Chapter 99: He bailed us
1034words
I shook my own head and sat back. They were defending her again. There was probably nothing I could say to change their minds. Then I looked at my mom.
"Who is Melissa's father?"
She looked down at her hands and replied, "His name was Mack and he was very abusive. I ended up in the hospital right before I gave birth to Melissa... that's when I left him for good."
"What?!" Deja vu punched me in the gut! How do I seem to know nothing about my family?! Then a realization slapped me in the face. "Is that why you freaked out when I told you what Jason was doing to me?" This question was directed at my mom. "I cried to you on several occasions and you always told me to just stop making him angry and he wouldn't hurt me anymore. You knew about the bad stuff and still let me suffer.
"It wasn't until he almost killed me that you offered me a way out." My hands were shaking and I wanted to scream.
"I didn't know how to help you!" My mom nearly screamed as tears came to her eyes. "I couldn't help myself in that situation, so there was no way I could help you!"
"That's bullshit!" I screamed as I felt my body quack.
"Don't speak to your mother like that," Dad growled.
"Ha!" I guffawed. "I can't believe this shit! You knew first hand how horrible life with an abusive man was like and you let me live through that. Why? I need to know."
Mom stood up and went to the counter, keeping her back to us. There were so many emotions running through me and I couldn't stop glaring at her retreating back. She left me to that monster when she knew all along what it was like. How could she do that to me?"I prayed that it wasn't as bad as you were telling me," Mom whispered.
"You stopped coming around, lynn," Dad pointed out. "We thought things got better."
"They were only getting worse! He kept me from you guys! The only time I could see you was for this stupid fucking BBQ. Didn't you see how miserable I was? Didn't you see the bruises?!"
I felt Drake's hand grab mine beneath the table and I was grateful for his strength. I squeezed his hand hard and didn't let him go.
The room went silent and I wanted to scream. I needed my parents more than anything during the darkest part of my life and they weren't truly there for me. Sure, after my divorce they let me stay with them before I went to Florida, but even then, I felt like they weren't here for me. I showed my mom the journal Drake had just been reading and she still didn't believe it all. She kept telling me that it was all over now, but she didn't know that I'd live with this nightmare for months to come. Or, maybe she did and didn't know how to help me. Maybe she was suffering the same nightmares all these years later.
"Mom," I rasped, "there has to be something more. What aren't you two telling me? You knew what Jason did to me, yet you're sitting here like nothing happened. You let him into your home! You're letting your other daughter marry that monster. Aren't you afraid that he'll do the same thing to her?"
Mom turned and looked at Dad and I knew I had hit the right chord. They were still hiding something from me, I could feel it.
"We almost lost everything," Dad blurted out as he adjusted the collar of his shirt and cleared his throat. "Jason bailed us out."
"What do you mean?"
"We were in debt from helping you with lawyers and Melissa with her hospital bills and other debts. We took a second mortgage out on the house to pay for those things, but being that both retired, we had no way to pay it back. Jason helped us."
I felt sick. Actually, I think I might throw up.
"Why didn't you tell me?! I wouldn't have left for Florida when I did. I would have stayed and helped!"
"No," Mom started, "We couldn't ask you to do that. This was your shot to get away from here and live your own life. You were broken when you came back to live with us and when you met Luis and decided to move to Florida, you had such an excited light in your eyes. We hadn't seen that in years. It would have been too selfish of us to ask you to stay."
Maybe she was right, but I still would have done something. I might be angry with them now, but they're my parents. I wouldn't have let them lose everything.
"How much did he borrow you?"
They exchanged looks again and I knew it was bad. "Half a million," Dad replied as I inhaled a sharp breath.
"Jesus. That's a ton of money! Pay him back! Give him back the money and he can no longer have that hold over you!"
Dad shook his head. "We can't. It's already spent. We're paying him back when we can."
"And your father works down at the factory to pay him back as well. Every hour he works, he's paying Jason back," Mom added.
Unbelievable!! My dad was old and tired! He shouldn't be working and especially not in that factory. I knew how hard that work was and that was the last place my dad belonged.
"We're going to figure a way out of this. I don't want Jason to have any kind of hold over you two. I will end this. Jason always wants something..."
"Lynn," Drake rasped.
"No, I can't let Jason win."He growled as he leaned away from me. My parents stared over at me with worried expressions and it nearly broke me.
"I promise to figure something out. This is one fight Jason won't be winning."
