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As Casey dropped the phone from his ear, Dean asked, “What’s going on?”
Casey’s eyes were massively wide, nearly taking up his whole face. “My friend Jose. He’s down at the police station.”
“Is he in trouble?”
“No, the . . . the guy who . . . The art teacher at the youth center’s been arrested. Jose recorded him with his phone confessing.” Casey started dialing on his phone. “I gotta call Violet. I need to get down there.”
Dean took Casey’s arm and led him toward the truck. “I’ll drive you. Your sister can meet us there.”
“Don’t you have to work?”
“I’m the boss. I’ll get someone to cover for me.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
VIOLET SAT ACROSS from her father at the IHOP
in Natomas, nursing a cup of coffee. His dark eyes, once bloodshot and wild, were clear and sharp as they stared back at her from across the booth. It was unsettling to say the least. In twenty-four years, this was the first time she could actually see how her mother might have fallen for him. His square jaw was clean-shaven, and his once dark hair had flecks of gray throughout, but he was still handsome.
After she’d dropped Casey off at Alpha Dog, slightly relieved she hadn’t seen Dean’s truck, she’d taken Dean’s advice and called her father. He’d agreed to meet her, but now that they were sitting face to face, she had a hard time coming up with something to say. Luckily, he spoke first.
“I take it you got the papers.”
“Yes, I got them.” She took a sip, ignoring the way the cup shook in her hands. She shouldn’t be this nervous. She had been the adult, the one to stay and handle her responsibilities. So why did this Jack Douglas make her feel like a rebellious daughter trying to punish him?
“I want you to know that I had already filed the papers before I saw you. I wasn’t trying to hurt you.”
A flash of anger burned in her chest. “You’re going to take Casey from me. I call that trying to hurt me.”
“No, that’s not what I’m doing. I am trying to get my rights back. It has nothing to do with taking Casey or hurting you. I just want to be able to see him.” Running his hand along his jaw, he emitted a laugh filled with bitterness. “Believe me, I understand why you would think that. I’ve been an asshole for most of your life, so why would you believe me?” His earnest expression held her spellbound as he pleaded, “I have been trying to deal with everything that was wrong with me, everything that made me turn to drugs in the first place, but it is a process. Nothing I say is going to make you see me for the man I am now, but I would just like to prove to you that I have changed.”
How could he expect her to believe that he had been able to eradicate twenty-four years of behavior in a mere year and a half? “So you’re telling me that you weren’t doing this whole thing to get custody? That you weren’t going to tell people I forced you to leave?”
When he reached across to take her hand, she moved back. Violet saw the hurt in his expression before it was gone, but he couldn’t have expected this would be easy.
“Violet, the events of that night are shaky, but I don’t blame you for anything. I was an out-of-control mess. I know that. All I want is a second chance. I’m not telling the court anything except that I left you guys because I was afraid I might hurt you if I didn’t get help.”
Deep down, she wanted to believe him, but after her explosion with Dean, she wasn’t in much of a positive frame of mind. “Why? Why would you do that?”
“Regardless of what you may think of me, Violet, I’m weak, but I am not a monster. In my right mind, I would never hurt any of you.”
The little girl inside who had always hoped he’d get better wanted to believe him. “I don’t know if I could ever trust you.”
“That’s why I am here. To try. That’s all I’m asking. For you to just try.”
Try. She tried every day to be the best for Casey and Daisy. She tried to better herself and their situations. She’d tried to let Dean in and be happy, but it seemed like every time she tried, shit went south.
Before she could tell him any of that, though, her phone rang. “Sorry.” Glancing down at the screen, she saw Casey’s smiling face. “Sorry, I need to get this. It’s Casey.”
“Of course, go ahead,” her dad said.
Violet answered. “Are you okay?”
“We’re headed to the police station; can you meet us there?”
What the hell had happened now? “Who? Are you okay? What is going on?”
“Dean’s driving me. I’ll explain when you get there.”
