you want to hear it from me and not him?”

  I nod. “I don’t care who I hear it from, but I need to know it all.”

  “Then I’ll tell you. No more lies, omissions or secrets,” he begins.

  Van lays it all out there about Emilio, Chet and my dad. It’s like my dad knew Emilio would stab him in the back, and he had this whole plan secured to keep me protected. My dad was trapped in that life because of me.

  “He always said he’d protect me and alluded to Emilio so many times, but I never connected the dots.” I shake my head, trying to get all of the information to form some kind of sense up there. Come on, brain, work. It’s just so much, and I’m overwhelmed knowing he did what he did to keep me safe. Tears start streaming down my face.

  “How could you know? Drew and Chet worked together to make sure you didn’t.”

  “I need to call him. I haven’t talked to him in years, not since he went away. He never told me any of this. I need to hear it from him, and I need him to know I understand why he did what he did. I blamed him for not cutting a deal. I could never wrap my head around it. Growing up, my dad was always so good to me. I loved him,” I say and inhale deeply to fight the tears in my eyes.

  “And I’m sure he loves you. That’s why he did what he did,” Van says and nods toward my bag. “Call him.”

  I grab my phone and shoot Chet a text. Since he’s my dad’s lawyer, he can get a call through at any time, whereas I would have to wait for his designated time to call family or friends and I have no way of letting him know I want him to call.

  “I need to call my dad ASAP.”

  A second later my phone dings with an incoming text.

  “I’m at work now. Come in.”

  “He said he’s at the office and we can go in. He’ll call him.”

  “I’ll drive,” Van says with a smile. “We’re good, yeah? Me and you? I still have my girlfriend?”

  I nod. “Yes, boyfriend. I love you.”

  He picks up my stuff from the sand in one arm and I holds my hand with the other as we walk up the beach.

  Chapter 42: Maisy

  We pull up to Chet’s office building about an hour later. I needed to swing by Mabel’s and change clothes first. It’s not like my dad can see me, but I didn’t think showing up in a wetsuit would be appreciated.

  News of Emilio’s arrest is all over the internet and every media outlet in the country. The head of the Cartel del León arrested within in the United States. Living under the feds’ noses for God knows how long. Coming and going over our border as often as he pleased. Not a good look for our agencies, and Emilio would still be free if it weren’t for Van and Chet. Thankfully, the details behind the arrest weren’t leaked, and no one is mentioned in the bust except the DEA and SA McLaren.

  “Ready?” Van asks as he opens the door to his rental car.

  “As I’ll ever be.” I force a smile in return.

  We ride the elevator up in silence, but Van has a vice grip on my hand. His tough but reassuring touch is just what I need in this moment.

  “Oh my sweetheart!” Jo’s voice sing-songs through the air as we exit the elevator. She pulls me in for a hug when we walk in. I assume she knows more than she’s let on. “Chet is waiting in the conference room.”

  I nod and give her a weak smile. It’s the best I can do right now. Van and I walk through the cubicle maze, pass Chet’s office, and head into a conference room, where Chet is sitting at a long mahogany table with a phone in the middle.

  “He’s on,” he says, motioning toward the table, where a conference phone is set up and a computer is projecting my dad’s image onto a large screen on the wall. I haven’t seen my dad’s face in so long that I can’t help but tear up at his image.

  Chet stands as Van and I sit in front of the computer so my dad can see us too. Chet is dressed immaculately in a fine suit, and his demeanor is back to the lethal L.A. lawyer who never loses. The room is fully enclosed with glass walls, but Chet presses a button and automatic shades lower, awarding us complete privacy. He sits again, but this time at the head of the table.

  “Hello.” My dad’s voice rings through the room and my heart sinks to my stomach. He’s still California handsome. His hair is cut shorter than it was when he was out of prison, shaved on the sides and a little flow up top with a small blond beard that makes him look rugged. But his piercing blue eyes have remained unchanged. He’s wearing a tan jumpsuit with a white t-shirt peeking out underneath. Somehow, he still has his tan.

  “D-dad?” I choke on the word while I stare at the face of the man I haven’t seen in over three years.

  “Oh May-Pie!” he exclaims and the nickname shoots straight to my heart. “I’ve missed you so much! How are you? Are you okay? You’re stunning, baby girl. Absolutely stunning.”

  “I-I don’t know, Dad. I’m confused,” I begin, but pause to consider my words carefully. “I just want to know the truth.”

  “I know, baby girl, I know,” he replies. “And I’ll tell you. Chet told me everything that happened. Is this Donovan?”

  “Yes, sir,” Van answers and glances toward me. “I’m here, but if you prefer I step out, I can do that. I’m just here for support for Maisy.”

  “It’s all good, Donovan. Judging from your face it looks like you took quite the ass whooping protecting my May-Pie and for that I’ll never be able to repay you,” he says. Van nods.

  “What happened to Mom?” I ask. I don’t mean to ignore Van’s condition, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about my mom since I heard the truth.

  “So, going right after it? Chet always said you’d make a brilliant attorney.” My dad chuckles.

  “Not the time, Drew,” Chet replies. “You always had shitty comedic timing.”

