by Deb Rotuno
Faith drove us in her car after calling Chief Clark and letting him know we were on our way. Dani sat with me in the back seat, looking absolutely adorable in her wool cap, while Daniel sat up front. Key Lake was so damn small that we were pulling into the station less than ten minutes after leaving my house.
I could see the chief’s cruiser in the parking lot, and Sean was standing out on the steps waiting for us. His expression was curious as he saw all of us get out of the car.
“Pastor Sean,” I greeted him.
“Son.” He nodded once, reaching for my hand. “How’s the head?”
Snorting once, I shrugged. “Fine. My hand hurts worse than anything.”
He grinned, gripping my shoulder. “Ah, but that shiner you planted on William is quite the beauty.”
“Good!” Dani grunted, which made me laugh. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be,” I told her, pulling her to me. “Dani Bishop, this is Pastor Sean. Sean, this is my girlfriend, Dani…and her father, Professor Daniel Bishop.”
“Professor,” Sean mused, but he wore a small smile.
Daniel cracked a small smile, but he shook the pastor’s hand. “Good to meet you. Evan’s told us a bit about you and what you’ve done for him.”
“It apparently wasn’t enough.” Sean sighed deeply, glancing over his shoulder toward the door of the station. “Listen, Evan, your dad is as mad as a wet hornet in there. His lawyer can’t even keep him under control. And the chief seems to be enjoying himself.”
Shaking my head, I let out a deep breath. “Faith and I have to give statements, and they’re taking her video as evidence, but I’m…I have to decide whether or not to press charges. I don’t know if I can…He’ll want paybacks, and I can’t…I don’t…”
Sean studied my face. “God, you’re so much like Robyn. No matter what advice I handed her, she only wanted to protect you three. She wanted no part of a fight. She was incredible at hiding her emotions.”
I shook my head. “No, he knew. He knew she was repulsed by him. He accused me of looking at him the same way she did.”
“I imagine the sight of you was a constant reminder,” Sean murmured, shaking his head, but the door opened to reveal Chief Clark.
Introductions to Dani and Daniel were made again, only this time the chief smiled, patting Daniel’s shoulder. “Smart thinking to call me. Had you not, there’s no telling what he’d have done to these two. He was…Well, he still is rather pissed off.” The chief looked to me. “C’mon in. You don’t have to see him, but I will need those statements.”
“I…I need to talk to him before I make a decision,” I said, frowning a little, but Dani’s hand slipped into mine.
“His lawyer’s gonna love this shit,” Clark said wryly, shaking his head. “Okay, I’ll pull him out of the holding cell and put him in an interrogation room.”
We all followed him quietly into the station. Key Lake Police Department was small—both the building and the number of officers. As we wound our way by the front desk, I could see one other officer sitting at a computer.
“Go get him, Dobbins,” the chief said wearily. “Put him and that sleazeball lawyer of his in room three.” Before the officer got up, the chief added, “Oh, yeah, and cuff that asshole to the table. I don’t want him to move without my say-so.”
“Sir,” Dobbins grunted, leaving his desk for the side hallway.
Chief Clark faced us. “You sure you want to do this?”
“I have nothing to say to him,” Faith said, looking to me with tears in her eyes. “Sorry, big brother. I just…I don’t care what his reasons are. I want…Can I come with you when you leave?”
I pulled her into a hug. “We’ll do whatever you want, Rylee Faith,” I whispered to her. “You’re eighteen, Faith. You tell me. We’ll figure it out.”
She nodded, looking up at me. “I’m…I’ll just…write my statement. Maybe I’ll listen in, but…”
“I get it.” I sighed, glancing over at Daniel. “You still want to do this?”
“Oh yeah,” he drawled, smirking a bit. “He needs to hear a few things.”
It was Dani I turned my attention to next, cupping her worried face. “Look at me,” I begged her softly. “I can’t stop you from joining us, but…Do not speak to him, Dani. I know you’re mad. I know you want to tell him where to go and how fast he can get there, but for me…for my sake, please just…wait on giving him a piece of that beautiful mind. Okay?”
