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“Stop worrying? I’ve been more than just worrying, Joe. God, I feel like I haven’t been able to breathe again until just now.” With her arm around my waist, she slipped her hand into the ass pocket of my jeans and leaned into my side. “Whathappened?”
I thought about feeding her the same bullshit I’d given to the Gards, but I had too much respect for this girl, and had too many feelings involved, to give her anything other than the truth.
“He walked out on Mam a couple of weeks ago for some barmaid from town that she caught him messing around with,” I heard myself explain, unnerved by just how easy it was to be truthful with her.
It didn’t happen often.
Shit, itneverhappened.
Not with anyone else.
Just her.
Only ever her.
“Mam was a mess when he left and took to the bed.” I grimaced at the memory of trying to spoon-feed the woman a cup of crappy instant soup. “That was the family shit I told you that I was dealing with.” Shrugging, I added, “I couldn’t leave Sean on his own with her. Not when I couldn’t be sure that she would feed him. So, I took a few days off to hold the fort at home, while my mam processed whatever the hell it was that she needed to process.”
“And last night?”
“Last night, he decided he had enough of his barmaid and came back, laying down the law and stinking of whiskey.” I stiffened at the memory of him sauntering through the front door like he was God’s fucking gift. “And it got messy.”
“How messy?”
Messy enough that when Mam, who had only managed to drag herself out of the bed and put herself back together that day, made the near-fatal mistake of telling him to turn around and leave.
“He beat my mother,” I heard myself growl. “So, I beat him.”
“Hebeatyour mam?”
“Yeah.” I nodded stiffly. “And the bastard’s always been smart enough to hurt her where nobody will see the marks.”
“Jesus, Joe…”
“I didn’t even know he’d come back. I was upstairs in my room when I heard her screaming my name, so I came running. I was half-way down the staircase when I saw him slap my sister across the face for trying to pull him off our mother. You’ve seen how small she is. Shan went down like a sack of spuds. So, I lost my head, went for him…” Shrugging, I added, “and here we are.”
“Here we are,” she repeated sadly. “Your poor face…”
“I didn’t come out the worst,” I was quick to assure her. It was the one part of the whole damn mess that had kept me warm last night. I’d gotten the better of him,finally, after almost eighteen years of taking his shit,hehad to be protected fromme.
He was a lucky man that the neighbors called the Gards over the commotion, because if they hadn’t arrived and dragged me off him, I would have been facing murder charges.
Molloy sucked in a sharp breath. “So, what did the Gards say?”
“It was just the usual slap on the wrist and a warning. They called in an emergency social worker and the youth liaison officer. You know, the usual bullshit.”
“What does that mean?” Concern filled her eyes. “Are they…are you being taken away?”
“No, no, it’s grand,” I assured her. “I’m used to social workers coming around. I’ll handle it.”
“Well, I hope you told them everything, Joe,” she growled. “Because this can’t happen again.”
When I didn’t answer her, because I couldn’t give her the answer she wanted, she lost it.
“Oh, my fucking god!” she screamed, pushing my chest before jerking away from me. “Why didn’t you tell them the truth?”
Because I can’t!
“It’s not your business, Molloy.”
