Page 96 of A Me and Him Thing
“And you decided to never tell me,” Ren states, sounding detached.
“When I knew she would never be whole again, I decided to spare you.” Jack looks as though he’s aged ten years while telling his sordid story.
Ren covers his eyes with his free hand, his elbow resting on the table. “I’ve put my life on hold for her. I’ve spared no expense to care for her.”
“I know you, son. Even if you had known, you still would’ve cared for her. That’s the kind of man you are. Nothing would’ve been different.”
“You’re probably right. But that should’ve been my decision.” Ren’s still holding onto my hand tightly, gleaning strength. He exhales deeply. “Sorry, Dad. I know you had my best interests at heart.” Then he asks the one question that’s burning in everyone’s minds. “Did you take revenge into your own hands, Dad? Did you?”
Jack closes his eyes. “She doesn’t deserve peace.”
Susan blurts, “Wait. What are you talking about?”
“What did you do, Dad? Tell me,” Ren pleads.
Jack explains what happened this evening to Susan, bringing her up to speed. Her sobs are loud in the midnight hour.
Jack looks directly at me with that same hard stare I saw earlier. “Again, I didn’t mean to hurt you, Bree. Or to scare you. I struggle with my mood when I visit Allie, as you can imagine. But the conclusions you jumped to, they scaredme. I would be sent to prison for giving Allie meds illegally. If you told anyone, I knew they would make a hasty assessment as well. I needed to talk to you, to explain.”
“What’s the explanation, Dad? Tell us,” Ren prompts again.
Jack hangs his head, defeated. “Yes, I’m angry at Allie. Yes, I can hardly stand seeing her, knowing what she was about to do to my son. I’m not a man who hates. You know that about me. But I hate Allie more than I’ve ever hated anyone in my life.”
“And?” Ren says.
“Like I said, she doesn’t deserve peace. The thing is, she doesn’t deserve to suffer, either. No one does. I knew I had to bottle my hatred. The only way I could do that was by helping her, by taking away some of her suffering. I battled my hatred by showing love. It changed my heart, made me a better person.”
“How, Dad? How did you take away her suffering?”
“It’s not what you think. You know me. All of you.” Jack sounds like he’s been beaten to a pulp.
I feel guilty for assuming the worst.
“She’s sedated to the hilt,” Ren says. “Why is she so agitated? So restless? It has never made sense to me. I assumed it had to do with her brain damage. Why can’t she rest? Why can’t she sleep?”
“That’s something that has baffled me this entire time. The brain is still a scientific mystery. We may never know the answer to that question.”
Jack pulls a small bag out of his pocket, the same type of bag I saw him use to put white powder in Allison’s food. He opens it up and begins to scoop sugar-free sweetener into the bag.
“This makes her food taste better. I didn’t want to ramp her up on sugar. This sugar-free stuff does the job, makes the food edible. I feed it to her every night, knowing I’m doing something kind for someone who doesn’t deserve kindness. Somehow, it made me feel like a decent human being. She is, after all, the mother of my grandchildren, the woman who did make my son happy for a number of years. Something inside of her had changed, made her a bitter and angry woman. I didn’t want the same thing to happen to me. I wanted to prove to myself that I could show kindness in the face of betrayal. It’s not easy to do. Nothing worth doing ever is.”
There’s not a dry eye in the room as the truth is revealed.
Ren did a similar thing for me. He threw me a lifeline after I betrayed Quinn and Sawyer. He saw the good in me. He loved me. He helped me change.
“I’m sorry, Dad. I thought… I thought…”
Jack joins hands with Susan. “I know what you thought. I knew what Bree thought the moment she saw me. I have to say, it looked pretty darn incriminating. I would’ve thought the same thing. No hard feelings. I knew the explanation was going to be difficult. I know I didn’t have to tell the whole story to explain adding a little sweetener to Allie’s food. But the two of you deserve to move on with your lives. I figured knowing the truth about Allie would give you the freedom you both need. I want you to have a happy life, Ren. It’s all I’ve ever wanted for you. Seeing you happy will make me happy.”
Ren squeezes my hand. But I know him. He’s just as good as his father. Married is married, whether his wife had turned on him or not.
“I don’t understand. If you were just giving Allie some sweetener, why did you hide what you were doing?” Ren asks his father.
“Who said I was hiding it? Patty knew. Carol, her night nurse, knew. It was just some sweetener. Everyone thought it was a good idea.”
“But you never mentioned it to me?”
Jack splays his hands. “It wasn’t a big deal. It wasn’t a secret. It was just some sweetener to make Allie’s food taste better. That’s all. It never even occurred to me to mention it to you.”
