No response.
“Damon Alexander Campbell, I asked you a question.And I deserve a response.Don’t be rude, please.”It wasn’t very often I had to bust out mymomvoice, but when I did, and when I tossed in their middle name, my kids knew I wasn’t messing around.
He glanced at me—well, more likeglaredat me.“Nothing.”
“Nothing, what?Nothing happened?Or nothing you want to talk about?”
“Nothing happened,” he gritted out, his eyes drifting back to his phone.
Growling, I stomped out of the kitchen—well, stomped was a bit generous, because the skin of my thighs hurt with every move I made—and I snatched his phone out of his hands and glowered down at him.“Now, I understand that you’re a moody, hormonal teenager, and for the most part, I allow you a wide berth when it comes to your moods.But you’re being disrespectful and rude.Did something happen at school to cause this shift in your mood, or do I need to call the principal?”
“It’s nothing.Just let it go.”He reached for his phone again, but I held it out of his grasp and shook my head.
“A phone is a privilege, not a right.And right now, I’m revoking that privilege.What.Happened?”
He rolled his eyes.“Brad Vasser said our family was in a cult.”He stared at my knees, not at my face.
I sucked in a sharp breath.
Finally, he glanced up at me.“Is that true?”
“Where does Brad Vasser get his information?”I asked evenly.
“He said it’s on the news.Because after what happened to Aunt Raina and Marco.When her husband’s brother and her brothers kidnapped Marco.Apparently, it was to take him back to their cult.A cult thatwewere part of.Is that true?Were we in some fucked up cult?”
“Language,” I warned quietly.
“Well, were we?Younevertalk about Dad.And I know he’s not dead.”
“How do you know?”
“I just …”
“How.Do.You.Know, Damon?”
“I Googled him, okay?He’s in prison for like … child porn or something.”He brought his voice down a fair bit for that last part so Laurel couldn’t hear.“Is that true?Because if the kids at school find out about that …” He shook his head, a look of betrayal in his blue-gray eyes—his father’s eyes—gutted me.“I want the truth, Mom.All of it.”
“I want it too,” Laurel piped up from the kitchen.“Just because I’m eleven doesn’t mean I don’t have the right to know.”
“Show me the article.”I tried so hard to keep my tone even and my true emotions from showing on my face.If they knew how I really felt right now, that I was in emotional turmoil and desperately needing to scream, things would only go from bad to worse.It was all I could do to keep my hands from shaking as I handed Damon back his phone and he brought up the article from eleven years ago.I tucked my hands under my thighs and pulled in deep, fortifying breaths through my nose.
“That’s Dad, right?Cyrus Wells?”
My stomach wrapped around my heart, squeezed, and somehow got lodged in my throat as I stared at the mugshot of my former husband.A pedophile, a rapist, and an abuser.For too long, this man’s face haunted my dreams—day and night.And now, I’d have to take a bunch of melatonin again tonight just to sleep.
“Did he do the things the article says he did?”Damon asked in panic.“Isthatman our father?”He glanced into the kitchen where Laurel stood, flipping the grilled cheese, but eager to join us.
Swallowing past the spiky lump at the back of my tongue, I nodded.“Yes.He did those things.”
“And we were part of a cult that … that allowed this to happen?”he probed.
My bottom lip trembled.“We were.An extreme,extremefaction of Christian Fundamentalists.”I turned to him and took his hand.“I never knewthiskind of thing was happening though.You have to believe me.And as soon as I found out—as soon as Danica found out—we ran.We took you and we left.”I looked over at Laurel.“You weren’t even born yet.I was seven months pregnant with you.Danica didn’t even know she was pregnant with Sam, but we … we couldn’t—” A sob caught in my throat.“I was already planning my way out, but this just galvanized it.Expedited it.Aunt Dolores had a plan in place for all of us to get out when we were ready.So I contacted her, and … then I turned in your father, his brother, and Danica’s husband to the police.Then we ran.”
“Is that why we have a different last name from him?”Damon asked, his voice a choked whisper.
I nodded.“Yes.To protect you.To protect all of us.Danica did the same.”
Laurel turned off the griddle and came over to sit with us, her thigh brushing the side of mine as she squeezed in tight beside me on the couch.“What did he do, Mom?”