  “Ok, baby girl, here goes…” He pauses and takes a deep breath.

  My breath catches and Van must notice because he reaches over and takes both my hands on top of the table into his massive one. He begins rubbing circles over the top of my hand with his thumb. Such a small gesture, but so comforting. Seven months ago, I didn’t think Van was capable of such a meaningful gesture.

  “Still protecting my baby,” my dad says as he eyes Van’s hands on mine.

  “So, when you were about four, I tried to get out of the game, Maze. I was done with it. Your mom and I had plenty of money, and we were happy. Life was good, then Emilio sent three of his guys to our Vista house one Sunday. I was watching football and you were playing in the backyard,” he says and clears his throat. “I’m sorry, this is hard to discuss.”

  “I believe it, Dad, but please, I need to know.”

  “Your mom wasn’t home. She was at the grocery store. Two weeks prior to that day, I’d told Emilio I wanted out. It wasn’t the first time we’d discussed me leaving the business, but he made sure it was the last. Emilio was in Colombia, so his guys relayed his message that I was never getting out, and they threatened to kill you or Juliana as punishment for me trying to leave. I had to choose,” he says as his voice cracks, and I can see the tears rolling down his sharply carved cheekbones.

  “No,” I gasp.

  “What the fuck?” Van whispers.

  My dad clears his throat again and regains his composure. “I chose you, obviously. From what I kn
ow, those guys grabbed your mom from the grocery store parking lot. Broad daylight and no one saw a thing. They took her to the marina where they chartered a boat, shot her on the boat and dumped her body in the ocean so she would never be found. I don’t know if that’s true, but I never saw her again, and I never got to say goodbye.”

  “I hope she didn’t suffer,” I murmur and fight to hold back my tears. I barely remember her, and my whole life I thought she left me. “Why didn’t you ever tell me the truth, Dad? I thought she left me, us. That she didn’t want me. You were so honest about everything else, and that lie crushed my universe.”

  “How do I explain that, May-Pie? The guilt you would have felt for me choosing you would rival mine for having to make the choice. Your heart, baby girl, is so pure and sweet. You’d never forgive yourself. I had to live with the guilt, but I never wanted that for you. Telling you she left of her own accord seemed to be the best option at the time. I had to raise you, and I couldn’t have you hating me or yourself for my choices.”

  “He’s right, Maisy. You wouldn’t have ever gotten over that, but you need to understand that it wasn’t your fault, and it wasn’t Drew’s. He had to make an impossible choice,” Chet offers.

  I nod, because I know they’re right. Putting the blame on her allowed me to be mad at her, someone who would never actually feel the wrath of my anger and pain. I would never have been able to live with the guilt that my dad chose my life over my mother’s. How could he have made that choice? The pain that must have caused him…

  “So that’s why you never got out and never flipped on Emilio. You were a lifer and he knew it.”

  “Yes. I got into dealing when I was poor kid from west L.A. I got sucked into the money and the cars and all the flash that came with the lifestyle. And then I got sucked into Jules. She was the love of my life. I was just too good at dealing, and I was naïve to think that Emilio would ever let us out.”

  “El Camaleón,” Van says.

  “Ah, sí. Someone told you about my nickname. It’s why I was the best there was. I could blend and make people feel at ease making bad decisions. It’s a gift I wish I didn’t possess.”

  “Maisy has it too,” Van replies and my eyes shoot to his. “You do,” he says, staring directly at me. “I noticed it at school. She’s something special, Drew.”

  “I know,” my dad responds, “but she uses her gifts for good. It’s why she landed you. Chet told me all about you.”

  “Excuse me? Can we get back to Emilio? Why did he come back, Dad, after all this time?” I ask, breaking up the session of dad meets boyfriend.

  “He needed something. That’s the only reason he ever shows his face.”

  “But he didn’t know I was a fighter when he showed up,” Van states.

  “True, but he wasn’t here for you. He was here for Maisy. He knew of her beauty,” Chet chimes in. “Remember Emilio’s grand plan? He had the drug market. He wanted to expand into prostitution and illegal gambling – the fights.”

  “Ah,” my dad responds as if that’s common sense. “He’s always wanted to build an empire. He’d been talking about expanding for years. I’d heard him talking about it before I got locked up. This was his plan all along, and I bet he was going to do it with Jules before I fucked that up.”

  “Fucked it up? Like got her killed?” Van asks the blunt question.

  “No, fucked her up as in got her pregnant. She was no good to him then.”

  “That would make sense,” Chet concurs. “The international beauty can’t be sold as a virgin if she’s had a baby.”

  “This is so fucked,” Van mutters.

  “Understatement, my boy,” Chet reaffirms.

  “So, Van, what are you plans with my daughter?”

  “Dad, you can’t be serious.”

  “As a heart attack, baby girl. Van, speak,” my dad commands.

  “Well, sir, this isn’t the way I’d normally do this, but shit, I’ve never done this so what do I know,” Van says and both Chet and my dad chuckle. “I love her and I want to be with her as long as she’ll allow it. I guess that’s all I can say.”

  “And May-Pie?”

