“I don’t know what you mean. He just—”
Danielle held up her hand. “Don’t say he was watching football. I know that’s a lie, and if you lie to me I can’t help you. Is that the guy that hit Deon?”
Ladona looked paralyzed. Danielle could see her trying to work out the best story to tell. She rubbed her face, trying to sort out her own thoughts. The man had a temper, that much was obvious, but there was no damage to the house, no marks on Ladona, and she hadn’t been able to hear his exact words when he was yelling. She could let it go, but it didn’t feel right. Would Jenna feel right about that?
“Where are the boys?” Danielle asked.
“Deon is in his room. Raylon is at a school thing like I told you.”
“You better get him home.”
“What? Why?”
“I need to see that he’s okay.”
“That’s ridiculous, of course he is. He wasn’t even here.”
“I need to be sure of that.”
“You calling me a liar?”
Danielle’s patience was starting to wear and she struggled to keep the expression on her face professional. “When I came in here you told me it was just you and Deon. It wasn’t. That was a lie.”
“Oh, you just think you’re something else, don’t you?”
“I’m going to talk to Deon.”
“I’m right here.” Deon’s voice sounded lower, sadder than usual. Danielle spun. She could see he’d been crying, but he otherwise looked okay. Danielle walked over to him.
“You want to get some air and talk?”
Ladona appeared at her shoulder in an instant, and Danielle felt her stomach twist. Ladona didn’t want her to be alone with Deon, which meant she was hiding something.
“We’re just going to step outside and have a word,” Danielle said.
“The hell you are,” Ladona snapped. “I don’t like the way you’re treating us. You can see that boy is fine, and you can talk to him right here. I don’t want you filling his head up with nonsense and pressuring him to say what you want to hear.”
Danielle fought the urge to snap, to tell Ladona exactly what she thought. That would be traumatic for Deon, feeling like he had to choose an allegiance between them, feeling pressured to lie by his mother, pressured to betray her by Danielle. She didn’t want to do that to him. She couldn’t. And asking him a single question, even asking him to step outside with her, would force him to choose. She had to be the adult. She had to choose. Jenna’s voice rang through her head, telling her to give Deon a voice, but this wasn’t the way.
She looked at Deon’s face. She could see him fighting his lip, desperate not to let it quiver. She turned back to Ladona.
“All right, we’ll stay right here. Ladona, I need you to either have Raylon come home right now or tell me where he is. I’m not leaving without seeing he is in good health myself.”
“You better find a comfortable place on the floor, then, because he’s spending the night at a friend’s house working on a project, and I’m not bringing him home. He’s doing well in school finally. He doesn’t need this.”
“This is not optional, Ms. Clark.”
“What are you going to do, then?”
“If you refuse to let me check on Raylon, I’m taking Deon with me right now and getting the police involved to help find Raylon. I’ll start the paperwork to remove them both from your care right now, Ladona. Don’t think I won’t.”
“He’s in his room,” Deon muttered.
“Deon!”
Danielle spun. “Excuse me?”
“He’s not at a friend’s house. He’s upstairs.”
“You spoiled, selfish, little piece of shit. You mangy—”
“That’s enough!” Danielle yelled and took her phone from her pocket. She texted Chuck that she needed him for an emergency removal. She didn’t want to hurt Deon or Raylon, or Jenna for that matter, but as much as Jenna might be able to relate to Deon’s relationship with Raylon, Danielle knew what being called names by a parent did, and she couldn’t allow it. She couldn’t allow the lies or the yelling or the emotional abuse. A knot formed in her throat as she hit send. The message should be going to Jenna. Not even that, Jenna should be here. She should be seeing this. She should be making this decision.
“Do you want to come upstairs with me?” Danielle asked Deon. He sheepishly nodded. Danielle could feel Ladona staring at her back as she started up the stairs. Each step felt like a marathon. She wanted to hurry, to help Raylon as fast as possible, but she was also terrified to see what was wrong with him, why they’d tried to hide him. She turned down the hall and found his door.
