Page 29 of Protecting Tiffani

“He won’t because you didn’t do anything, I did.” Emilee sits in the seat Tiffani just left. She holds my hands, looking up at me with big, puppy dog eyes. “I’m sorry, Levi. I really am.”

“I know you are. It’s okay. I’m going to see if I can catch her before she gets too far.” I don’t even get to turn around before the voice of someone I haven’t seen since Dad’s funeral stops me.

“Actually, I need you to hold off on leaving for a little bit, son.”

“Uncle Sonny, what are you doing here?” Adam asks, clapping him on the back.

Mom rushes from her chair, throwing herself in the arms of her oldest son. “Oh, what a nice surprise. I thought you couldn’t come back for a couple more months.”

“Me too, Mom, but…” he looks toward Adam, who has a guilty look on his face, “Adam called me back in July, told me a story, and asked me to do a bit of digging.” He pulls out a manila envelope and hands it to Adam. “It’s not pretty. Maybe we should talk in private.”

“The hell you are. If something is going on, I’m not being left out,” Mom says.

“Me either, and Parker West, if you know what’s good for you, keep that mouth shut.” Emilee crosses her arms, giving Parker a death stare. He just holds up his hands and sits down beside her.

“Carly, can you take Junior outside to play, sweetie?” Adam says, holding up the envelope. I have a feeling she knows exactly what’s going on, and by the look she throws my way, I’m not going to like this at all. Once Carly closes the door behind her, I hit Adam with the question I’ve been holding back.

“You fucking told him, didn’t you?” My knees shake, forcing me to drop down in the chair across from Emilee.

“You're damn right, I did. But not just because of what you told me, little brother. It was actually something I noticed right after Dad died, and I started doing the books full time. Everyone sit down and let me explain.” Everyone follows his orders, and Emilee, reading me like she always does, grabs my hands to lend me her strength.

“Why didn’t you come to me when you found something that worried you?” Mom asks.

“Because I didn’t want to stress you out or make you worry. You were dealing with enough as it was, but we’ll get to that in a minute. First, Levi, it’s time you tell the truth about what happened four years ago.”

The anger I just felt toward Emilee is now boiling over. My ears get red hot, a clear sign I’m about to lose my shit. “Fuck you, Adam. I told you that in confidence. I’m not doing this again.” I slam my palms on the wooden table, making the dishes clink violently. Standing up, I lean over the table, bracing my weight on my hands, so I can be closer to his face. “I’m not putting that on our mom or our pregnant sister. How can you even ask me?” I yell at him.

He never moves, and his voice is much calmer than mine. “Because they have a right to know and besides if Uncle Sonny’s here that means there is so much more going on right now that we are all clueless to. I know you assume they’ll all think less of you, but that is far from the truth. Levi, you were a fucking child put into a situation most adults wouldn’t know how to handle. You have put this family first your whole life, and that’s what you did that night. You pushed aside your feelings for her and put us first. That makes you a fucking hero.”

“It makes me a fucking coward. I let someone force me away from her and you guys. I could have come into the house and spilled my guts. But then you know what would have happened, Adam? Dad would have put everything up for sale to make sure I stayed out of jail…”

“Jail! Levi Dane Hill, you have about two seconds to start talking, or I will whip your ass like I did when you were younger,” Mom exclaims.

The couple of bites of breakfast I ate earlier start churning in my stomach, trying to come back up. I don’t want to tell this story again. I’m so tired of that night controlling my life, ofhimhaving control over me. For almost five years now, that night has haunted me, followed me around like a dark cloud, one that only I could see. Telling Adam wasn’t easy, but it’s a walk in the park compared to telling Mom. Dad and Mom were so proud of me while I was serving. They were the parents who bought t-shirts that saidproud marine parents, and even had stickers on their vehicles. Even a fuckingMy son is a Marinesign in their damn yard. And now I have to take that pride and turn it into disgust because it was a coward’s way out of a situation I should have been smart enough to not get myself into in the first place. The look Mom is pinning me with tells me I don’t have a choice.

“Fine, you guys want the truth. Here it is…” I sit back down and never take my eyes off the plate of sausages in the middle of the table as I tell everyone the same fucked up story I told Adam. When I got to the part about the money Mr. Summers tried to get me to take that night, Mom squeaks and speaks up for the first time in ten minutes.

“Oh, son, you didn’t…”

“God, Mom. Of course I didn’t take the money. I would never do something like that.” I lean back in the chair like she slapped me across the face. “How could you think I would? Even if it was a million fucking dollars, I loved her, Mom, and she meant more to me than anything else. I wanted forever with her even back then.”

“I only asked, Levi, because right after you left, your dad and I got a letter from the bank telling us that the mortgage was paid in full.”

“I used the sign-on bonus I got from the Marines to pay the house off. I didn’t feel right taking that money because of everything. To me, that money felt just as dirty as the envelope of cash thrown in my lap by Tiffani’s dad. So I put it to good use.” I finally stop looking at the fucking food. Mom’s head is bowed, and her shoulders shake as she silently cries. This next part is going to fucking hurt Emilee, so I look at her.

“Sissy, please don’t…”

“You don’t have to say it. My breakdown the year before wiped them out financially. I know, Levi. I know Dad and Mom took a second mortgage out on the house to pay for everything.” She looks so fucking sad and guilty at the same time. My rage is starting to get out of control because no one at this table should be feeling any of this, and they wouldn’t be if someone had kept his damn mouth shut.

“I’m sorry, Sissy. This is exactly why I didn’t want to tell them, you asshole.” I spit out at Adam. “Are you fucking happy?”

“No, Levi, I’m not, because it wasn’t just Emilee that put our parents in a financially unstable position; Carly and I did too. And because of both of us, you didn’t think you could come to us. Now that everyone knows what happened that night, I can tell you what I found and why I called Uncle Sonny.”

“Make it quick, all I want to do is go find Tiffani.”

“After Dad passed, I was going through the bank statements one night, trying to get the books caught up, when I came across a debt to the business account. At first I thought Dad just forgot to put it in the books so I added it and thought nothing of it. Until it happened the next month and I knew that we hadn’t ordered anything or owed anyone money when it was taken out. I meant to call the bank and look into it more, but then work started picking up and, just like before, I fell behind on balancing the books. That is, until Levi came back and I had more time to do the accounting side of the business.

“In July I worked long hours after finishing for the day to get all the receipts, payments, and stuff in the books, when I saw the same withdrawal on the same day as the month before, but this time it was for two hundred dollars more. The app on my phone didn’t have a name for the transaction; it only said pre-approved transaction with a bunch of numbers. The next morning I took a trip to the bank and got a printed out log of everything going back a year. For almost a year before Dad died, he had been making payments to Sandra’s Sud’s.” Adam looks at me when he says the name of the company.

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