Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 126840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
It didn’t seem like that mattered.
Mom was openly weeping.
Li was pale, and she had tears in her eyes.
Andy’s face was red, and I could see he was torn between anger at another father somewhere down the line doing something so hideous to his wife and the mother of his child, not to mention his actual child, concern for me and the same for Core.
There it was.
Proof my family was the bomb.
And proof that understanding what made a person helped you understand that person, including the things they did.
Part of me wished I’d saved Core and I the wretchedness of the last week and a half and given him the chance to explain.
Part of me allowed myself the response I had after what I’d learned.
But all of me was beginning to realize I admired Core and his brothers for where they took their club.
You could wallow in the hurts done to you and use them as an excuse to live your life hurting other people. Or you could fight the cycle and find ways to do better.
It said a lot about them that they’d sunk so low, but they recognized how low they’d gotten and fought to find ways to do better.
Last, all of me was glad it was mostly over for him and me.
Once I told my girls, Core and I could just move on.
“It’d probably be good if you all kept your eyes peeled for Eleanor,” I advised. “She seriously got off on killing my joy. And I don’t think she’s done.”
At that, Mom was still weeping, but she also looked kinda ticked.
Liane looked very ticked.
And the red in Andy’s face had a different meaning.
“Just to make certain you know, the club cleaned up and essentially rebranded,” I continued. “Except a rebrand for them is something a whole lot deeper. I don’t want to get into their past now, but Beck, their president, let me read their bylaws. I guess it isn’t the done thing if you’re not a member, but he wanted me to see what the club was about so I’d give Core a shot. Because”—I couldn’t stop my lips curving—“Core loves me and he was as miserable without me as I was without him, and I guess he was that in such a way that Beck didn’t miss it.”
“He does love you,” Mom sniffled. “He didn’t hide that.” She swiped her nose with a tissue and held my gaze. “And I’m glad I raised a daughter who knows what’s important and takes the time to listen.”
“Why is he not here with you now?” Andy asked.
This question startled me because I hadn’t thought to bring him.
“I think he went through enough, sharing his truth with Hellen yesterday,” Mom said. “And if we were going to be terrible and judgy, he shouldn’t have to go through that.”
Andy’s eyes narrowed.
On me.
“Did you think we were going to be terrible and judgy?” he demanded.
“Well…no.”
“He needs to come around. Break this seal so it doesn’t get awkward,” Andy proclaimed.
“Yes,” Mom said fervently. “He needs to come around.”
I took a hard look at my mother.
She wanted him around for a different reason, in other words, to be all Mom Unit and give him the good parts of family.
I took another hard look at Andy.
The red was going out of his face, and he was taking a pull from his beer.
Okay.
Um…
That was a lot easier than I thought it would be, and I had an idea I knew why.
Archie.
On that thought, I finally took a sip of my wine, realizing I’d been tense about this, but I shouldn’t have.
Because that was what I had.
The good parts of family.
I came home that night with a suitcase full of clothes.
I was moving in, might as well start right away.
Core met me in the laundry room and took it from me but otherwise didn’t move out of my way.
“Go good?” he asked, and I could hear the tightness in his voice.
My family liked him.
And he liked my family.
“Mom wants you over for dinner Sunday.”
The relief he exposed was about a thousand times deeper than what I felt.
Yeah, he loved me.
And he liked my family.
He bent to give me a kiss.
Then he took my suitcase to the bedroom.
That Saturday, I opened my apartment door to my stepsister, Archie.
She was the coolest chick I knew.
She was also the most beautiful.
Andy’s first wife, Bryn, had been Black. I’d seen pictures of her, she was gorgeous. Mom also made sure she was a part of our lives, so a couple of said pictures were in frames in our house, and she encouraged Andy and Archie to talk about her.
Thus, from what I’d heard, Archie’s mom also seemed amazing, and although I loved Andy with my mom, I still was sorry Andy, Archie and Elijah lost her.
Elijah’s issue with his dad was that Mom was white. He took that as a rejection of their Blackness.