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“Oh, how wonderful—it can read,” Ruslan snarls sarcastically. “Once you sign those papers, legal and physical custody will pass from you to Emma.”
He shakes his head. “If I do that… I-I’ll lose them…”
“You mean you’ll lose your bargaining power? You’ll lose control of Emma? Without those children, you can’t make her take your shit. That’s what you’re really afraid of losing, aren’t you?”
Ben turns to me again, his eyes bright with pitiful tears. His nose is still gushing blood and snot, but he doesn’t even seem to notice.
“Em, listen to me. I know I haven’t been the best father or b-brother to you—”
“I warned you not to do that,” Ruslan rumbles.
Ben continues as though Ruslan hadn’t spoken. “—but I-I’m just so fucking miserable all the time. Without her, without my Sienna, nothing seems worth it. She was my everything. She was my whole fucking world. P-please… don’t let him do this…”
I can understand why he’s going with this strategy. It’s worked for him in the past. In the months after Si’s death, I’d done my best to care for him.It’s a phase,I thought.It’ll pass,I thought. But as the months went by and Ben just kept getting worse and worse, I realized that he wasn’t just using me; he was using Sienna, too.
He was using her death as an excuse to let himself go, to stop trying, to stop caring.
I could have forgiven him if it was just me. But I can’t forgive him for what he’s cost those children. I won’t forgive him for what he’s put them through.
“I gave you so many chances, Ben,” I say softly. “I begged you to be better for those kids. You keep using Sienna as an excuse, but the truth is, if she were here right now, she’d be so damn ashamed of you.”
His face crumples up and he looks away. He doesn’t look at either one of us when he speaks again. “Y-you can’t make me sign those papers.”
I close my eyes.Oh no, Ben. You shouldn’t have said that.
When I open them again, I see Ruslan squatting so he’s eye level with Ben. “Let me be very clear. You have two choices here: sign and you get to live. Refuse? You die and we get the kids anyway.”
I do a confused double-take.Did he just say“we”?
Ben sneers, blood crusting around his upper lip. “Why let me live at all?”
Ruslan shrugs. “Because I don’t want to be responsible for taking away their last living parent. Even if he is a worthless piece of shit.”
Tears pool in my eyes. I know exactly what it means for someone like Ruslan to walk away from a man like Ben without exacting his pound of flesh. The only reason Ben is being given a choice at all is because of how much Ruslan loves those kids.
“Fine,” he spits at last. “I’ll sign.”
Ruslan flings a pen at him and I watch with bated breath as Ben scribbles on the dotted line. Once he’s signed the last page, I wait for the relief to hit, but still—nothing.
It hasn’t quite sunk in yet.
Ruslan picks up the papers and folds them closed. “Just a little parting advice: the moment you wake up, I’d start looking for another state to move to. I don’t ever want to see you again.”
Ben’s eyebrows knit together. “W-wake up?”
This time, I’m expecting the blow. Ruslan’s right arm swings forward and makes violent contact with the side of Ben’s temple. Ben’s eyes roll back and his body goes limp.
He looks oddly fake like this. Not a person anymore. Not a part of my life.
If I ever see him again, he’ll be a stranger.
Ruslan rises back to his feet and stretches. “He should come to in a few hours, don’t worry.”
I frown. I’m not worried. Not about Ben, anyway.
“Come on,” he says, holding out a hand. “Let’s go home.”
Let’s go home.What a sentence. Still dazed, I take Ruslan’s hand and follow him back into his SUV, trying to process everything that just happened.