“Can I go in first?” Deon asked.
“Sure.” Danielle nodded, but she touched Deon’s shoulder before he opened the door. “That was very brave,” she said. “Telling me he was here.”
Deon shrugged.
“You know it was the right thing to do, right?”
“He’s going to be mad at me. Everybody is.”
“That’s not true,” Danielle said. “Raylon will understand when he gets older. I’m proud of you. Jenna would be proud of you. She told me you’d know when it was time, and she was right.”
Deon looked confused at first, but then he nodded. “It’s time.”
Deon twisted the knob and entered slowly, like he was trying not to wake Raylon up.
Hey,” he said. “Ms. Corey is here.”
“What? No.” Raylon whined and his voice broke into a cry. Danielle felt her eyes well up, but she pushed it away. She had to be strong for them. Deon pushed the door the rest of the way open, and they both walked inside. Raylon was curled into a ball on the floor, leaning against his twin bed. The entire right side of his face was purple. Danielle felt her muscles flexing, and she fought to stay upright, to keep a straight face. Deon sat beside him as tears poured down Raylon’s face. Danielle sat on the floor facing them.
“Don’t let her take me away, Deon.” Raylon wrapped his arms around Deon’s waist and buried his bruised face in Deon’s armpit. Deon hugged him, and with Raylon’s face safely crushed against him, Deon cried too.
“We have to go, Raylon. There’s nothing anyone can do anymore. Not me, or Mama, or Jenna, or Ms. Corey. We have to go.”
“But I don’t want to go,” Raylon said. “I want to stay with you.”
“You have to go to Aunt Audrey’s,” Deon said.
“What about you?”
Deon looked at Danielle. “What about me?”
“I’ll talk to your aunt,” Danielle said. “I’ll see if she’s changed her mind.”
“She won’t.”
“If she doesn’t, you’ll go to a group home for a little while until you get a foster family. They’re nice people. They’ll take care of you.”
Danielle could see Deon didn’t believe that for a second, but he wouldn’t say so in front of Raylon. Danielle wanted to reassure him, but Jenna’s opinion about foster families kept circling through her head. She didn’t want to promise him something that wasn’t true, even though she desperately hoped he would be lucky enough to end up in a loving home.
“We’re going to take you to a doctor first,” Danielle said to Raylon. “We’re going to have them check on your face and make sure you’re okay. They’ll check on both of you.”
“What do they need to check on me for? Nothing happened to me,” Deon said.
“Just a checkup,” Danielle said. “To make sure. Then we’ll get you both situated.”
“Can I still talk to Deon?” Raylon asked.
“Of course,” Danielle said, but Deon shot her a skeptical look.
“Aunt Audrey doesn’t like me,” he said. “She won’t let him.”
Danielle’s heart sank. She didn’t know why she didn’t see it coming. Jenna wouldn’t have fought so hard to keep them in their home if the threat of devastating and complete separation wasn’t very real, yet she found it shocking their aunt would be so cruel. Nothing should shock her
after seeing Raylon’s purple little face. She couldn’t imagine what it had felt like for him to be hit so hard.
“Who did this to you?” she asked.
Raylon looked at Deon. When he nodded, Raylon muttered, “Carl.”
“He lives a couple of doors down?”
Deon shook his head. “Nah, they just say that. He lives here now.”
“Since when?”
Deon shrugged. “Week or two.”
Danielle heard footsteps approaching. When she looked over her shoulder, Chuck was standing in the doorway with a solemn look on his face. Raylon and Deon clung to each other, their fearful eyes pleading with her.
“Just another minute?” she asked.
“Of course,” Chuck said. “Meet you downstairs.”
Danielle opened her arms, and Deon and Raylon both lunged into a tight hug. “It’s going to be okay,” she said. “It’s going to get better.”
