“Let me know when you’re stopping by and… I’ll make sure to disappear for a few hours.”
“Thank you,” Zoey said.
“It really is the least I can do.”
She took a deep, measured breath and stood up. I wanted to stand up too but my legs were weak, and I felt as though I’d just crumble back down if I tried. She walked to the door behind me and just before she left, she turned back to glance at me.
I tried to smile, but my face wouldn’t co-operate, so I nodded at her instead. “I never thought this would be how things ended between us,” she said, so softly that I almost missed her words.
“Me neither,” I replied.
“I never thought there would be an end to us,” Zoey said.
Then before I could respond, she had left and I was sitting alone in the room, wondering what on earth I was going to do with the rest of my life. Not that I would have much of a choice if I ended up behind bars for a good long while. I looked around, wondering why the police officer who had escorted me here seemed to be MIA. I was about to get up when the door opened again, and someone else entered.
I felt my heart thud unevenly as my father walked into the room and sat down in front of me. He fastened his cold eyes on me and stared with the judgment that had made it impossible for me to find any common ground with him growing up.
“Hello, dad,” I said, reminding myself that I was the one who had screwed up here.
He just shook his head at me.
“Thank you,” I said. “For posting bail… Zoey told me—”
“I have to be honest; I did it more for Zoey than I did for you.”
“Understandable,” I nodded. “But I’m grateful all the same. I know it’s a lot of money and I will pay you back.”
“With what?” dad asked gruffly. “With drug money?”
“This was going to be my last run.”
“Forgive me if I don’t believe that,” dad said firmly. “You had just finished your community service… did you even really get yourself a job?”
“Of course,” I said. “That wasn’t a lie. I have a real job… thought I don’t know if I will after tonight. I know this is hard to believe, but I really was trying to get my life in order.”
“Except for the part where you were still dealing drugs.”
“I got this job only recently,” I explained, all the while knowing there was no point. “Until then it was hard to get anyone to give me a job—”
“Shocking.”
I ignored that and continued. “I tried cutting down as far as I could manage. I got a roommate… that’s the whole reason Zoey’s in my life, I searched for a job, and I still tried to push my art, which is how I got Gordon Chadwick to give me a shot and display my work in his next exhibition. It’s just that… I needed a little money to keep me afloat until everything came together.
“Dealing was the only way I could think of to do that since I hadn’t been able to find a job. But I met Zoey, and she is… everything that is good and pure and right with the world. I wanted to be better for her. I wanted to be the kind of man she deserved. So I vowed that once I’d gotten rid of the last of my supply, I was done with that life. I know you don’t have any reason to believe me, but I’m being honest when I say this was going to be the last time. Except that I got caught instead and now… here we are.”
Dad looked at me with an unreadable expression. “That’s what the officer who busted you said.”
“What did she say?” I asked.
“Apparently her contact had been some hoodlum named Barry?”
“Larry.”
“Yes, and he had mentioned to her that you were claiming to be going out of business.”
“I was.”
“So I suppose I have no choice but to believe that… you’re telling the truth.”