Page 136 of Family Bonds- Kelsey & Van

He opened it to look at the man who fathered him but wasn’t much of a father for most of his life.

“Moving up in the world,” his father said. “Fancy digs. But of course, it’s not like you bought it.”

“Why are you here?” he asked.

“I’d heard you moved a few months ago. You didn’t go back on the force. I figured you were too chicken shit to do it and was giving you space.”

He snorted. “I almost died,” he said. “You know that and you came to see me and all you did was spew shit in my face about Mom. You’re doing it now. If that is the only reason you came all this way, I’m not sure why you bothered.”

His father walked around the house. “I thought there had to be a reason you left. You couldn’t do anything else other than what you were so I did some digging and saw that Barry had died when you were recovering. I started to wonder if you got what should have gone to your mother all along.”

“Meaning if it went to Mom, when she died it would have gone to you?” he asked. He knew his father was greedy, but he hadn’t expected this.

“Yeah,” his father said. “I’m looking at this place. It’s got to be worth a few million. That means he had to be doing well enough to buy this place. I figured it’d be this tiny little cottage that your mother used to talk about coming to as a kid.”

“Mom talked about Amore Island?” he asked.

“She always made shit up about this place. That your grandfather was going to buy her a dream home here. All he did was try to control her with money he didn’t have.”

“Guess you were the one that got fooled,” he said. “Because he had it.”

“He didn’t back then,” his father said, letting out a snort.

“Why did you keep Mom from him?” he asked.

“Because he was poison,” his father said. “He always told her things that wouldn’t come true, letting her down time and again and making her miserable to be around. Your grandmother died after he’d filled her head with false statements that he’d pay anything to get her better. He never kept his word on anything. Not being there for your grandmother or your mother. I made sure Lauren remembered that.”

This was all news to him. “You can’t control that shit,” he said.

“Nope,” his father said. “You can’t. And it messed your mother up good. I got her away. She wanted to leave him. She hated him for lying to her.”

“Did you love her?” he asked, shaking his head.

“I did,” his father said. “Back then I wanted to protect her and the best way to do that was to get away. She had no problem leaving.”

“But she wanted to come back,” he said. “A few times. You wouldn’t have liked that, would you?”

The look on his father’s face said enough.

“You don’t understand shit,” his father said. “Your mother loved me. Shedependedon me. She had no problem with the life I gave her. And when your grandfather showed up after you were born, it only pissed me off. I told her he was playing with her again. He was going to make promises he couldn’t keep like he always did. She’d get hurt once again and maybe I wouldn’t be there for her.”

Mind games like always.

“So you lied to her?” he asked. “Just like she asked you to let her father know she was dying and to come to the funeral, but you didn’t. Why? Why would you deny her that last request if you say you loved her?”

Which he doubted since his father was having an affair.

“The old man did nothing for your mother for years. Gave her nothing but grief. And when we realized that he was actually turning it around and had money, he’d come to her to help.Her. Nothing for me. Said that he’d make sure everything was only left to her and that there’d be no way I’d touch any of it.”

“So control that he had and you wouldn’t like that?” he asked.

“No one should keep things like that between a husband and a wife. We were married and what was mine was hers and it should be the other way too. I supported her for years and there was no reason I shouldn’t get what was hers.”

Van shook his head. “You denied two people a chance to say goodbye to each other over money and greed?” he asked. “I don’t understand why she wouldn’t ask me to get in touch with my grandfather and not you.”

His father snorted. “I told her I didn’t want Barry there. She knew that. She said she’d ask you and I changed my mind and said I’d do it.”

“You lied to her again?!” he shouted. “You were cheating on her and you lied even more when she was dying. You couldn’t even give her any kind of peace before she went?”

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