Page 28 of Severed Heart
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll mind your business,” I snap in warning to the interloper just as the bartender, Brian, speaks up on my behalf.
“Don’t step in, man, that’s Carter’s son.”
Within the next second, I’m dragging my laughing dad out of the glass door by his jacket and dropping his upper half on the frozen sidewalk. Snow dots the air as Dad slowly rises to his feet, stumbling a little before gaining his footing. His liquor-glazed eyes slowly lock and focus on me as he speaks through a smirk.
“So, tonight’s the night, huh? You want to fight your old man, Son?”
Rage overtakes reason, and I step up, throwing a right that connects with his jaw, putting everything I have behind it. He absorbs the blow as I do. Feeling the gravity of what’s just transpired blooming in my chest, I’m completely aware of how wrong it is—of how different our relationship will be from this moment forward.
“Not bad for a punk seventeen-year-old,” he says with a sickening grin, smashing at the thin trail of blood lining his lips with his fingers. To our right, I see Dom’s already out of the van, leaning against it, arms crossed.
“You’re a disgrace—” I see the insult hit him, his armor somehow penetrable for the moment—“to your marriage, to the name you gave me, and to the uniform.”
It’s mom’s anguished face I see when I step forward, landing another punch on his jaw. A punch he purposely doesn’t react to, which surprises me.
“What, Dad?! No lessons to teach, no fucking tough love or lectures to bestow on being a man!?”
I pound my chest with a fist, hearing the crack in my voice, which echoes the fracture happening inside while willing the weakness out of me.
“You’re a good son, Tyler,” he says, seemingly sincere, his own voice shaking.
“Don’t. Don’t bother. You have no idea who the fuck I am. You haven’t fucking seen me in years. Fucking years!”
“I know exactly who you are,” he rasps, reticent and calm. “I’m staring at my reflection twenty years ago.”
“Carter? Is everything okay?” a voice calls from the door behind me, and I can’t bring myself to look back at the woman he’s been cheating on my mother with for God knows how long.
“Get rid of her,” I order as Dad holds up a palm.
“Go inside,” Dad tells her, “I’ll be in in a minute.”
“But—”
“Grace, go!” She retreats inside as his guilty eyes flick back to me.
“Oh, the irony of a fucking name,” I mock. “You’re going to need all theGraceyou can get because we’re fucking done, Dad. Do you hear me? We’re done with you as of this moment. You’ve destroyed our family, and you may be able to live with this, with what you’re doing to her, but I can’t. Tell Mom, or I will.”
“She knows, Son,” he says, his tone nothing but defeat.
“Bullshit.” I shake my head vehemently. “Why couldn’t you leave her? She knows everyone in this town. You’re humiliating her. You’re humiliatingme. Our family. You’re fucking disgusting.”
“You’re a good son,” he repeats softly. “Truly, Tyler, you are, but what’s happening between your mother and me is beyond your scope right now.”
“You’re going to pull this shit, really? Claim it’s grown folks’ business? You brought her into our fucking house!”
Dad has the sense to lower his eyes.
“I idolized you,” I tell him. “I ... and now, I’m ashamed. I’m ashamed to call you my father.” I step forward, chin lifted, doing everything in my power not to shed the tears shimmering in my eyes. “All you have left is the woman you destroyed your family with. Hope she’s worth it.”
“Your mother won’t leave me, Son.” His voice is now just above a whisper.
“I’ll make sure she does,” I hiss. “I’ll make goddamn sure she does. Tell her tonight.”
“You’re not hearing me, Regina knows.”
“She knows, huh? She knows that you fuck Grace in her bed? I’m willing to bet she doesn’t. You or me. Figure it out, fast,” I snap, stepping off the curb and nodding towards Dom, who opens his passenger door as I pull my keys.
“She won’t leave me because she won’t fucking touch me anymore!” Dad shouts at my retreating back.
