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“I don’t know. I guess I slept wrong. The massage helped. I’m only a little sore now.”
Mason felt a scowl weigh down his face. His protective instincts kicked into gear. Had Sean fooled around with her knowing she didn’t feel well? He took a deep breath and forced himself to relax. Sean wasn’t an idiot. He would have considered her needs and wouldn’t do anything at the expense of her wellbeing. He was being a control freak and needed to relax. If they were going to do this he was going to have to remind himself about trust as well. He wouldn’t be able to micromanage every encounter the two of them shared.
“If your back’s still bothering you I want you to go take a long bath and go to bed early.”
Mason held his smile back as Liberty gave him a mutinous glare. He enjoyed those random moments when she fought back a little. It kept him from becoming complacent by her agreeable ways.
“I need to clean up from dinner.”
“That’s fine, but after the kitchen is done I don’t want you doing anything else.”
She pursed her lips, but he knew he earned her agreement. “What are you two going to do?”
Mason looked back at Sean who had been observing the byplay quietly and trying to appear uninterested. “I think Sean and I’ll hang out in the study and do some catching up.”
* * * *
Later that evening Mason found himself sitting at the bar drinking an imported lager across from Sean. “So how did he go?” he asked, not needing to clarify he was asking about Sean’s old man. His passing was the event that had catapulted them back into each other’s lives. His death was never too far from either of their minds.
“Heart attack. It was the middle of the night. Lisa was there with him. She called me. I drove there. The funeral was Tuesday. Wednesday I left and headed here.”
“How’d you know where to find me?”
“The Internet is a wonderful tool.”
Mason nodded. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. You, more than anyone, know what a dick my dad was. It was nothing like losing my mom.”
“How’s Lisa doing?” Last Mason knew Sean and his father’s girlfriend had a fairly decent relationship.
“She’s all right. She’s young. I hope she doesn’t mourn him too long. I’d like to see her find a decent guy. She deserves some peace after putting up with my old man for so long.”
They each sipped their beer and Mason went to the tap and got a refill, looking at Sean questioningly. Sean passed him his glass and they were silent for a moment as the frothy, dark brew filled the pilsner. When Mason sat back down Sean said, “Tell me about Liberty.”
“What do you want to know?”
“I want to know why she’s the way she is. I’m not going to even pretend I know the tiniest bit about what she has.”
Mason sighed. “Liberty didn’t have an easy childhood. Her mother was a cunt, plain and simple. All of her life she told Liberty she wasn’t good enough. It didn’t matter what she did, how well she behaved, how good she did in school, KarLyn was never pleased with her daughter.
“When she was about ten, her mother remarried a man named Eric. To hear Liberty tell it, she loved the idea of finally having a father. However, Eric was more of a monster than anything else. He showed his true colors around the time she hit puberty. It started then.”
“It?”
Mason’s stomach knotted as bile rose. “Yeah, late night visits to her room. Hugging her a little too long. Accidentally walking in on her without knocking while she was changing. When Libby started to get uncomfortable she told her mom, but KarLyn just blew her off and told her she was being dramatic. She made Liberty feel like there was something wrong with her for even thinking such a thing. She told Liberty that only a disturbed child with an overactive sexual imagination could concoct such nonsense. And then she did the worse thing she could have ever done.”
“What?”
“KarLyn told Eric.”
Sean looked away and Mason saw his fists clenching. “How long did this go on? Couldn’t she have told a teacher or something?”
Mason shook his head. “When I say KarLyn was a cunt, it’s only because I don’t know a more vile insult. She was by far the biggest bitch I’ve ever come across in my life. I met Liberty when she was twenty-one, just before her twenty-second birthday, and by that point the obsessive need to earn her mother’s nonexistent approval had manifested itself so deep into her psyche she was already a prisoner to her disorder.
“Obsessive Compulsive Disorder can be triggered by lots of different things. For Liberty, it was her mother’s intention not to have a child, but a doll. She expected her daughter to be a certain way and her standards were more than absurd. Liberty was punished for so many ridiculous shortcomings that any normal person would see as regular, human limits. She would make herself sick trying to earn her mother’s praise. But then KarLyn stopped acknowledging her. She’d found a new plaything, Eric, and forgot all about her daughter. The problem was, Liberty had been conditioned to require her mother’s approval above all else. It was an impossible goal and nothing to do with Liberty.”
