A Few Tables Away (Glenhaven #1) Read online

  I did as he asked, and Faith and I sat on my bed with my phone between us. “Okay, we’re here,” I told him.

  “Okay, so here’s what I know, guys,” he started and then let out a harsh laugh. “We…all of us…are so fucking stupid. That’s first. Second, not one of us thought to look into public records.”

  Faith and I locked wide-eyed gazes for a second but didn’t say anything.

  “Look, before I tell you this, we need to talk about Dad,” Tyler went on. “That asshole kept us in the dark. He banked on his…discipline to keep us scared or blind. But it’s time to face facts. I’m not one for spewing psychological bullshit, but he’s an abusive bastard. He always was, and he always will be. The fucked-up part is…there wasn’t much we could’ve done after Mom died. I’m pretty sure no one would’ve believed us because he’s got that whole community snowed that he’s this…miracle-working doctor, never mind that nothing he ever said or did to us was illegal, just simply asinine.”

  “Ty, just tell us. We know all of this,” Faith stated nervously. “Just tell us what you found out.”

  Tyler sighed on the other side of the line. “Mom had a will, which left everything to us. All three of us. However, she wasn’t banking on dying before we were of age, so therefore, William Shaw became our guardian and the executor of said will. Mom’s inheritance from Grandpa and Grandma Adams was supposed to be for us—for school, for our lives, but not for our father.”

  “Oh, damn,” I breathed. “She left him nothing?”

  “She left him nothing because she was leaving his ass, Evan. She’d fucking filed for divorce!” he practically growled. “Wanna know when he was served?”

  Faith and I groaned, and my hand gripped my hair as I sputtered out, “Yes…no…Do we?”

  “The day after the accident.”

  “Fuck,” I breathed, squeezing my eyes closed.

  “Yup! While you and I were in the damn hospital recovering from the wreck, while they were performing an autopsy on our mother, they brought him divorce papers.” He laughed again, but it wasn’t funny, just a nervous reaction. “I’d be willing to bet that the officers who were talking to him about the accident were the same ones who served him. From what I can piece together with Jas’s dad’s help, it looked like she was about to haul ass on Dad. She’d started with changing her will. After that, she filed for divorce, stating irreconcilable differences, and then she filed for sole custody of us.”

  I rubbed my face, chasing away the sting in my eyes. She knew. My mother knew what Dad was capable of, and not only was she trying to save us, she was trying to do it quickly and quietly.

  “Let me guess,” I mumbled behind my hands, finally pulling them away. “She would’ve picked us up from school the next day, and we wouldn’t have gone home. She’d…she…Jesus, Tyler, she was acting like nothing was going on in the car!”

  “I know, which makes her the most badass, the strongest person I’ve ever known,” he said firmly, but there was a sadness laced in his tone. “Wonder what she saw or heard to make her do it…” he mused, but he trailed off.

  “Okay, so…if she left everything to us, then why is Dad still in control?” Faith asked.

  “Because the trust is set up for us to be given our share after we turn twenty-one,” Tyler answered. “Knowing Mom, it was for us. Period. End of story. She would’ve wanted us to have it. Specifically, she didn’t want him to have it.”

  “Oh, God…and you’re turning twenty-one next month,” Faith whispered, her gaze moving from the phone to my face. “No wonder he’s been acting desperate. He’s been keeping this shit secret the whole fucking time!”

  “And it’s about to come to a crashing end,” I muttered, frowning down at the phone. “Dad has to know that as soon as Tyler was contacted, he’d tell us.”

  “I don’t give a fuck about the money,” Tyler stated, and Faith and I added our agreement. “But if Mom wanted something and he didn’t fucking follow it, then I’m gonna be one pissed off motherfucker. His ass has blamed Evan and me for her this whole goddamn time, punished us, threatened us, denied us, and now I find out that she was trying to save us from the asshole? Guys, it’s all I can do not to fly home and punch his fucking face.”

  “It won’t change anything,” I countered.

  “What?” Faith asked, and Tyler sighed deeply.

  “Evan, come on!”

