“He’s not married, but he does have a baby daughter. He’s also my boss.” Sort of.
“That doesn’t explain why he won’t get with you.”
“He doesn’t love me, but it’s my fault. I’m the one who pushed for something physical, and now…”
“Now you don’t know what to do,” she took the words right out of my mouth.
I felt profoundly overwhelmed, and my eyes filled again. Shit, this was annoying. I’d never been so emotional in my entire life.
“So, your job is important to you, yeah?” she said.
“Yeah.”
“And this guy won’t help?”
“He might if I asked him, but I don’t know.”
“It might be best to get rid of it, then,” she told me, and I nodded.
It would be the simplest solution. The no muss, no fuss solution. I wouldn’t have to tell Luca, and I could go back to being Queen Molly without any real ramifications. I could focus on building the Varasso drug empire while setting myself up with a big nest egg, so I’d never have to worry about finances again. I could support Tara with it, too.
It sounded like a plan. A good plan.
“Will you go with me to the clinic?”
“Of course,” she said, patting my hand. “Want a subject change?”
“Please,” I said, wiping away some extra tears I hadn’t realized had fallen till just then. She handed me an envelope. It was from the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, the prison where my father had been incarcerated over the past nineteen years. My hands shook as I opened it. My memories of him weren’t exactly stellar. In fact, not one of them was pleasant.
“He’s getting out early for good behavior,” Tara told me as if she couldn’t handle the suspense any longer.
“Oh my God.”
“He asked to see us on his release day.”
“Oh, Tara, I don’t think so.” My sister didn’t remember what had happened with our father, and I’d never told her the nitty-gritty details. She knew he was an alcoholic, that he had anger issues, and that he’d murdered a man where he worked, but that was about it. “He’s not a nice person. He’s not a good person.”
“I think you should read the letter, Moll.”
But I stuffed it back into the envelope. I didn’t need to read it. I didn’t ever want to see him again.
“Look, you don’t remember how he was. How brutal he was.”
Flickering images of him beating our mom accosted me, followed by him coming after me. I shook my head, not wanting to relive the rest.
“What if he’s changed? Become a better man?”
“What if he hasn’t?” I countered.
“I can’t make you go, but I’m going. Ben was going to go with me, but he’s been deployed for the next two months to Saudi Arabia and won’t be stateside.”
“You can’t see that man alone, Tara, he’s dangerous. Promise me you won’t.”
Her eyes blazed, and she barked out, “Don’t do that. You can’t come back in here and start ordering me around like when we were kids. I’m not a child anymore. I can do whatever I want. Besides, you’ve been gone. Off doing stuff you won’t even tell me about. You have no say in the matter.”
“But—”
“But nothing. He’s our dad, Molly. The only father we’ll ever have. And we’ve been talking.”