Page 113 of Let Me Love You (Excess All Areas 5)

Ben placed a hand on his brother’s back, rubbing small circles like he used to when Alex couldn’t sleep.

“Fuck this shit,” his dad said. “You don’t have to live with her.”

“You have a choice.” Ben calmly pulled out his phone. It beeped three times as he pressed three numbers. Nine. Nine. Nine. Then, he showed it to his dad. “It’s simple. You pack up your shit. You get the fuck out of this house. The locks will be changed in the next hour, so don’t come back. If I get a legal document from you in the next five days, stating that you sign this house over to Mum, I will send you a hundred thousand in cash to never contact any of us again.”

“The house is worth at least two hundred thousand.”

“And half of that is Mum’s. Do the fucking maths.”

“You can’t threaten me.”

Alex stood and folded his arms. “It’s not a threat. It’s a deal. You have a choice. Face the police or leave.”

Ben nodded. “Both options are better than the two of us doing to you what you did to Mum.”

“I don’t even remember…” Tears rimmed his dad’s eyes. It was strange watching the man who they’d all once feared wither into the pathetic man he’d become.

“Maybe that’s a problem you should address,” Alex said.

“I’m running out of time and patience, Dad,” Ben said, holding his thumb over the dial button.

“I need some of that cash, now, if I’m going to have to find somewhere to stay.”

Alex pulled out his wallet and tossed six fifties onto the bed. Ben placed his phone on the dresser, noticing two tissues covered in blood, likely used by his mum, and his fury roared again.

He took a deep breath and tossed all the notes he had on him onto the bed. “I’ll wait outside. Sixty minutes.”

Alex followed him outside. “You were right,” he said. “It would have felt better to kick his arse, but only for a moment. Him leaving is better.”

“We need to do better than him, Alex. Better than him as sons and husbands and brothers. Like, look around this neighbourhood. Everyone trying their best with what they have. Single mums working two jobs because men fucked off at the first sign of responsibility. Chaya and I want to break the chain of broken families.”

Alex gently shoulder-checked him. “Zoe and I feel the same.”

“Promise me we’ll always be close. You and me. I figure if you and I are okay. And Zoe and Chaya are okay. And the four of us are an extended unit, we can do it. It seems possible.”

“It’s Dad’s loss that he’ll never get to see how we pull that off. And I promise. We’ve come this far, Ben, as kids, and through the storm of finally making it with the band. Maybe we need to remember to pause and just be brothers and family men when we aren’t on the road.”

An hour later, their father stepped out onto the street with two suitcases and two black bin bags. He glanced up at the house, then at the two of them leaning against Ben’s car.

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but then put his belongings into the boot of his car and drove off.

“Let’s go back and tell Mum she can move back home.”

Four days later, Chaya and Ben stood in front of her parents’ house. After a harrowing day with his emotional mum, and a night spent holding Ben close as he dealt with his father’s leaving, her thoughts had all crashed together. What Rachel had told her about forgiveness. Watching Ben’s mum return home to rebuild her life.

And she’d realised she didn’t want to start the rest of her life without one last conversation with her parents.

Ben tugged down the shirt-sleeves he’d worn to cover up the majority of his tattoos. It felt like a death march, of sorts. But she knew she had to do it.

“You okay, babe?” he asked, placing his hand at the bottom of her spine.

She blew out a breath. “Ask me in an hour.” She stepped up to the front door and rang the bell. All her senses felt heightened. The sound of a bee, the scent of summer in the air, and the vibration as traffic rumbled by. Nerves, anxiety, low-grade confidence, and a fierce determination to resolve this for everyone flooded her.

A cocktail that gave her the sweats.

“We’ll get through this together. And do it as many times as you need to, yeah?”

Chaya nodded, leaning into him before stepping away when the door pulled open.

---