“Hey…so, I have to go to New London,” she said quietly.
“What? Why?” Panicked thoughts of something being wrong with Mandy or Leena hit me.
“It’s Dad. He...he died,” Jersey said, and I heard in her voice the same thing I heard whenever she spoke of our father. Loss and hurt mingled into a wound that would never completely go away, that would always be a scab easily picked to bleeding again.
“How?” I asked with a guttural growl that had nothing to do with sadness and everything to do with fear.
Silas’s face turned into a big worry line.
“He didn’t hurt anyone,” Jersey rushed out in an attempt to reassure me. She’d known my thoughts had gone right back to the day he’d been behind the wheel of the car that had killed Ana Perez, cost me my spleen, and almost ruined Jersey’s life.
“What did happen?” I asked.
“No big surprise. He drank himself to death. His parole officer found him when he didn’t check in.” The contempt in my sister’s voice matched my own feelings.
“Why do you need to go back? It isn’t like there’s going to be anyone crying at his graveside,” I said, watching as Silas’s eyes grew wider at the darkness in my tone.
“Someone has to make the arrangements. I’m the one listed as his next of kin,” she said quietly. Jersey was always quiet, but this had an extra layer of thoughtfulness to it.
I didn’t want her to have to go back to New London to deal with it. She’d escaped. Truck had found her, married her, and brought her into the light, away from the blackness our father had cast her in. Away from a town that blamed her for her teacher’s death when she wasn’t the one who’d been behind the wheel drunk.
“Truck and Nell are going with me. Mandy and Leena are thrilled to get to see us again in such a short span of time,” she told me.
The two women who’d taken Jersey and me in when we’d needed it most had become our family when we’d had none. They’d just come out in May for my graduation, but their trip had been hectic and short.
“I want to come.” I was surprised by how much I meant it—not for Dad, but to be there for Jersey. To have a chance to see Mandy and Leena again.
“You don’t have to come,” she answered automatically, protecting me as she’d always protected me.
“I want to come,” I said again, more forcefully. “Give me your flight details, and I’ll book a ticket.”
“We haven’t bought them yet. Truck is online right now. If you’re really sure you want to come, we’ll just get one for you too.”
“I can pay for it,” I told her. I had a job in the bioengineering department as part of a work-study program. Between that and my scholarship, I’d carefully saved up a teeny-tiny nest egg.
She sighed. “Violet, we got it. Truck and I can afford to buy you a ticket.”
I knew she could because she’d come a long way since our dark days of dingy hotels and mac and cheese. Truck’s Coast Guard job might not pay a fortune, but Jersey was doing extremely well off her comic books. There was even talk of making her superhero, Viola the Jewel, into a movie or a TV show. I still hated whenever she spent an extra nickel on me when she didn’t need to.
“Violet Banner, stop overthinking this,” she demanded.
“Fine. Just let me know when to show up,” I relented.
“I’ll have Truck send over all the flight information. Let us know if you want us to pick you up on our way to the airport.”
I laughed. “Jersey, you’d literally have to drive past the airport to come and get me. I can get there myself.”
She chuckled. “You’re right. I can’t help myself.”
“I know. And I love you for it,” I said.
We hung up, and I turned to Silas who’d grown more and more agitated while he’d listened to my half of the conversation. “I guess I’m going to Connecticut for a few days.”
His eyes grew wide. The only time I ever spoke about New London was when I mentioned Mandy or Leena. It wasn’t just painful memories of a dad who hadn’t loved us that held me back. It was also the memory of a dark-haired boy with a chip on his shoulder and eyes that glowed like amber lights. A boy who had never been mine, but who I’d wanted so badly I’d almost done the same thing my father had done. I’d almost cost us our lives.
“Why? What’s going on?” Silas asked when I didn’t offer it up on my own.
“Dad died,” I said with a careless shrug. “I don’t want Jersey to deal with it alone.”
