Page 114 of The Love of My Next Life
“Lennon Capri, you show some respect,” my dad commands, but I shake my head.
“No, you show some respect,” I say back. “I asked a question. I deserve an answer. Tell me why I’m being shipped off to Aunt Becca’s four weeks early!”
“Where were you last night?” he asks slowly.
I can tell from his tone that he already knows. I square my shoulders and grit my teeth.
“I was with Macon,” I tell him honestly.
My dad doesn’t flinch, but Andrea drops her head into her hands. I ignore her and keep my eyes on Dad.
“What were you doing with Macon?” my dad asks.
My eyes want to close. I want to look away in shame, but I don’t let myself. I don’t have anything to be ashamed of. I bite my tongue and stare back at him.
“Answer the question, Lennon.”
“You already know the answer,” I say through gritted teeth, and my dad flinches. It’s subtle, almost unnoticeable, but I saw it. My dad doesn’t flinch.
“He’s your brother, Lennon,” he says sternly, but I shake my head.
“He’s not,” I say. “He’s not my brother. He’s not.”
“He’s yourstepbrother, Lennon,” my dad argues, his voice rising. “I am married to his mother. That makes him yourstepbrother.”
“It’s not wrong,” I defend. “It can’t be.”
“And the fact that he’s nineteen and you’re seventeen?” he says. “That’s illegal.”
“Age of consent is—”
“Age of consent changes when one of the people is over eighteen, Lennon,” my dad spits. He’s agitated. He’s clenching and unclenching his fists. “What he did was statutory rape.”
Andrea and I both gasp.
“No,” I threaten. “Don’t you dare. You know that’s bullshit. You know it is.”
My dad closes his eyes, and his shoulders move on a slow exhale. He regrets what he just said. He won’t admit it, but he does. When he opens his eyes, though, all signs of remorse are gone.
“I’m being deployed in three days,” he says. “You’re going to Becca’s now.”
My jaw drops.
“You’re sending me to Becca’s because you don’t trust me here with Macon?” I laugh. “You’re uprooting me at the end of my senior year of high school because you’re worried I’m going to have sex? Do you even hear how stupi—”
“He is yourstepbrother,” my dad roars, and I freeze. I have only heard him yell once in my entire life, and never at me. He points a stern finger at me. “You need to stay away from him for now, Lennon, until you can act like an adult with an actual brain inside your head. He needs help, and you need space. You’re going to Becca’s. Your plane leaves in three hours. You’ll finish school remotely, and Andrea will ship the rest of your things in a few days.”
I open my mouth to argue, but he brings his fist down on the table. The bang is much louder than when I did it, and Andrea and me both jump.
“You’re leaving. That’s final.”
“You have to let me say goodbye,” I say, panic rising in my throat. My eyes start to sting with tears. “You can’t send me off without letting me say goodbye to him.”
“I can, and I will.”
“No,” I start to beg. “Dad, no. You have to at least let me say goodbye. You have to...”
I start walking backward toward the stairs.
