“Uncle Hayden,” I whispered. “He died when I was four.”
“Why… why did no one ever tell me?”
“Because he was beaten to death, outside a gay bar in Pittsburgh. I only found that out after Dad kicked me out.” I chewed on my lip. “I can’t even say Dad wasn’t involved. I don’t even know where his homophobia came from. He wasn’t religious, he wasn’t closeted that I know.”
“It doesn’t matter, not really now. Dad just kept screaming about it, and he had the gun at my head, covered in blood and…I kicked him in the balls. I ran to the basement, and I was going to go out the cellar doors and run next door.
“Dad jumped down the stairs. The whole staircase at once, and shot at me. He was completely out of his mind, and I don’t think he saw me grab the handgun he had in the toolbox and I ran for the stairs. He shot at me a few more times, but he was so mad he couldn’t aim.
“Then he got me in the corner of the living room. He shot Mom again, even though she was dead and he held the gun under my chin, screaming incoherently about ending the family because he wouldn’t let the gay continue.”
She was trembling again, and sobs shook her whole body as she covered her face with her hands. “I shot him. I had to. He was going to kill me and I had to.”
I gathered my little sister into my arms, on to my lap and let her cry.
* * *
“How are you doing?”
It was such a huge relief to hear Doxx’s voice.
“I’m shit.” I couldn’t keep the exhaustion out of my voice. “Vi is out on a hundred thousand bail against the house neither of us want to step foot into again. Robert is an amazing attorney. We’re actually staying at the one officer’s house with his wife and their kids. He’s a cousin. I had no idea.”
“Is that good?”
I let out a sigh. “They all wanted to know what happened to me. My father just told the whole family I ran away and there wasn’t anything they could do about it. My aunt said she tried looking for me, but there was nothing—which was how I wanted it when I did finally disappear.”
“They didn’t recognize you in the news?” He laughed a little, and that sounded really good.
“They’re country fans.”
He burst out laughing, and I did too. It felt good to laugh.
“So, what happened and what’s going on?”
I sat on the phone with Doxx, and told him the whole story, the way Violet told me, then the police with her lawyer present. They had to arrest her, but Philips was pretty sure that she was going to be released and the whole thing was going to be ruled a justifiable homicide. “He has a meeting with the DA in the morning and we’ll have answers then. Once we do…we have to close up the house and get the hell out of here. I’m sending Mel home after we figure out what’s going to happen.”
I paused and picked at a fingernail. “I’m bringing Violet with me. She’s seventeen and has one year of high school left. She’ll be eighteen in February next year. She doesn’t mind spending her last year in New York City.”
“Awesome.” His voice was genuinely happy for me. “You can make sure that she has a good therapist here for all that she’s going to have to deal with once this is all done.”
“That was going to be one of my arguments, but as soon as they said she’ll probably be released and never charged, she asked to come with me. We just have to clean the house up and sell it.”
“Are you staying until it sells?”
“My cousin’s wife is a real estate agent, so I don’t have to.”
“You can if you want to.”
“I have no desire to be here,” I answered. “I can come and visit the family if they really want to know me. I’ll have a nice place in the city, they can visit me. I want to go home, and settle into the apartment I haven’t even seen yet, and go on with life. He kicked me out, Doxx. He never looked back. He shot my mother, and he would have shot my sister. I’m done here.”
“Okay.” I could almost see him nod. “I just didn’t want you to rush anything.”
“The only thing I want to rush is back to you and some more of that amazing sex.” The smirk was clear in my voice. “How’d the show go?”
“Taylor was on point.” The pleased tone slid down the phone to me. “He was happy to play with us, but pissed for the reasoning. Bryce made him buy flowers for Hailey and take her shopping for a new purse in Nice. It was damn hilarious.”
“Man, I wish I could have seen that,” I said.