Her smile was wickedly sexy, but she was still pissed. I could see it every time she caught sight of my cuts and bruises. Lifting up on her toes, she pressed a soft kiss to my lips.
“I’m here for you, so fuck him.”
“Dani,” Daniel chastised, but it was halfhearted at best. His amusement was clear in the smile that lifted his lips a little, and he muttered something about being just like her mother.
I heard my dad along with the sound of doors opening. His yelling was loud and foul; his threats about suing the station, the county, and the state were echoing out from the hallway.
Just as he was handcuffed to the table in the middle of the room, he snapped, “Why am I in here? I told you I’m not answering any more questions.” I stepped into the room as he glared at a man in an expensive suit. “And you! How am I not bailed out yet?”
“Because technically I haven’t charged you…yet. I’m simply holding you as a person of interest,” Chief Clark told him as he led us farther into the room. “How you behave for this next part will determine whether or not I charge you with assault and, from what I hear, theft.”
Dad paled at the sight of me, and his gaze raked over the people with me. He didn’t know Daniel, so as far as he was concerned, I could’ve gotten a lawyer, but when his eyes landed on my girl, they narrowed.
“Don’t do it,” I warned him, taking the chair across the table from him.
“I don’t have shit to say to you,” he sneered. “In fact, I should have a restraining order put on you.”
Shrugging, I said, “I’m just here because Chief Clark needs me to press charges. I haven’t decided yet. Though, Faith is out there writing her statement, and I’m pretty sure the chief has the video by now, so…”
“Inadmissible,” the man in the suit stated with a bored tone. “It’d be thrown out of—”
“I don’t care,” I cut him off with a harsh laugh. “I’m willing to bet you’re the one responsible for all his…legal activities. So just…shut up.” I turned back to my father. “This is a…family affair, isn’t it, Daddy?”
“Then why are they here?” Dad asked, pointing to Daniel and Dani, who were leaning against the wall behind me and completely silent.
“They are my family now, so you’ll answer a few questions for me with them here. Or I’ll go write my statement and have a lawyer look into that trust fund you’ve been in control over for seven years…”
“What do you want, you little shit?”
I heard Daniel shift a bit behind me, but I looked at my father, saying, “I want to know why. Why you used Mom, why you blamed us, why a large chunk of what she left for us is gone, and why—if you hated us so much—didn’t you just walk away? All of it. I want answers.” When he didn’t speak up, I added, “And while we’re at it, I want to know if the rumors about you are true. Were you sued for malpractice? Did you cheat on Mom, because I swear to God…”
“What? What can you do about it if I did, Evan?” he asked, leaning forward on the table. The cuffs on his wrists rattled, and he only got so far, but he smiled. “Your mother wasn’t innocent.”
“Don’t try me,” I sighed, pointing to him. “You are a damned doctor, so don’t sit there and tell me you didn’t test me. It wouldn’t have taken much, Dad. A bandage from a scraped knee would do it. And all three of us have had plenty over the years, so…what were the outcomes?”
He narrowed his eyes but sat back.
“Right.” I nodded but then tilted my head. “Start talking, or I’m gone. And
you’d better pray you’re still in this protected environment when Tyler comes home.”
Chief Clark chuckled, and I looked up at him and shrugged, but he said, “He was sued for malpractice, Evan. I can attest to that one. Should I tell him? Or do you want to do it?” My father glared at the table but stayed silent, so the chief continued. “It was a few years after your mother’s passing, not long after Tyler went to college. There was a pretty bad rainstorm one evening. A van and a logging truck were involved in an accident. The truck driver had minor injuries; the family in the van, though, not so much. Your father was called down to the ER to help, and there was a missed diagnosis on one of the children. The little boy bled out internally. They didn’t catch it in time. The parents sued because they’d seen your father send a nurse into tears. They’d tried to tell the good Dr. Shaw all about their son’s pain, but he either didn’t pay attention or he ignored them. There was concern that alcohol had been involved, but by the time it all came to a head, it was too late to test him. So rather than let the malpractice insurance investigate and in order to keep the hospital board happy and to shut the family up, he offered to pay it himself. Kid was only four years old.”
