AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Listen, I’d love to tell you,” I replied. “I’d have no goddamn problem laying it all out there for you. I have nothing to hide.”
As I spoke the words, I realized that they were my truth. Because something had happened inside of me, something fucking strange, and I was growing weary of lying.
Of covering up.
Of constantly watching my back and the backs of my siblings.
It was no life to live, and I didn’t want it anymore.
I never had.
“But she won’t want me to do that,” I tried to explain to him. “Shannon would die if she thought anyone knew her business. After all the shit that went down for her at BCS, she wants that clean slate at Tommen—and I want that for her, too.”
“So, she is being bullied,” Kav choked out, missing the mark entirely and looking physically sick at the thought. “Someone at Tommen.” He shook his head, looking lost. “Or at her old school.”
I sighed heavily. “Listen, Kavanagh, if you want to know what goes on in that head of hers, then be worth it.”
“Be worth it?” He glared at me. “Be worth what?”
He knew exactly what I meant. If he wanted in, like he so desperately seemed to, then he needed to earn that entry pass from Shannon.
I couldn’t give it to him. Even though a weird part of me strongly wanted to.
Because even though I’d long given up on protecting myself and had spent years failing to protect my siblings, I was starting to come to terms with the possibility that I wasn’t doing the right thing for them.
That keeping quiet wasn’t the right thing.
Maybe I had taken too many blows to the head at the hands of our father, or maybe it was Molloy getting inside my head, but keeping my mouth shut was starting to look, in my mind, less like protecting my siblings and more like enabling my parents.
Still, the memory of Darren’s abuse continued to imprison me, keeping the fear alive just enough to keep my tongue at bay.
“You’re a smart guy,” was all I replied. “You’ll figure it out.”
Kav shook his head again. “I don’t—”
My phone rang out loudly in my pocket, stalling him, and I quickly pulled it out, only for my heart to fall into my ass when I saw the name flashing across the screen.
Dad.
Fury enveloped me and I held a hand up to warn Kavanagh to keep his goddamn mouth shut as I pressed the answer button and put the phone to my ear.
“Joey, it’s me.”
“What the fuck do you want?” I sneered, thoroughly disgusted that he even thought that mine was a number he could call.
The sound of his voice had every hair on my body standing on end. It didn’t matter to me that he sounded sober. Everything about this man, drunk or otherwise, made my skin crawl.
I almost fell off the stool when I heard him say, “I’m phoning you to let you know that I’m coming home with—”
“No, you were told,” I cut him off, pacing the kitchen, trying to keep my shit to myself all while I was losing the very same shit. You were goddamn told there was no coming home. “There’s no coming back.”
“What happened the other night was a mistake,” I heard him say, tone level. “I didn’t mean to hurt your mother. It was a heat-of-the-moment thing. You understand.”
He didn’t mean to hurt Mam? I understand? What about Shannon? Had he meant to hurt her when he pummeled her face with his fist? Of course he’d fucking meant to. Believing that he didn’t mean to do something that he had repeatedly done throughout the course of our lives was the definition of insanity.
“I don’t give two shits how sorry you are.”
“Would ya just shut your mouth and listen to me for a second—”
