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Light footsteps sounded on the staircase then, followed a few moments later by the sound of the front door opening and closing shut.
I shook my head and glared at my mother. “What have you done, Mam?”
“What’s right, Aoife,” my mother replied. “I’ve done what’s right.”
61
Just This Once
JOEY
By the time I reached the end of my road, the squad car was pulling away from my house. Knowing that the Gards in this town didn’t need much of a reason to throw me in the cells these days, I slipped into a side alley until they drove past.
When they were gone, I flicked the butt of my cigarette behind me and jogged up the footpath to my house, needing another arrest under my belt like I needed a hole in the head.
Because that’s what would happen. It didn’t matter what Trish Molloy told the Gards. My father wouldn’t be punished for a damn thing. He never was.
The blame would fall at my feet.
Same as always.
When I walked through the front door a few minutes later, I was greeted by my father’s fist as it connected with my jaw.
“Jesus.” Unprepared and taken aback by the unexpected assault, I stumbled backward and landed on my ass in the hallway, feeling a lightning bolt of pain ripple through my face. “Christ.”
“You dumb cunt,” he sneered, towering above me. “Running your mouth to those people. Telling them our private business. Running to your girlfriend’s mammy with sob stories. What did ya think was going to happen?”
I wanted to get up and fight back, I really fucking did, but the pain shooting out of my cheekbone was so severe, it made my stomach heave.
Twisting onto my hands and knees, I hurled my guts up on the floor, unable to mask my agony, as fire burned through my face. “Fuck…you.”
His boot connected with my stomach next, taking the wind clean out of my lungs. “If you don’t want to be under my roof, boy, you know where the door is. Nobody’s stopping ya from leaving if ya don’t want to be here.”
“Teddy, no.” That was Mam. I could hear her pleading with him to stop kicking me. He didn’t stop. Not until he had a good half-dozen more kicks in. “Please, stop. He’s only a boy.”
“Pack his fucking bags, Marie,” my father commanded, while I lay in a heap on the floor, trying to breathe through the pain. “I want this little prick out!”
I knew that I needed to get back up, but I just didn’t have anything left in the tank.
Still, that fire of prideful self-sabotage continued to burn bright inside of me, demanding that I get back up on my feet and not lie down to this man until my heart gave out.
“You think you’re ready to be a father?” he roared, and I could hear him unbuckling his belt. It was a sound that I was all too familiar with. “Right you are, ya little bollox. Lesson number one on being a father? Knowing when to put your little bastards back in line.”
A pained grunt escaped me when the whip of leather came down on my back.
“Teddy, no!”
The belt came down on my back again.
Harder this time.
“Please, Teddy, don’t!”
Shuddering violently, I bit down so hard on my lip that I could taste blood, but I refused to cry out or beg this man for anything.
“Joey!” That was Tadhg.
I could hear him crying somewhere nearby.