  “I’m serious,” I said firmly, shaking my head. “Punching him won’t do anything but give him a reason to have you arrested, Tyler. It’s the reason he hasn’t touched us all these years. I see it. He’d like nothing more than to beat the shit out of me, especially since I’ve been home, but he doesn’t come near me because he doesn’t know what I’ll do, what I’ll say and to whom.” I glanced up to Faith and went on. “With Faith, it’s a completely different situation, with her being a girl. That alone has kept him away from her. She’s already fearless, so to touch her or overly punish her would cause questions at school, in town, that sort of thing, because I’m willing to bet he’s pretty sure she’d get loud.”

  Faith giggled, shrugging a shoulder. “Maybe.”

  I sighed deeply. “He didn’t want us. Mom did. And I wonder if he was only with her for the money, which pisses me the fuck off for her, but knowing she was trying to get us away from him…That’s…” I groaned, my chest hurting a bit. “That’s a question answered for me that I’ve been wondering for years. I wish I’d known that sooner. All those rumors, all that bullshit everyone spewed our way, it was true. Well, some of it…”

  I kept going. “All I want—all I’ve ever wanted—is for him to leave me…us…alone. That’s it. Honestly, that’s still all I want.” I met my sister’s gaze and shrugged, but I was talking to both of them. “I just…I wanna go back to school and classes and my job. I want out of Montana. I just…I just wanna go home to Dani. I…I’m…That place is…No, she’s my home now. I’ve finally found where I need to be, where I’m accepted, and where I haven’t been this happy since before Mom died. Happier, actually.” I shook my head slowly. “But I can’t leave here knowing that he may completely unravel by your birthday, Tyler, because he thinks he’s gotten away with something all these years. It’s not fair to let Faith deal with it. Not alone. That’s for damn sure.”

  “Shit, Ev…What do you wanna do, then?” my brother asked.

  “I dunno.” I sighed, gripping my hair, but shrugged. “What I do know is that the balance on that trust is significantly less than the last statement up in the attic. I know there is no way in hell it’s due to college—yours or mine—or any residual medical bills or whatever from the wreck. It doesn’t add up. I don’t know what he’s done with it, and I don’t care. But if he keeps going, then by the time Faith is twenty-one, there won’t be a damn dime left.”

  “See…that’s not cool for me. At all,” Tyler countered.

  “Me, either.”

  “It’s not about the money,” Faith said softly, and she seemed uncomfortable with the conversation. “It’s about what Mom wanted.”

  “Definitely,” Tyler and I said at the same time.

  “I think…” I grimaced at what I was about to say. “Shit, Tyler, I really think we need to consider getting a lawyer, though I don’t know how we’d cover something like that. Technically, we’re all broke students.”

  Faith and Tyler chuckled a bit, but it was the latter who spoke up. “That’s the point of a lawyer, to fight so they can get paid too.” He laughed a little. “My Jasmine, she’s gonna make a kick-ass lawyer someday.”

  Grinning, I countered, “I can’t see Dani being a lawyer. She’d tell every-damn-body to go to hell and how fast they could get there. Not exactly conducive to making deals.”

  We all laughed, though everyone went quiet for a moment, and eventually my brother spoke softly. “We can’t do much over the next few days. I mean, it’s Christmas, so not much can take place. I’ll talk to Jasmine and her dad. And Evan, you might wanna go grab that other s
tatement—the one in the attic. Do it now while the asshole is out of the house.”

  “I’ll go.” Faith got up and bolted for the attic. She wasn’t gone a minute before she was back with the whole folder. “Tyler,” she called, pulling out her phone. “I’m sending you pictures of these so you’ll have them.” She snapped the two pictures, including the recent one, and then handed me the last statement my mother had filed away. She left to put the folder back and close up the attic.

  Once Faith was seated back on my bed, I said, “We’ll have to tread lightly around him the next few days or at least until I leave, but…” I shot a look to Faith. “I’m really worried for Faith when I go home.”

  “Yeah, me too,” Tyler muttered over the line. “I dunno, but we’ll figure something out. Shit, Ev…She’s eighteen, free to go if she truly wanted to. Faith, you’re the one who’ll be dealing with him. What do you think? Can you handle it? Or does Evan take you with him and you finish out high school in Florida?”