Chapter Thirty-four
Her mom’s very public breakdown was the last thing Jenna needed following her scandal with Danielle, yet she couldn’t bring herself to apologize for it. She could barely hear Paula talking, could barely follow the movement of her lips. All she could think about was how she’d forgotten her phone in her office. She shouldn’t be answering it in a meeting anyway, but worrying about whether Tina got her mom safely home and whether or not Callie would behave during Tina’s impromptu visit was more distracting than her phone would have been. She caught the word “probation” and looked up.
“Probation?”
“For an additional six months,” Paula said. She looked sympathetic.
“You’re putting me on probation?”
“Well, you’re already on it,” Paula said. “Six months is standard in a new position, but in light of recent events, they’d like to extend yours to a year. It’s cautionary.”
“Cautionary.” Jenna knew the heaviness in her chest must mean she cared, but it didn’t feel that way. She felt like she was melting into the chair. Disappearing. “All right.”
“Don’t let that make you feel like you can’t ask for help,” Paula said. “We’re here to support you. Anything you ne—”
“Sure.” Jenna stood up. “I understand. I suppose I should get back to it.”
Paula’s eyebrow raised in surprise when Jenna stood, but she nodded and let Jenna leave. Jenna walked as fast as she could down the hall to her office. She closed her door and fished her cell phone out of her desk drawer. When she unlocked it, it opened straight to her text messages, and she saw Callie had read her message that Mom was on the way home with Tina, but she hadn’t responded. When she backed out of her texts she saw two missed calls and a voice mail.
Jenna hit play and put the phone to her ear, expecting to hear that her Mom was home safe, but she instead felt the adrenaline she thought she was too depressed to feel come surging from her fingertips into her chest. Tina’s voice was shaky, a failing attempt at calmness as she explained there had been a car accident. Jenna pulled the phone from her face and called Tina back. She answered on the first ring.
“Jenna, you got my message?”
“Some of it, you broke up at the end. Is everyone okay?”
“Mostly,” Tina said. “No serious injuries except your car.”
“What happened?”
“Your mom got spooked on the way home. I must have said something wrong. She grabbed the steering wheel, and we went into oncoming traffic. No one was going too fast, thank goodness, but your mom got out and ran off.”
“What?” Jenna heard her voice raise in what must sound like anger, though she didn’t blame Tina.
“I’m sorry, Jenna. I would have gone after her, but my knee is bothering me from the crash.”
“Oh my God, where are you?”
“I’m on Dexter, but there’s no use coming here. They’re already towing your car out of traffic. I’m going in to have them check my knee in just a minute, and your mom took off a while ago. I called your sister and told her what happened. You might want to touch base with her.”
“I’m so sorry, Tina. This is my fault. Do you need help getting to the hospital?”
“No, I’m sure it’s nothing. Go on and look for your mom.”
Jenna disconnected the call and grabbed her keys as she tried to call Callie. It went to voice mail as she stormed out of her office. She nearly ran Chuck over, but she barely muttered an apology as she raced for the parking lot. Her heart was pounding as she imagined where her mother could be by now. She should have gone back to her office for her phone when she realized she forgot it. The hell with her meeting. She should have taken her mom home herself. She knew she should go with them, even though Tina discouraged it.
She should have answered Callie’s calls no matter how mad she was. Fear of this exact type of situation had always made her do so in the past. It seemed exceptionally cruel that it actually happened. She should know by now that Callie didn’t pick up her slack when she was busy; she just let things go unhandled. She’d been mad at her sister, but her mom would pay the price. Anything could happen to her while she was wandering around. She wouldn’t know where she was, and she’d be afraid of everyone. Picturing her mom in that kind of terror made her throat turn to fire.
She tried Callie again as she slipped into her Acura. Voice mail. Her stomach lurched as she was seized with concern for her sister too. Callie always answered the phone. Had she gone out looking for their mom? Had her mom shown up at home and freaked out on Callie?
Jenna scoured the streets as she sped home even though the odds of coming across her mom that way were slim to none. She screeched into the driveway and jogged through the front door.