  I look between Van, my dad and Chet. “We’re really doing this now?” I almost let out a chuckle at how ridiculous this is, but it’s important for my dad apparently, so I respond, “I love him, Dad. I wish you could meet him for real.”

  “Oh baby girl, I have the internet. I know more about him than I probably should,” my dad replies.

  “Fuck,” Van says, catching everyone off guard and we all burst out laughing.

  “That good, Fluffy Unicorn?” Chet questions.

  “Let’s just say that before Maisy, I made some questionable decisions.”

  My dad laughs again and says, “Yeah, I got that. I loved all the half-naked photos of you on random girls’ Instagram accounts.”

  “The black and white ones gave your naked ass a very artistic appeal,” Chet deadpans.

  “You’re both assholes. I can’t help that my ass is a hot commodity,” Van says with a chuckle of his own, and my dad and Chet laugh at his expense. This feels like my two dads are razzing my boyfriend over a dinner. In this fantasy world, one dad would claim he slaved over a homemade dinner that he’d actually had catered in and served on our own dishes. Then my other dad would call him out on it and we’d all laugh. We’d eat, maybe play cards, and they would bond over football, then by the end of the night they would love Van and he would one day become their son-in-law.

  “What’s the plan after college, Van?” my dad questions and I’m snapped from my daydream.

  “Dad? Really?” I feign annoyance, but I’m secretly loving this. My dad and my boyfriend, joking, laughing, and getting along. My heart is singing with what is as normal as my life can get at this point, and I’m grateful for it.

  “Oh yeah, he’s lucky I’m locked up,” he jokes.

  “Well, I declared for the draft and did pretty well at the combine,” Van offers.

  “You did more than well. I watched it. We both did. How did you find time to do it with everything else going on?”

  “Being a lawyer, we have a lot of ‘conference calls’ about his appeal,” Chet shrugs while using air quotes.

  “I was working out a lot to prepare for the fight which helped me physically prepare. I flew to Indianapolis and back the same day.”

  I look at Van. That seems like forever ago. He missed an entire day of school to fly out and back. I still don’t fully understand why he needed to do that, but hearing my dad and Chet talk about it it sounds like it was an important event.

  “Four-five-five forty, thirty-six-inch vertical and you’re a beast from what I can see here… and on Instagram. You gotta go at least second round. Who’s looking at you?” my dad asks.

  Van and I haven’t even had a chance to talk about it. Truthfully, I didn’t realize he was that good.

  “Well, the Rams needs some help on D, Baltimore is always a defensive-heavy team and looking to keep it that way, and Dallas is looking to up their secondary. Those are probably the most logical, but who knows, weird things happen on draft day.”

  “You going to Houston for the draft?”

  “Um, I’m not sure. Maisy and I haven’t talked about if I’m even going to go through with it.”

  “Uh, what?” my dad asks with a puzzled expression on his face. “Why would you not?”

  “Well,” Van looks nervous and then looks away from the computer screen to me, “we just haven’t discussed our future, sir. I don’t know what she wants, and she had plans before I barged into her life. I don’t want to take it over. I still want her to follow her dreams.”

  “Bullshit,” Chet pipes up, “she wants you.”

  He’s right. I can’t imagine my life without Van, and being a teacher wasn’t really a dream of mine – it was a practical reality.

  “May-Pie, you don’t want him in the NFL?”

  “I haven’t thought about it much. Hones
tly, I didn’t realize until now that Van was that good,” I say honestly and the guys bust out laughing again. “What’s so funny?”

  “Oh, Maze.” Chet shakes his head. “He’s one of the best defensive players in the country. A national champ and led his team and the nation in tackles for two straight years. It’s funny that you’re dating the guy and you don’t know that.”

  I shrug and Van says, “I dig it. I love that she doesn’t know that and didn’t like me for my skills on the field. I’ve had enough jersey chasers to last me a lifetime. I want real.”

  “Well, it seems like you two have something real, and you also have some things to talk about before next month,” my dad laughs again.

  “Next month?” I ask.

  “The draft, Owl, is in April,” he replies.

  “Shit.” I really need to research all this when we get back to school.

  “May-Pie, you swear now?”

  “Sorry, Dad,” I reply and nod at Van. “He brings out the worst in me.”

  Everyone laughs even though Chet and my dad don’t know the other half of our story, and I think I’ll keep it that way. We’re past that, past this Emilio phase, and we’re moving on together.

  “KNIGHT! Time’s up!” a voice echoes through the concrete room my dad is sitting in.

  “Well, that’s my cue. Lawyer time is over. Van, you have my blessing if it’s worth anything to you, and May-Pie, I love you so much. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you everything, but I’d love to see you more. Can we make this a regular thing?”

  “NOW KNIGHT!” the voice booms again.

  “Yes, I’d like that. Thank you for telling me the truth about Mom. Let’s just say, all is forgiven and forgotten,” I say and smile at my dad. After everything, he’s my dad, and he was a good dad. He sacrificed his wife, his life, for me. I love him and I miss him so much it hurts. “I love you.”

  “Love you too,” he says, and with that the video feed is cut.