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I’d thrown up violently when I heard the news, quickly putting two and two together and realizing that when he told me that something had come up that day, he wasn’t feeding me a line.
He meant it.
And I had hurt him that night.
Badly.
My words had devastated him, and I had regretted them the minute they came out of my mouth. I hadn’t meant any of it, but at the time I had been in such a state that I couldn’t think clearly. Never in my life had I felt the level of fear and degradation as I had in that kitchen.
The assault at the hands of Joey’s father had lasted no longer than ninety seconds at the most, but those ninety seconds had been the most terrifying of my life. Teddy Lynch was the scariest man I had ever encountered, and the desperate need I had to protect myself from ever encountering him again had resulted in me pushing away the one person who knew what it felt like to fear that man. It gave me a glimpse into the fear that Joey and his siblings had been carrying around for their entire lives, and my heart broke for them.
“You need to have that conversation with him soon,” Mam told me. “And your father and I will need to sit down with his parents and have a conversation of our own.”
“No, you don’t,” I argued, heart fluttering wildly at the thought of my mother going anywhere near that house. She didn’t know what had happened to me. If she did, there would be a very different conversation occurring. One between her and the officer that arrested her for murder. “I know that me and Joey have to talk, and we will. But you and Dad don’t need to have a conversation about anything with his parents, Mam. His mother is a wreck, and his father is a complete—”
“Asshole?”
Nodding, I exhaled a shaky breath. “A huge one.”
“You don’t need to tell me about Teddy Lynch, pet,” she replied. “I spent six years of secondary school tolerating the insufferable bastard.”
“Bastard?” My brows shot up in surprise. “You hardly ever curse, Mam.”
“Yes, well, sometimes there’s just no other word to fit the description,” she replied, giving me a small smile. “And when it comes to describing that man, ‘bastard’ is putting it mildly.”
“He’s going to take it badly,” I heard myself admit, chewing on my lip as a wave of anxiety came over me.
“Teddy?” She snorted. “Don’t you worry about him, pet. Your father and I are more than able to handle him.”
I shook my head.
Mam’s eyes softened. “Joey.”
I nodded anxiously. “He hates his father, Mam. I mean he really, really despises the man. I mean it, Mam. He’s so paranoid about turning into him that it has really screwed with his mind growing up.”
“That’s so sad,” Mam replied. “Joey is nothing like his father.”
“I know. But once I tell him that I’m pregnant—that we’re having a baby when we’re still in school—he’s going to take one look at our situation and compare it with his parents’.” I shrugged helplessly before adding, “I’m really scared that it’ll push him off the deep end.”
While we had never openly spoken about Joey’s issues, my mother wasn’t a stupid woman. For years before we became a couple, Joey had worked with my father and had been to our home on countless occasions. If I could tell he was strung out back then, so could my parents. Still, Dad never fired him, and Mam never turned him away from the door. Instead, they continued to hold the door open for a boy who had never been given a fighting chance.
“I love him, Mam,” I declared, voice thick with emotion as I locked eyes on my mother from across the coffee table. “I do. I love him so much that it blinds me.”
“That is what tends to happen when you fall in love for the first time,” she replied gently. “It happens to the best of us, pet.”
“I mean, obviously, I know we don’t have a perfect relationship. Far from it.” Shoulders sagging, I waved a hand in front of me as I continued, “Being with him feels messy, and raw, and complicated as hell, but it also feels exciting, and addictive, and so incredibly right.” I blew out a breath and shrugged helplessly. “There’s no one else for me, Mam. I know it. I can feel it in my bones.”
“I believe you,” she replied, nursing her mug between her hands. “You’ve always been a drama queen—”
“Hey!”
“Let me finish.”
“Fine.” I huffed out a breath.
Laughing, Mam tried again. “What I’m trying to say is that even though you’ve always had a flair for the dramatic and can be recklessly impulsive with your actions, you have never been reckless with your heart.”
“Wow,” I mused. “What a backhanded compliment.”