The chief shook his head. “Personally, I think he’d be in some serious trouble had they dug deep enough. Wonder what the board will think with you sitting here in my station in cuffs, hmm?” he asked, bracing his hands on the table. “Wonder what they’d make of that video Faith was so kind to take of you. Evan here could seriously walk away, but honestly, I hope all three kids sue the shit out of you and leave you broken and alone. But that video—admissible or not—that’s some pretty condemning stuff.”
“What the fuck do you care?” Dad snapped.
Chief Clark grinned, shaking his head. “I don’t like you. See…you forget yourself. You forget how small this fucking town is, Shaw. You forget that the nurses you drag over the coals on a daily basis have families and…husbands.” He raised an eyebrow at my dad. “My wife would come home in tears, and she would tell me all the shit you said or did. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much I could do, legally. An asshole boss isn’t illegal, just an asshole boss…or father, as we’re starting to see. She’s head nurse over at the old folks’ home now. She’s damned happy too.”
My dad was starting to see the shit was beginning to stack up against him. The only person on his side was his lawyer, and that was paid-for loyalty.
Dad’s nostrils flared as he fiddled with his cuffs. “I never wanted children.”
“I’m aware. Mom actually told us once,” I replied calmly.
“Dammit, you—” he started to yell but then shook his head. “You really are just fucking like her. Nothing bothers you, does it? I could sit here and tell you that…No, I didn’t want kids. I grew up with nothing, getting my ass kicked daily, so by the time I got to this fucking hole-in-the-wall town, I could finally breathe. I could tell you that your mother was a breath of fresh air, that she belonged to me. That I finally had something fucking normal. Your mother made all the bad shit better. But then…your mother, she started talking babies. She wanted children, and she finally trapped me with Tyler. And she’d have left then, but in order to keep her, in order to maintain my normal, I had to accept you three. Three!” He laughed harshly. “Fuck, I never wanted one.”
He sobered and continued. “Your mother started acting funny just before the accident. She was secretive and distant. I was pretty fucking sure she was cheating. I was either going to kill her or the asshole she was fucking, but you had to…”
Daniel finally stepped forward, pulled out the chair next to mine, and sat down.
“What?” Dad asked him.
Daniel held out his hand. “Professor Daniel Bishop. I’m just…I’m trying to figure out if you could be a lower stain of scum, Dr. Shaw.” His voice was low, even, that tone he took that caused everyone to stop and listen, but he lowered his hand when my father merely glared at it. “You might be the most selfish, most deplorable man I’ve ever set eyes on. Everything you’ve spewed at your children, at all of us in here today, is all about you.” He leaned on his elbows, studying my dad. “You act like you’re the only one who lost someone. You didn’t want children, so their entire world was their mother—something you made sure of—and then when they lost her, you blamed them?” he asked, huffing a harsh laugh. “I heard you on the phone, you know. I heard you blame your son for your wife’s death. I then see you wanted him arrested when clearly it was self-defense.”
My dad’s eyebrows shot up, but he glanced behind me to Dani.
“Say something to her, I fucking dare you,” I ground out through gritted teeth.
“Then you shouldn’t have brought her.”
“What could he say, Evan?” Dani’s voice sounded calm from right behind me, her hands landing on my shoulders. “He could call me names, like he did Jasmine. He could try to scare me or threaten me, but it won’t work. He’s a weak, selfish little man, and personally, I think asking him anything is a waste of time, but I hope you squash him like the cockroach he is. Thankfully you and your brother and sister are more like Robyn than him.”
“Don’t you dare say her name, you little—”
I grabbed my dad’s cuffs, yanking so hard that his ribcage met the edge of the table, and no one in the room stopped me, not even his lawyer. “I wasn’t kidding. Finish that sentence, and—what was it you always said to us? Oh yeah—you’ll ‘face the consequences.’”
He glared her way and then mine, sitting back in his chair.
