Mack Daddy(62)

“We’ll get through it.”

“I need to be down in Virginia, making sure she’s not manipulating things or feeding him false information. Not to mention, I have to once again find a place to live.”

“We both need to work on getting our lives in order. You do what you need to for Jonah. That’s the priority. In the meantime, I’ll focus on moving out of Victor’s and finding a place of my own.”

“I hate the idea of you still living with him. It seriously drives me mad.”

“It’s been okay. We’ve been cordial. I really don’t see him much, since he’s mostly on a totally different floor. I’ll be out soon.”

“If I wasn’t leaving, I would be moving your shit into my house myself.”

“I’m a big girl. I can handle things.”

Those words would come back to haunt her.

I couldn’t shake the bad feeling that followed me all the way back to Virginia. Soon, I’d realize it was warranted.

It shouldn’t have surprised me that my father would be at the root of it all.





Two weeks later, I was moving into an apartment I’d rented in Alexandria just outside of D.C.

It was small and cold, but it would have to do, because I didn’t plan on buying a new house until the property in Massachusetts sold. Winter was tough for the housing market. Patience was going to be necessary until it picked up in the spring.

One of the hardest parts of leaving the Boston area was having to move away from Mrs. Migillicutty. She’d come to depend on me for certain things, and I’d come to depend on her sound advice. We made a pact to keep in touch over the phone, and I promised to visit her whenever I came back to see Frankie. But saying goodbye sucked. I would have lived in that house next to her forever if I could have.

Now, surrounded by boxes in my new place, I cracked open a bottle of beer and sat down for the first time in hours after a long day of moving.

Exhausted, the last thing I wanted was to hear a knock at the door.

When I opened it, my father was standing there, dressed in a three-piece suit, and holding a large envelope.

“What are you doing here?”

“That’s not exactly a warm welcome, son,” he said as he moved past me, barging his way into my apartment.

“Well, it’s been a long day. I can do without an interrogation. You should’ve called first.”

“I have something important to talk to you about, and it couldn’t wait.”

“Why can’t it wait?”

He took a seat. “You know I’m very fond of Torrie. She’s worked extremely hard for me, and I’ve never understood why you’ve chosen to abandon her and your son.”

“I don’t have to justify anything to you. I’m a better father to Jonah than you ever were to me. I’m present in his life, at least. In no way have I abandoned him. I don’t appreciate you walking in here and judging me in my own house.”

He looked around. “This is supposed to be a house?”

“It’s temporary.”

“Torrie told me about this other woman—Francesca O’Hara. It pains me to see the mother of your child so upset and feeling betrayed.”

“You don’t need to know anything about Frankie. It’s none of your concern.”

“Frankie?” He furrowed his brow. “Cute name. Anyway, I’m afraid Torrie and my grandson are my business. So, I do need to know about anything that destroys their happiness. When someone comes along and disrupts my family structure, hurts the people who are important to me, it does matter greatly to me.”

“Since when is your family important to you? You’re just getting involved in this to f*ck with me because you’re disappointed that you can’t control me anymore. And Frankie’s done nothing to hurt anyone. My relationship with Torrie wouldn’t have lasted. My happiness with someone else is none of anyone’s concern.”

“You think you really know this woman? You’ve turned your entire life upside down for someone you know nothing about.”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but I know everything there is to know about her. She’s a kind, beautiful human being and a phenomenal teacher. And I knew her years before any of you ever found out about her.”

“What if I told you that I have proof that you have no real clue whom you’ve been getting involved with all of this time?”

Anger was penetrating my bones. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I did a little research on her.”

That was code for a thorough investigation.

“You had no right to do that.”

I seriously wanted to injure my own father. His connections meant that he could get access to almost anyone’s most personal information very easily. I knew he was full of shit, though. There was absolutely nothing he could have dug up on Frankie that would have come as a surprise to me. But the very fact that he even tried to do that was disturbing, to say the least.

“You might want to take a look at this.” He handed me a manila envelope.

I snatched it and looked inside, finding a series of articles from a Philadelphia newspaper. The dates were all from the 1990s. One headline read: Freddie Higgins Charged in McCabe Murder.

“What the f*ck is this? What does it have to do with her?”