“I cared for you.” His expression hardened, cold. “I cared for my son, and though I didn’t agree with his choice, I allowed it. I let him marry his whore.”
My nostrils flared. “Don’t call her that.”
“That’s what she was son, is. She’s Pretty Woman in real frickin’ life. She was trash and I
let it go, but I didn’t have to after your father died. I didn’t have to pretend it was okay. She had no means at all to take care of you outside of what she was left from your father, and hell if I was going to let her squander his trust away.”
“So you did this to her—”
“She did this to herself.” He threw a hand out. “She wanted to leave with you. Take you to God only knew where to come out any which way. Thought she could because she had your father’s money and believed she could do it. She couldn’t take care of herself before she married your father, so pardon me if I had no confidence in her abilities. I got the courts involved. Wanted custody of you and a say in how you grew up. That’s when she ran. That’s when she got in that car accident with you and ended up in that coma.”
“But she didn’t stay that way,” I charged. “She woke up. Royal said she woke up!”
“And would have taken you again, rest assured.” No emotion, none at all. He shook his head. “That wasn’t going to happen. Not on my watch. I did what I had to do. I did what I needed to do…”
To protect me, and so a Reed once again ends up in the flames of hell. Surging, I turned my head, all I could do to keep from doing something else.
“Twelve years,” I whispered, fucking shaking. “Twelve years and what? I turn off her life support, and she wakes up?”
“I would have taken care of that.”
I panned, seeing the first of anything at all in his eyes. It was fear, actual terror and staring straight at me. His jaw moved. “After you gave me the okay, I would have taken care of the rest.”
Meaning he would have ended her himself, finished the job with no chance at all for my mom to come out of her darkness. Who knew if she even could at this point? She’d been under so damn long, and that had to have done something.
“You were going to let me kill her,” I said, mortified as I stared at him. “You were going to let me kill my own mother.”
“No, son. No.” He put a hand on my shoulder, squeezing. “I told you. I would have—”
“But you left the decision up to me!” I forced his hand off me. I put mine to my chest. “I would have made the call. I would have killed my own mom and thought I was saving her by taking her out of that fucking darkness she’s been in for over half my life.”
More emotion, more fear in his eyes. His swallow was hard. “Knight—”
“I can’t believe Greer was right.”
“Greer? Greer who? Greer Michaelson? That little girl whose mother used to work for us? What does she have to do with anything—”
“Stop the car!” I cut him off when I rose my hand, the car still moving. “Stop the fucking car or I’m getting out in the middle of traffic.”
“Stop the car, Nigel. Damn you.” It screeched to a stop after my grandpa’s call, and upon me getting out, Grandfather opened his door as well.
I looked back, and I saw him standing by the sedan, starting to come after me along the side of the street. We’d stopped in the middle of city traffic, cars honking around us, but my attention was divided, on my phone. I was getting my legal shit together like Royal said. I needed to get my mom completely out of my grandpa’s fucking care.
“Knight!”
I turned back, and I saw his hand on his chest, no longer able to come after me. Nigel hurried to him, but Grandfather pushed him off him. “I’m fine, Nigel. Knight, come back. Please! You have to understand, son. I did what I thought was best for you!”
Well, his best wasn’t mine, his best put me in a category of a lot of shit I tried so fucking hard not to be. Greer was right about something else in the end. I’d failed my father…
But I’d failed my mom worse.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Greer
I sat on the kitchen counter at Mom and Ben’s house, peering on while Mom cooked dinner for Ben and me. We weren’t able to do any of our takeout nights recently due to both Ben and her being out of work, and though they did both get severance pay, it’d only last so long. Ben was currently out on interviews now for police work in other counties. Either way, we’d all probably have to move after term completed for me. My housing package throughout the rest of the year wouldn’t mean much if I couldn’t pay for school, and though I’d looked into scholarships and grants, those wouldn’t be divvied out until the next academic year. Knight and his bullshit had screwed both my family and me again, and not only had I let him do it, I’d been the reason why. He’d been mad at me, me and my meddling that probably hadn’t even been valid. He knew his mom’s situation far greater than I did, so what gall did I have to actually get involved? Not much, and a career in anything that currently involved a degree seemed to be pretty damn far out of reach these days.
Mom frowned at me from the skillet, and because I knew she didn’t like when I sat on the counter, I got off, lounging a hip against the kitchen counter instead to shuck corn. I tossed the husk in the trash. “This is a mess. You can’t fight this?”