“You know what gaslighting is, Dr. Shaw?” Daniel asked calmly, tilting his head. “C’mon, you had to take some psychology courses during med school, so…Do you?” My dad bit down hard on his bottom lip, staying silent as Daniel talked to him like a child. “Well, for those in the room who don’t…Gaslighting is a form of verbal or psychological abuse, isn’t it? You start the fight, but when the one on the defense fights back, it’s their fault. The abuser—and truly, that’s what you are—turns it on the other person over and over. It causes someone to question their sanity. I’m curious…Did that shit work on your wife?”
My dad lunged, but he didn’t make it far. However, Daniel’s hand landed on my shoulder.
“Son, I don’t think you’ll ever get the answers you’re looking for. He’ll never admit to anything. Hell, he probably doesn’t see anything wrong with what he’s done here. He may never see it, kiddo. You have to make a choice here, Evan. Remember what we talked about at Thanksgiving? About how choices affect everyone involved? He’s made his, so now you have to make yours.” He gave my shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Sometimes you have to make a tough decision and let the cards fall where they may. The very best thing you can do is to live your life and put him and all he’s done behind you. I get the impression that’s what your mother was trying her damnedest to do. I swear to God,” he said, emphasizing the last part, “I will help you, son.” He shot my dad a scathing glare. “If only to prove this asshole wrong.”
I wanted to laugh, but nothing about this shit was funny. My dad scoffed, shaking his head and shrugging a shoulder. There was a scuffle at the door. I could hear Faith’s voice rise, but it was the enormous, pissed-off form of my brother slamming open the door that caused everyone to jump. I pulled Dani out of the way before my hands landed smack in the middle of his broad chest.
“What the fuck did I tell you, motherfucker? I told you if you touched him, if you didn’t leave them the fuck alone, I’d be back to bury you!” Tyler snarled, pointing a finger over my shoulder.
“Tyler!” I grunted, pushing him enough to get his attention.
When he looked at me, he was pissed off all over again. “That video…It’s…Fuck, baby bro…”
Shaking my head, I sighed. “I’m okay.” I looked up in the doorway to see Jasmine and a man who had to be her father, not to mention Faith too. “I’m not pressing charges,” I stated, shaking my head at the outburst around me.
“Evan…” Tyler gr
oaned.
“No, I hit him too.”
“Fuckin’-A, you did,” my brother muttered. “Grade-A shiner, Daddy Dearest.”
I looked to Tyler and then to my sister. “It’s time to do what Mom wanted. We’ll take what she left us, and we’ll leave his ass. She tried to do it seven years ago. He’s taken enough. I’m not pressing charges, but I am filing a restraining order. I’m done here.”
“Excellent,” Tyler said with a big grin. “Remember all those times you threatened us with money, Dad? Money that was really ours? Money that Mom tried to leave for us? We’ll be starting the process to take it from you. And with the video and bank statements Faith sent me, I’m pretty sure there’s not a judge who won’t sign off on it.” He leaned down to Dad’s level. “Consequences, remember? Your turn, fucker.”
Dad paled a little, and I studied him a second, finally saying, “You know, I don’t care that you didn’t want us. You weren’t an integral part of our childhood. But Mom loved you—really, truly loved you—and you took that and smashed it in her face. For someone who claims she was the one good thing in his life, you sure had a shitty way of showing it. I can’t fucking imagine what it felt like for her to find out that everything about you was a damn lie.”
I let out a deep breath, and for a split second, I thought I saw remorse on his cold face, but I wasn’t sure. Shaking my head, I finally turned away from him, smiling a little when Dani wrapped an arm around my waist and Chief Clark led all of us out of the interrogation room and back out into the office area.
“You okay?” she whispered, shifting to my front.
“Yeah, pretty girl.”
I looked up to see my brother smiling at her. “Ty, this is Dani. Dani, this loud thing is my brother, Tyler,” I introduced.
He grinned, shaking her hand. “You’re as pretty as my brother said, Dani.”
“Thanks,” she said with a giggle.
“Let’s finish this stuff up,” I told them. “I’m ready for Leanne’s cookin’.”
Chief Clark gripped my shoulder. “Your mom would be proud of you, kid.”