“No! No, she’s not. She’s fine. Come to the house.”
I dropped the phone into my lap and felt my head spin with gratitude. Mikey must have heard enough of my sister’s words to give the driver my mom’s address. When we pulled up to the small house on Reinhardt Street my family had lived in as long as I could remember, I felt a bitter kind of nostalgia. Despite being the site of my father’s brutality, it had been our home. Buying that little house was the one good thing my father did. I’d paid off the mortgage a little over a year ago, and knowing the only expenses my mom had on it now were taxes and utilities was a giant relief.
“Do you want me to go?” Mikey asked. I knew he didn’t really mean it, but he was trying to give me options.
“Get your ass inside.”
He grinned and hopped out of the car after throwing the driver a smiley thanks. We gathered our bags and made our way to the front porch. I knocked before opening the door and stepping inside. I stopped so abruptly, Mikey ran into the back of me and practically bounced off.
There sat my mom and both sisters, wearing pajamas and lounging on the sofa with a table full of sodas and snacks.
“Mom?”
I heard Mikey utter a curse word under his breath. As much as my fists wanted to clench, I forced myself not to jump to conclusions.
“What’s going on?”
Mom jumped up and came over to hug me. “Oh, thank goodness you’re here. I feel like you’ve been gone for ages.”
“I’ve been gone less than a week,” I said into her hair. It smelled clean. The coconut scent of her Suave shampoo was familiar, and it was hard not to sink into the same familiar role of dutiful son when I was surrounded by all the cues that put me right back in that mental place. “What’s going on? I thought you were in the hospital? In surgery?”
She pulled away and headed back to her spot on the sofa, waving a hand over her shoulder. “No, that was just a little white lie to get you home. But now that you’re here, you can help us come up with a plan. Kira has found—”
I didn’t let her continue. “Wait, what? You weren’t in an accident?” I stared at Sophie. “You… you lied and told me she was seriously hurt and in surgery, and she was really just… you…” I couldn’t even get more words out. The truth of the situation was horrifying.
Mikey shifted behind me, reminding me he was there. He knew the humiliating truth of the lengths my family would go to in order to manipulate me. Our fucked-up parental relationships had been one of the things the two of us had in common. It had been one of the things that had helped us bond so early on. If things were shitty at home, at least we had each other. And it had been a godsend.
Still was.
My face flooded with heat. “Holy shit.”
Mom held up her hand as if that would stop me from jumping to all the right conclusions. “Now see here, just wait a minute. We have some ideas. Kira found out about a lawyer who will only charge six thousand to—”
“No. No! I can’t believe you lied to me to get me here so… what? So you could get me to pay for this lawyer? After I said I was done getting Kira out of her messes?”
“That’s not fair,” Kira said with a pout.
And that’s when I completely lost my temper.
“Not fair? Not fair? You mean like having my sister show up high as a fucking kite in front of my crew and my client? Like having to leave in the middle of a job to save my other sister from getting her ass beat by her own fucking boyfriend? Like having to cover my mother’s bills when she can’t get her ass out of bed to make it to work on time?” I took a breath. “Like having to leave someone I care about while he’s going through some major shit just because my selfish fucking family can’t solve a single goddamned problem without my help?”
I felt Mikey’s comforting touch as he ran his hand over my back. It was enough to keep me from completely losing control, but it was a near thing.
My heart was breaking, suddenly and without warning. Here were three women who’d never been the least bit maternal toward me. They didn’t remember my birthday or ask me over for dinner. They didn’t tease me about when I was going to get married or ask to meet my special someone. In all these years of being “the man of the house,” I’d never once felt like I could ask them for their help. And I’d thought I hadn’t even needed it or wanted it. What utter bullshit.
Of course I’d needed love and support. We all did.
I’d spent so long pushing down my desire for support, for an empathetic ear, for someone to drop everything and run to me when I needed it, and I’d forgotten that I’d actually had it.
I turned to Mikey and grabbed him up in a tight hug. “Thank you for loving me,” I croaked into the side of his neck. “I don’t think I ever told you how much I needed you. And you were always there for me.”
“I love you,” he replied calmly and softly. “Always.”
I took a deep breath and squeezed my best friend one last time before letting him go. “Arrange for a car to pick us up, please.”
He was rock steady. “Where are we going?” he asked, even though he already knew the answer.
“Home,” I said firmly. “To Aster Valley.”
As he pulled out his phone to arrange for the car, I pulled mine out to arrange for one last bank transfer. After a few clicks, it was done.
I looked back up at my family. “I’ve transferred two thousand dollars into each of your accounts. Spend it however you want. Mom, Sophie, pool it together for the lawyer, or use it to help your own damned selves. I don’t care. I’m done.”
The noise the three of them made as I turned to leave the house was deafening. They followed us outside and made a scene.
Mom tried to guilt me. “Samson Aaron Rigby, get back in here and stop being so selfish!”
Sophia cried. “I’m sorry for lying, but we need your help!”
And Kira taunted me. “Oh, it’s like that, huh? You have so much fucking money you can throw it at us and bolt? Must be nice. Meanwhile, you’ve always treated this piece of shit better than us. Mikey and his rich family. You always wanted to be one of Coach Vining’s sons instead of Mama and Daddy’s boy! So go! Go be someone else’s brother!”
As if I’d ever want Mikey’s asshole of a father. I ignored them and reached for Mikey’s hand, relieved when I found it dry and steady. Unfortunately, he was used to my family’s theatrics. After we became friends, he’d offered for me to sneak into his family’s finished basement to sleep on the sofa if I ever needed it.
I’d only ever taken him up on it once, and my mother’s sudden crocodile tears reminded me of that night.
“This is all your father’s fault. I never should have given you a Biblical name. So much for ‘god-given strength.’ I should have known. Sin leads to consequences. Samson was too strong, too violent. Just like your father. He betrayed God, and then look what happened.”
The night my father had been arrested, my mother had spouted her convenient Bible bullshit. She hadn’t darkened the door of a single house of God in all the years of my memory, but she was the first to spout about the good book when she didn’t get her way. I remembered her accusing him of defiling their marriage bed, and then she’d turned the blame on me for not honoring my parents.