AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“So you’re gonna fight the charges?” I ask as I get on the freeway.
“Absolutely,” he says, sounding more confident than I would in his situation.
“It won’t be easy,” I reply.
“I know. That’s why I need you.”
“Me?” I ask, even though I saw this coming from a mile away.
“We can appeal those charges before they make it to court. Who better to plead my case than my own son? One of the best defense attorneys in Austin, Texas.”
I want to tell him to fuck off. I want to tell him I hate him and that I hope he lands behind bars for the rest of his life. Not just for what he’s done to Sage but what he’s done to our entire family.
I want to wring his neck for what he did to Isaac alone.
But I am not Adam. I don’t do rebellious. I don’t like to cause a scene.
I’ve made it my entire life by staying off my dad’s radar. Always careful, never pleasing him too much and never angering him too much. I coasted somewhere in the middle. My mission was to be so inconsequential that he barely noticed I was even there.
If I weren’t a lawyer, he would not be on the phone with me right now. His calling to ask for my help has nothing to do with our relationship and everything to do with my position. So I have every reason to turn him down, to tell him to fuck off, to wish him well, and to never speak to him again.
So why can’t I? Why can’t I just utter those words?
Why can’t I just hang up the phone and move on with my life and pretend he doesn’t even exist? Why does it feel like, deep down, there’s a part of me that’s still searching and hoping for his approval?
I don’t need it. I don’t want it. I don’t care about it, and yet here I am, struck silent when all I know I really need to do is hang up the phone.
But I am a good lawyer, and I know I could easily get those charges lessened. It’s like I’m already building the case in my head, but I can’t seriously do that. I can’t possibly defend him when it was my own brother’s girlfriend who he attacked.
I couldn’t possibly betray my family like that.
“I’ll send you my location,” he says when I don’t respond. My thoughts are deafening, but my mouth stays quiet.
“Okay,” I mutter without knowing why.
“Be here in an hour,” he demands as if I’m still a child and he has any power over me.
The line goes dead without a goodbye. And I find myself driving into the city with a sense of confusion and irritation.
I won’t help that man. It’s not my job as a lawyer or as his son. But a part of me is curious to hear what he has to say. Maybe I just want to see how pathetic he is in person again. It’s been nearly nine months since I’ve laid eyes on him. And he is still my father, after all.
Ten
Briar
After Caleb leaves for work, I try to savor the last few minutes of silence that I can before Abby wakes up. In a perfect world, I’d use this time to do something meaningful, like praying, journaling, reading my Bible, or cleaning. Instead, I scroll on my phone and turn my brain into short-attention-span mush.
But not without guilt.
As I get up to take my empty coffee cup to the sink, I notice movement in the water of the pool. Seeing Dean pop his head out from under the surface, I feel my lips twitch with a slight smile.
Planting his hands on the surface of the pool deck, he hoists his wet body out of the water, droplets cascading down his chiseled pecs and abs.
Suddenly, the grip on my mug has grown so tight that my hand aches.
He climbs out in nothing but a pair of tight swim trunks. They hug his thick thighs and barely graze his hip bones. Just a couple inches lower, and they’d reveal?—
Stop it.
