“Where?”
“Here, last night.” I answer her next question before she’s able to ask it.
“And this is all they sent to investigate?”
“The rest just left.”
She nods her head. “So, the one I passed on the way up here?”
“Yeah, look…” Ro trails for a moment before he looks at us again. “They’re coming back later to talk to you guys. They want to call Child Protective Services.”
“What?” Liv, Drew, and I all shout, looking over at him.
“Yeah. Since I’m not legally related, they won’t let me.”
“Mom can.” Liv says as I turn and look at her, shaking my head.
“No.” The words tumble out before I’ve even thought about it. “I’ll come back.”
“Zane, you’re almost done with school.” Drew gasps, knowing what I would give up moving back.
“I don’t care.” I stare off as I look at the puddle of blood that’s already drying on the asphalt, all that’s left of them.
“It’s getting late. Why don’t we go back and get some sleep?” Ro mumbles out. It’s not actually a question. He’s telling us to do so.
When we pull back up to the compound, I get out of Drew’s car. She wasn’t able to drive herself. She cried the entire way back, just looking out of the window. She wouldn’t say a word. Sighing, Ro looks at me and nods to the side. “Take a walk.” It’s not an option. He’s telling me it’s happening. “We’ll meet you guys inside.” He says to the girls, nodding back to Liv’s house. We walk along the cliff side in silence for a moment. “I don’t know if you remember, but Sadie and I got married here.”
“Vaguely.”
“Do you remember we all got arrested that day?”
I can’t help but laugh out loud, shaking my head no.
“Yeah, they raided the compound, found nothing, but we all went to jail for the night. Both Ash and Caroline.” He laughs, shaking his head. “Your mother…” He trails off chuckling to himself, not as he’s trying to finish the sentence, but just saying how she was.
“I know.” I can’t help but let out a sad chuckle at the thought of the situation. I don’t remember exactly what happened, but I can only imagine.
“She was in the officer’s face screaming at him for how they were treating Ash. When the officer shoved your mom out of the way, she fell backwards, hitting her head so hard on the ground we all could hear it, your dad head-butted him and then somehow beat the shit out of him with his hands still cuffed.”
It makes me laugh again because I can imagine my mother doing everything that Ro just said, and Dad flipping out when someone hurt her.
“It was the biggest shit show that I had ever witnessed. The cop didn’t like it and obviously retaliated, but then so did your mom.”
“That’s when Dad was in prison for a year.”
“Yeah.” Ro laughs. “I had threatened him if he left your mom to deal with the three of you alone. But I watched what he did and I couldn’t be mad about it. They dropped most of the charges except for assaulting an officer.”
“Why are you telling me all this?” I ask him.
“Because I have no fucking clue what happened there, but I know they didn’t go down without a fight.” Slowly, I nod my head. “Your parents fought everything for you three to have such a better childhood than they did…” He trails for a moment, stopping and looking out over the water. “Your mother wanted you to finish school. She wanted you to have a decision about your future. Not to have to live in this life, if you didn’t want to.”
“I’m 21. I can make my own decisions.” It’s the only thing I can think of what to say.
“If I let you quit and become your sister’s guardian. She will haunt me for the rest of my life.”
I look out over the water and nod my head. “You’re forgetting a couple of things, though.”
I can see him look over at me in my peripherals.