“Callie!” She surveyed the room for signs of a disturbance. Everything was in order. She went to her sister’s room and burst inside. Callie was lying on her bed with headphones in. She yanked them off when she saw Jenna.
“What the hell, Callie?” Jenna yelled.
Callie jolted up. “What?”
“You can’t answer your phone?”
“I had headphones in.”
“You didn’t think to keep your phone close by? We’re kind of in the middle of a crisis here. It didn’t occur to you someone might call? That we might need your help? How can you even listen to music right now?”
“What are you talking about? Mom is always in crisis.”
Jenna was dumbfounded. “Tina called you, right?”
“Yeah.”
“She told you they were in a car crash? That Mom ran away?”
Callie rolled her eyes. “Yes.”
“What the fuck, Callie?”
Callie sat forward, as if Jenna had just finally captured her interest. “What?”
“Mom is out there convinced people are trying to kidnap and kill her. Anything could happen to her, and you don’t go look for her? You don’t answer your phone? You don’t even pause your fucking music? What is wrong with you?”
Callie shot to her feet. “Look for her? Are you serious? What part of I don’t like to leave the house do you not understand?”
“What are you, five? I don’t like to do a lot of things, Callie, but I do them anyway. That’s what you do for family.”
“Oh really? You do them anyway? It doesn’t seem like that to me. You don’t do anything anymore. You want me to do everything now.”
“I have done everything around here our entire lives, Callie! I pay the bills. I cook the food. I take care of Mom. I take care of you. You don’t know how exhausting it is. I need help sometimes.”
“You should have thought about that before you blew half my face off!”
Jenna felt as if she’d been physically slapped. “I should have thought about it first? What, you think I did it on purpose?”
“Of course not, stupid, but it still happened.”
“And you think that means you never have to lift a finger? I have to do everything because I’m responsible for your face, is that it?”
“Yeah,�
� Callie said. “That’s exactly it. I don’t feel bad for you, Jenna. I don’t feel bad that you have to work that job that I know you love anyway. I don’t feel bad that you have to take care of Mom who loves you more anyway. Your problems are stupid next to mine. I’ll never have a normal life.”
“That’s not true, Callie.”
She snorted. “Which part?”
Jenna shook her head. “All of it. Mom doesn’t love me more. You—”
“Hah!” Callie interrupted. “Are you dense? Mom absolutely loves you more!”
“No, she doesn’t,” Jenna said. “It’s just when her illness gets out of hand she gets paranoid. You know that. It has nothing to do with not loving you.”
“That’s great. She loves me; she just also thinks I’m a government agent stabbing you two in the back?”
Jenna shook her head with fury. “Yeah, why could that possibly be?”
“What?”
“Where would she get the idea you were stabbing me in the back, Cal?”
“Maybe she saw my secret CIA bunker under the house. What the hell are you getting at?”
“She heard you talking to my boss. That’s why she thinks you’re setting me up.”
Callie froze in surprise, scrutinizing Jenna’s face. “I don’t know what she thinks she h—”
“Don’t,” Jenna snapped. “I know what you did. You called my boss, and you told her about me and Danielle. You wanted to break us up.”
Callie locked eyes with her. The seconds felt like hours. “Fine,” she said. “I did.”
“Did it occur to you I could get fired? You know that’s food out of your own mouth, right?”
Callie scoffed. “Please, they’d never fire you. Even if they did you’d have a new job the next day.”
“So you just wanted to break my heart?”
“Oh, just stop,” Callie said. “Knock it off.”
“What?”
“I don’t feel bad for you, Jenna,” Callie said again. “I don’t feel bad about any of your stupid fake problems, and if you whine about your amazing life one more time I’m going to fucking hit you. So I cost you a girlfriend. I’m sure there are a million more where she came from dying to get in your pants. No one will ever want to be with me. I’m fucking disfigured. Forever. It was your fault, Jenna, and you get off scot-free. And then you want to complain?”
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