Still not myself. Just… too much on my mind. Chat later.
See you then. I added a heart emoji.
I waited for her to respond in kind but nothing came. Something was up with her, and my thoughts immediately went to the dark side. It was going to be a long day.
“The rehab facility upstate has an opening,” Mom was telling Kurtis when I returned sans the nurse. “I’ll take care of the rehab and your debt. After that, you’re on your own. I can’t keep helping you anymore.”
“What?” I couldn’t shake my rage if I tried.
“Lucas Allen, listen to me.” My mom’s features darkened. “This is between your father and me. You have no say in what I do. You have football, school, and Mazzie.”
I shoved a hand through my hair. “We should at least call the cops.”
Horror crossed Kurtis’s battered features. “Do not do that. It will only make things worse.”
I studied both of them like they’d drunk the crazy juice. “You know something, I do have a say. In fact, I have a lot to get off my chest.”
Mom was sitting in a chair near Kurtis’s bed, her hazel eyes narrowed. She opened her mouth to speak, but I held up my hand as I turned my attention to my father.
“Ever since I saw you carted off in handcuffs, I’ve hated you. You ruined Mom, me, our livelihood. I took care of the woman you married while I watched her go through hell. For that, forgiveness doesn’t come easy. Then you get out of prison, and one of the first things you do is gamble after you lied about being a changed man. You’re weak, Kurtis.”
I regarded my mom. “If you keep helping him, he isn’t going to learn his lesson. Hell, wasn’t prison supposed to reform him?”
My gaze darted back to Kurtis. “I refuse to let what you’ve done define me. One day, I will be a better father than you. I will treat my kid and my wife with the respect and love they deserve. As far as your debt, if my mother wants to pay it for you, I can’t stop her. But I will be the one delivering the money. Not you. Not my mother. And if you want back in my life, then you will go to rehab, you will not step foot in a casino again, and you will pay every cent of the three grand back to Mom. Are we understood?”
Kurtis stared at me through bloodshot eyes for a long moment as silence stretched between us, broken only by the steady beep of his heart monitor and the distant sounds of voices outside the room.
For a moment, I saw something flicker across his face. Maybe shame. Maybe defiance. I couldn’t tell which. Part of me wanted him to fight back, to give me a reason to walk out of there and never see him again. The other part, the one I’d been trying to kill for years, desperately wanted him to agree with me. To finally be the father I’d needed when I was barely a teenager, listening to my mom cry herself to sleep every night.
Awe crossed my mom’s face as she, too, waited for Kurtis’s answer.
“I would like nothing more than to be part of your life,” he said, tears leaking out of the sides of his eyes. “I promise that I can do all those things.”
The more I watched him, the harder it was to keep the hate I had for him. “I’m glad to hear you say that. But actions speak louder than words.”
His chin wobbled as if he was about to sob. “I am so sorry to both of you.”
My mom rose and gripped his hand. “Then show us you can change. I want to see you get better.”
Kurtis cried. “You turned out to be a good man, Lucas.”
Pity replaced anger. At least anger felt clean, simple, and like something I could channel into action, into walking away. But the remorse oozing off him made me keep my feet rooted at the bottom of the bed.
“You said Shane gave you a week. Give me his number, and I’ll take care of paying him.”
“Lucas,” my mom warned.
“Mother, this is not up for discussion. I know how to handle this.”
Her face hardened. “You’ve already been hurt once.”
“My phone is with my belongings,” Kurtis said. “The nurse put them on the table.” He flicked his head to his left.
I went over and fished his phone from the bag with his clothes in it.
“Passcode is 1420,” he said.
I found Shane’s number and took a picture of it with my phone. “Thanks. I need to go.”
