Page 68 of Chasin’s Surrender

All eyes shot to Will and Chasin felt something nasty fill the air when Will stopped laughing. It was thick and chunky, and no matter how hard Chasin tried, he couldn’t swallow past the lump in his throat.

“Never took you for stupid,” Will started, and the room turned electric. Most of the hostility was rolling off the woman tucked to his side. He didn’t understand her reaction, and his father gave him no time to process the feeling before he continued. “I reckoned you would’ve learned. Everything you saw, your mother not even bothering to hide it, thought you’d figure it out on your own. I see you didn’t.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Chasin angrily asked.

“Boy, you are all kinds of a fool. You think your mother had opportunity while I was at work every day making sure there was money in the bank and food on the table. What do you think that one will do?” His father pointed at Genevieve and shook his head. “Shit, boy, that woman there, rich, famous, not to mention gorgeous, she’ll break you.”

Before Chasin had a chance to respond to the shit his father had spewed, Genevieve tore herself from his arms and stepped in front of him. And in a move that Chasin would’ve seriously laughed at had he not been so goddamn furious, Bobby slid in front of him, too, and stopped at Genevieve’s side.

“Did he just call me a whore?” Genevieve asked conversationally.

“Yep. I think that’s what he was implying,” Bobby answered in the same tone.

“Is he stupid?” Genevieve continued. He saw her head move but since she was in front of him he couldn’t be sure but in his mind he pictured Genevieve taking in his mother. The woman hadn’t aged well. She used to be beautiful—there was a reason men had frequently visited her bed. Now she looked worn-out and old. “And you? You did this,” Genevieve sneered.

“You don’t—”

“I don’t what? Get to have a say after your husband just compared me to you?” Genevieve snapped, her thick Southern drawl laced with condescension. “Y’all came here uninvited, knowing Chasin didn’t want to see you. And that cannot be a surprise after what y’all have done to him.”

Then her head snapped back to his father. She raised her arm and pointed her finger directly at him. “The only fool in this room is you, and don’t you ever liken me to that woman again. But more than that, don’t you ever infer that Chasin is some sort of weak, sorry excuse for a man who would first choose a piece of filth, then put up with her when she allows other men to fuck her. And for the record, he learned—oh, yeah, he learned. She taught him mistrust and suspicion, and you taught him what weakness looked like.”

The longer Genevieve spoke, the tighter Chasin’s chest became, until he thought he’d split wide open. His heart pounded against his ribs painfully, but for the first time in his life, it wasn’t out of anger. The emotions running through him were so unfamiliar he couldn’t begin to assign words to describe them. All he knew was it felt good, it felt right, and he never wanted to stop feeling it.

“That’s enough, Evie.” His voice sounded rough to his own ears, and when Genevieve looked over her shoulder and locked her eyes with his, he knew he hadn’t imagined it.

“They do not get to come into your home and—”

“Babe, seriously, listen to me. They’re meaningless. Five minutes after they walk out the door, I’ll go back to forgetting they exist. I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but neither of them will hear you.”

He watched as her eyes narrowed and her body tensed. “It’s not right,” she whispered.

She was correct, there wasn’t a damn thing right about his parents being in his house. But he’d be damned if he showed either of them the lasting damage their garbage had done.

“Trust me.”

He hadn’t realized he was holding his breath, until with a nod, she stepped back to him and once again tucked herself under his arm. This time, her hand came to the left side of his chest and she held herself slightly in front of him.

She’d claimed him, and fucking hell, it felt great. Never having felt it before, he gave himself a moment to enjoy it. Until his mother’s shrill voice rang out and snapped Chasin back to the situation.

“This is absurd.”

Chasin was so far past done, it was a miracle he’d held it together this long.

“Leave,” he demanded.

“But we came all the way here to talk to you.”

“Too late. I asked you why you were here. Instead, you came into my home…fuck, never mind. It doesn’t matter. Just leave.”

“Son,” his father started, but wisely shut his mouth when Chasin leveled him with a hard stare.

“There is not one thing I want to hear you say. Years. Hell, my whole life, I waited for you to wake up and leave her. Show me that under all the pathetic bullshit, there was a man I could one day have a relationship with. I thought that when I turned eighteen and you were no longer responsible for me, you’d leave her and I could have at least one parent. But each time I came to visit it was worse, she had you cowed, and you took it like a chump. Your wife has fucked more men in your bed than you can count.”

Chasin clenched his fists. “That’s disgusting. Disgusting and sad. But you don’t care. And worse you didn’t care I saw it. You didn’t care that seeing that was distorting my view about women. You just carried on in your dysfunctional marriage, and when it was your turn in her filth, you took it. Both of you, take a good look at me because this is the last time either of you will lay eyes on me. There is not one single thing I need from either of you.”

He shook his head, disgusted. “But I know why you’re here. I know you need something from me. I know Dad lost his job and you’re six months behind on the mortgage and you’ve received the foreclosure letter.”

“If you knew, then why’d you ask?” Will’s voice boomed.