“This is all your fault!”
I blinked, stunned. Not just at seeing him, but at hearing his words directed at me, as if I had any control over any of the situation.
“Um, what?” I asked.
“Your fault!” he repeated. “This is your fault.”
“How do you figure?” Zach asked. “We were gone for the weekend. We had no control over what happened.”
“This started way before this weekend!” my father roared. “It was her fault her mother died. Her fault I had to get remarried. Her fault that I had a whacked-out kid. And now my second wife is practically dead, too!”
My mouth all but fell open in surprise. “It’s my fault that you knocked someone up? I’m sorry, correct me if I’m wrong, but I have no control over your penis! His penis?” I pointed at Zach. “I don’t even technically have control of that, and we’re dating. You’re my father. I have zero control over yours. Plus, that’s just fucking gross.”
“He’s on pain meds,” Cheyenne whispered to Zach loud enough that I could hear. “I don’t think he means some of the stuff that he’s saying.”
“Oh, he means it,” my father confirmed. “He can also hear everything. He knows what he’s saying.”
“Well, if you know what you’re saying, then why the hell have you been treating your own daughter like shit?”
That was not Zach.
That was Danny.
Danny and his wife, who were most certainly no longer on their honeymoon.
I hadn’t called them. I’d called my big sister, yes. Danny, no.
I didn’t want to disturb their honeymoon. Not with this. Not when none of us would really lose sleep over Melody.
And for the time being, Rockett was safe in jail where nobody could hurt her. She was also, sadly, not getting out anytime soon.
Danny being home wouldn’t change that.
But apparently big sister had called Danny anyway.
“You know.”
Danny’s jaw tensed and I realized that he did, in fact, know whatever our father was referring to.
I frowned.
“What’s going on?” I asked, having a feeling I wasn’t going to like where this was going.
“Let’s have your brother tell you,” my father snapped.
I woodenly looked at my brother to see Belinda and Nora flanking him, Belinda hanging onto his hand looking scared, and Nora looking down at her feet, her face ghostly white.
“It’s time for one of you to tell me what in the hell is going on,” I said stiffly. “I’ve lived this lie long enough.”
Danny’s eye twitched.
“Your father had an affair,” Murphy said from behind them, startling me. “And got some other woman pregnant. Melody’s sister. That’s how Melody and him met. Your mother, when she found out about the baby—you—she made it a condition to her staying. Your father could come back home, but only if he found out a way to get to keep you. He did, Melody helped him, and together they found a way for you to come home when you were born. Your mother raised you as her own, but she was never the same after that. She hated your father. And your father hated you because you’re the reason that—his words not any of ours—his wife hated him. When she passed away, he had no other reason to be nice to you any longer.”
I looked between my three family members, my stomach sinking to my knees.
“And none of you thought to tell me?” I asked, voice broken.
Danny’s face fell, but it was Nora who said, “We didn’t think that it should matter. You’re our sister. Half or not. You’re our sister.”
Her words sounded genuine, but all these years they hadn’t had to suffer through the shit that I had.
“We didn’t realize that it was that bad,” Danny promised. “We just…”
“Didn’t notice when your sister was treated like a piece of trash while the rest of you were treated like gold,” I finished for him. “You didn’t think it was odd how you got every single thing you ever wanted? How you were given every chance to succeed? While I, on the other hand, had to do everything in my power just to climb up the rungs of a ladder that would lead me out of hell?”
Zach’s hand found my hip, and I’d had enough.
I looked at Cheyenne. “That little girl that we were talking about? Can you let us go see her? Or at least point us to the waiting room?”
Cheyenne’s eyes were soft as she nodded. “I can.”
“Thank you,” I murmured, turning into Zach’s chest.
Zach hadn’t said anything, and he didn’t need to.
I knew that he was there.
I knew that he would always be there, even when my own family wasn’t.
I turned into him a little bit farther, and he wrapped me up so tight that his large arms wrapped around my head, blocking out not only the people that made me feel unwelcome, but all of the light as well.
I loved this man.
I seriously, one hundred percent, loved the man.
There was no denying that now.
There was more murmuring and talking, and then I heard Cheyenne’s voice say, “She’s still in surgery. I can show you to the waiting room where a doctor can update you, though, if you’ll follow me?”
Then we were moving, and I was walking with my head half shoved into Zach’s chest.
Two hours later, we were hit with the bad news.
It did not look good for Zakelina.
Not only did it not look good for her, but she also had no family around to help her fight.
She was all alone in this world.
“We have to stay,” I said. “Ask the nurse or doctor if we can stay.”
Zach did just that, but was told that unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen for tonight. She was just in too critical a condition.
“Shit,” I grumbled. “Shit, shit, shit.”
Zach and I walked outside a couple of hours later.
“We should go check on everyone,” I suggested. “Make sure that there aren’t any concussions. Then talk to them all about what we’re going to do about Zakelina.”
His head turned toward me. “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” I said. “That she’s going to come home with us. We just need to make sure that it happens.”
“I can help.”
I yelped and turned to find Rue and Cleo standing beside Zach’s bike.
“Not that I’m not glad to see you,” I said to Zach’s parents. “But, um, what are you doing here?”
Cleo opened his back door, pulled out a pet carrier, and all but tossed it at me. “You left this behind… and it already howls. Ask me how I know.”
What did I do next?
I started to cry.
I was such a loser.
CHAPTER 21
Crockett: you better watch out. I’m a lioness.
Zach: I think you mispronounced lyin’ ass.
-Text from Zach to Crockett
CROCKETT
“Can you watch Baby Bark for me?” I smiled at Zach.
Baby Bark, according to a friend of Lynn’s that was a veterinarian, was healthy, disease-free, and safe to bring inside with me. Within reason. She was, apparently, still a wild animal.