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“You made me the villain in your story. In her story.” I nod down to Kayla. “But these people behind me? They showed up while you all sat in Kansas on your high horse, letting everyone think you were busting your butts taking care of your sick son.”
I give a pointed look at Oscar. “You posted on social media about the big fight against cancer.”
I look at Liz. “You told me we were waiting on the unexplained miracle, and I needed to let him come home to his family.”
To Melissa, I say “You told us how upset you were that we didn’t include you in our wedding, while at the same time, proving exactly why we didn’t involve you. And instead of asking your son what he wanted as his final wishes, instead of letting me do what he asked, you jumped the gun." I look between this woman and her husband, who raised a man that I'll love for the rest of my life, knowing full well I loved him through the end of his. "If you'd taken ten seconds to ask me instead of lawyering up, you would have known that we agreed to have money set aside from his insurance to pay for college for Zander and all of your children." I point to Liz, whose mouth gapes slightly. "I sincerely hope that money went toward what he asked, at least in part."
Finally, my eyes slide to Kelsie. “And you? I don’t know what they did to you, or what you’re doing to them, if we’re being honest.” I glance down at Kayla, who just looks confused at this point. “But for the sake of that little girl, I hope that the truth doesn’t break any of you the way this all broke me.”
“She is his daughter,” Melissa huffs.
“And I was hiswife.” It comes out as a strangled sob, a scream, and if people weren’t looking at us before, they are now. I feel Alex’s hand on my arm and pinch the bridge of my nose. “She was his daughter, and I was his wife,” I repeat, just loud enough for those around me to hear. “For better or for worse, I committed myself to your son. Knowing everything he did to me, knowing that we probably wouldn’t see another new year. I was his wife.
“I was his wife, as much as none of you want to admit it. And I watched - we watched - while you acted like none of us existed. Like this part of his life didn’t exist.” I laugh, humorless and dry. “And now you come here to show his daughter some of his favorite places.” My chest heaves, and the words on the tip of my tongue are some of the hardest yet, the hardest to speak out loud. I meet Liz’s icy stare. “I haven’t been to his gravesite because I’m not stupid enough to think that you all haven’t convinced that entire town that I’m the devil incarnate. I know that the second someone spots my car, I’m in for the same barrage of harassment we all got the day after the funeral, when you all made quite the show as the spurned family who lost a child.
“You carved her initials into his gravestone,” I choke out, and I bury my head in my hands. I’m trying my hardest not to lose my absolute mind, but Alex’s hand on me just makes me sob harder, and through my tears I say “You carved her initials on the gravestone that I paid for, after you abandoned him, abandoned us, and had the gall to use his name, his love for you, to make a quick buck.”
Melissa just gives me a blank look. “He would be so disappointed to see you talking this way to us.” I suck in a breath at her words, but she doesn’t stop. “And he’d be disappointed to see the way you’ve…” Her eyes trail up and down my body. “Grown.”
Red flashes across my eyes, hot and furious, but I’m holding Alex back with one hand and moving the other in front of Fitz, who steps forward so fast I barely see it. And before either of them, before any of them can say or do anything, I’m an inch away from the face of the woman who made my life hell from the moment I heard the word “cancer.”
“Don’t you dare think for one second,” I spit, “that I would not let them pummel you to the ground. All of you.” I tip my chin at the people behind her. “But not one of you is worth a felony record, so I’m going to say this one more time to get it through your head.” And like an angry school teacher, my finger is in Melissa’s face, and she’s flinching, and a flicker of power seeps through me knowing that I can get a rise out of her that fast. “You were my family, all of you. And you treated me, treated us, like we were nothing.”
“I pray that none of you ever have to do what Piper did,” my mother says from behind me, speaking for the first time. “To take care of the person you love the most in the world while watching them die in front of your eyes.”
“To feed him, and change him,” Alex adds. “To do things most people assume you need a medical degree for.”
“Mostly by herself.” Nolan looks over at me, and I want to hug him. “Knowing that Mickey was too proud to have any of us there to help him at the end.”
“We would have helped,” Liz says.
“But you didn’t.” I give them all a sad smile, stepping back. “You can sit there and say you would have helped, should have been able to help, but you didn’t. I wasn’t barring you from visiting, didn’t physically keep you from being involved in his life the way you did to me.” I give Melissa a pointed stare. “You had every opportunity to come down, to be here for all of it, and you didn’t. And then you made those of us that were here feel like shit.” I don’t even try to stop the last word from coming out, just spit it like it’s a bad taste on my tongue. “You made me the villain, and you can scream that from the high heavens, telling everyone how horrible I am.” I hold up my hands for emphasis, because at this point, why not. “But don’t forget to tell people the part where you made me that way.”
“I highly suggest you make yourselves scarce,” Penny says, and she crosses her arms over her chest. “Because as much power as you think you wield in Bumfuck, Kansas, I think you’d be surprised to know just what this group of Mickey’s insignificant Texas friends - family - can pull off.” Next to her, I see Dr. Sanford step up, not even realizing she’d left in the middle of the shitstorm, toting a uniformed police officer with her.
Oscar mumbles something, and Alex holds a hand up to her ear. “What was that? Can’t hear you hiding behind your wife.”
“I think we should be going.” He looks like a dog with its tail between its legs as he takes his wife’s arm, yanking her away. Melissa and Liz give us seering glares, and I realize that neither Zander nor Kenny said anything the entire time - either too chicken, or too shocked to do so. But as I watch them retreat, Kayla looks over her shoulder, pressing that hat to her head.
I feel my shoulders sag, and as fast as my heart is beating, as ragged as my breaths are, when I look at Alex, and she mutters “What the fuck just happened?” All I can do is shake my head, blinking.
Because for the first time in years, I feel like I can breathe. Truly, really breathe, all the weight of those words off my chest, the man that I love beside me, and my friends, though stunned, smiling sheepishly at each other like we just won a drag race while climbing down the track on the world’s most stressful vehicle.
Chapter 59
Fitz
WhenIhearanunexpected knock on my door, I’m half expecting to see Seer standing in the frame, waiting with some quippy remark. But when I look up, I’m staring at an apprehensive Chris Westfall, hands in his pockets.
We steadily avoided each other the last couple of weeks, following the complete crapshoot at Freddy’s graduation lunch, but now he looks sheepish in a way that tells me Paula definitely read him the riot act. Internally, I score one for my stepmom.
“You have a second?” he asks, not waiting for my response before stepping in, closing the door behind him. Burying a scoff, I look down at my watch.
“I thought we were meeting downstairs at noon.”
“I wanted to chat for a minute before we meet the girls for lunch.” The girls. He says it like they’re silly, and twelve, and possibly wearing pigtails with skinned knees.
Ok, the skinned knee part might be on par for Piper, but not my sister.