  She huffed a laugh and locked gazes with me. “I have to finish here, don’t I? I missed the cutoff for graduating early. I’d thought about it, and I had good enough grades, but it’s just until May.”

  “Five months,” I reiterated. “That’s a long time to be stuck in this house, Rylee Faith.”

  “You guys figure it out and let me know,” Tyler stated firmly over the line. “Jas and I will be back in Montana by the end of the week. I have no shame in coming to the house and packing up her shit.”

  Faith laughed softly. “Love you, Ty.”

  “Love you guys too. Merry Christmas,” he sang gruffly, ending the call.

  I looked to Faith, tilting my head her way when I could see the wheels turning in her head. “What are you thinking?” I asked her with a slight laugh.

  Her brow furrowed as she toyed with her phone. “I’m thinking we need to maybe…watch our asses the next few days. I’m thinking we need some sort of…insurance or…or leverage against Daddy Dearest.”

  Grinning, I asked, “What do you mean?”

  “I dunno, but I do know that he’s carefully crafted this bullshit façade around himself in this stupid tiny town,” she said angrily. “I think if he thought that could come tumbling down around his ankles, he’d shut the fuck up for once.”

  “Maybe.” I barked a laugh at her evil grin and nodded, picking up The Count of Monte Cristo. Dani and I were just about finished with it. In fact, we’d have to pick a new book soon. It was her choice next. “I need to call Dani back. She’s gonna want to know all this stuff,” I said softly, picking my phone back up.

  “Tell her hello,” Faith said and then left my room.

  As soon as Dani’s sweet voice greeted me on the line, everything in me came spilling out, including a few tears at just how brave my mother had been. As I stayed on the phone with Dani while she read to me, all I wanted was her there. I needed her more than I needed anything. I craved her arms around me, her strengthening words that never stopped coming from her, and I needed her touch. I’d never understood how, in books I’d read, couples could ravish each other in the most stressful times, but as I read along with her, I truly just…got it. If Dani were in my room, in my bed, I’d have lost myself in her in order to drown in something completely and utterly good.

  “Dani?” I said, interrupting her reading.

  “Yeah, baby?” she asked, a yawn escaping her.

  It made me chuckle. “Before I let you go to sleep, I just…I need to tell you…I love you. And I miss you. So much that it’s painful today.”

  “Oh, God…Me too, Evan. I miss your hugs.”

  “Yeah,” I said slowly with a grin. “I miss yours too. Night, pretty girl.”

  “Night, Evan.”

  Christmas Eve day was a quiet one. Dad shut himself up in his room to sleep, and Faith and I spent our time in either the living room watching Christmas movies or I read to Dani over the phone in my mother’s library, finishing The Count of Monte Cristo. The best part was listening to Dani go on and on about how Edmund Dantes was probably the most patient character she’d ever read, that he’d waited until just the right moment to let loose his plan. Laughingly, she told me I should do the same to my dad. She told me that I should let karma kick his ass.

  She was saying it again on Christmas morning. I’d gotten up to make French toast for Faith. We weren’t exchanging gifts, and we were supposed to go to the diner later for their holiday special, just the two of us.

  My dad’s car was in the driveway, and I assumed he was sleeping after having worked overnight again, which was a schedule I was pretty damn sure he’d picked on purpose just to avoid us.

  I stepped into my mother’s library and turned on the light, grinning at Dani’s adorable yet endless chatter on my phone. God, I loved that sound. She’d blurt out anything and everything she was feeling or thinking. It was pure and honest, not to mention so very missed, never mind that we talked every damn day.

  “Hey, baby! You know what would be awesome?” she gushed over the line.

  Chuckling, I shook my head. “What’s that?”

  “If…If…If one day, you’re like this famous writer, then you could totally rub it in your dad’s face!”

  Cracking up, I fell even more in love with her. She had way more faith in me than I did. “You think so, Dani?” I teased her a little as I walked to my mother’s shelves. “Okay, so…what are we reading next? My sources are limited, but are we re-reading something? Or are you doing what I did with Dumas?”

  “I think,” she sang, and I heard her get up from her bed. “I think we should read…The Secret Garden.”

  I immediately found my mother’s copy, pulling it off the shelf. “Mom had it,” I murmured softly. “But isn’t this a girl’s book?”

  “Sort of,” she hedged adorably, “but it’s filled with a pretty interesting cast of characters, not to mention a touch of mystery. You picked the last one, even though you’d already read it. This one’s on me.”

  “Okay,” I conceded, flipping through the book in question. It wasn’t a long book, but it would probably get us through until I got home. I set the book aside, gazing up at the bookshelf. “I need to grab a few of these before I come home,” I said softly, and really, it was more to myself than to Dani, who was listening to me. “In fact, a few of these will come in handy for school.”

  “Do it,” Dani said lightly.

  There was a thump, a rattle of glass, and footsteps coming from the living room.

  “Dani, let me…” I whispered and then paused, thinking I should end the call and then call her back once I was back upstairs. But something in my mind told me to simply pull the phone away from my ear. “Pretty girl, hang on.”

  I turned when the door opened. My phone was in my hand, along with the book Dani wanted to read. My dad leaned in the doorway, looking ragged, tired, or maybe even drunk. Either way, he was looking for a fight. I could see it all over his face as he gazed at me in pure hatred.

  “Sweet Jesus, Evan…Can’t you stay out of this room? Or are you always going to be this…this…weak loser?”

  I shook my head and sighed deeply. “Merry Christmas to you too, Dad,” I stated calmly, but sarcasm came shining through my words and tone. “I was simply looking to see if Mom had books I could use at school.” My lie was smooth, and I supposed it wasn’t technically a lie, but it was just enough to make him narrow his eyes at me.

  He snorted. “God, you’re so much like your fucking mother. Emotionless and cold. Nothing ever gets to you. Not even when you let her die.”

  I barely heard Dani’s gasp on the phone in my hand, so I knew he hadn’t. Leaning against the shelf beside me, I truly looked at him, and I wasn’t sure if it was because my girl was listening or if I finally…finally understood what Dani had been trying to tell me from the beginning. I had been twelve years old when my mother had wrecked the car, when she’d accidentally taken herself out of our lives, but knowing what I knew now…I wasn’t sure my mouth co
uld be stopped if I tried.

  “Is that what you tell yourself? Is that what you force yourself to believe in order to maintain this…this level of hate?” I asked him, setting the book down onto my mother’s desk but keeping my phone in my hand. “You truly have convinced yourself that I was completely responsible for it all, haven’t you?”

  He stepped into the room, the ice in his glass clinking. “Aren’t you, you little piece of shit? She wouldn’t have been out in the rain…She wouldn’t have—”

  “I was twelve, Dad. Twelve. My fucking voice hadn’t even changed yet, you asshole. I didn’t drive the car; she did. You want to place blame, then let’s start there. And I couldn’t control the motherfucking weather! I also didn’t push the goddamn dog into the road either.”

  “You let her drown!” he yelled, stepping closer.

  “She told me to go!” I finally yelled back. “What more could I do! What? Tell me, because I guarantee you it’s nothing I haven’t told myself, so please, enlighten me as to what else I could’ve done. Because trust me, I’ve already come up with everything you could possibly spew at me now.” My nostrils flared in anger as he stepped a little closer. “What I can’t figure out is what pisses you off more,” I mused, glaring his way. “That you know it wasn’t my fault or Tyler’s, but you can’t blame her either. Tell me, Dad, what’s worse? The fact that she’s gone? Or the fact that even if she’d survived the wreck, she was still leaving you?”

  He froze for a moment, his eyes widening a little.

  I huffed a humorless laugh. “It must be pure fucking hell to have to raise three kids you never even wanted. But oh my God…” I gasped mockingly. “Heaven forbid the citizens of Key Lake find out that tidbit of information. Especially considering without those kids you detest so much, there would be no trust fund for you to bleed dry.”

  “The fuck did you just say to me?” he hissed, and I held up my phone unthinkingly.