River's End (River's End Series, #1)(45)

“For, you know, support. She can’t help what her brother did, Dad.” Jack sighed as he glared at her. Ben’s interference was not good for her, and definitely not needed. He was only making a bad situation much worse.

“I know you think you know her, but she really doesn’t need you here. Now get to school.”

“I do know her, Dad. More than anyone else has bothered.”

Jack’s gaze grew weary, and something mean and unhappy overcame his face as he looked at her. Ben was only making it all worse.

“You have to let her stay here, Dad. She has nowhere else to go. She can’t go anywhere else. I mean, really, she needs…”

“Ben, stop,” she said, standing up quickly. “Do what your dad says.”

He looked wounded at her rebuff. Jack didn’t like Ben’s fierce reaction to defend her.

“Erin?” Ben started to say, but she cut him off.

“Don’t, Ben. I’ll handle this.”

Jack stepped in between them. “What exactly will you handle? What exactly is it you two spend your afternoons doing, Erin?”

She frowned. “Nothing.”

He went still. “What did you do with my son?”

She jerked back, completely grossed out. “Oh God! Nothing! I mean nothing like that.”

“Like what then, Erin? First Joey, now Ben? Is that it? If you so much as touched his hand I’ll…”

“Dad! Stop. She’s not like that.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Jack said as he started to approach her. She stepped back after seeing the rage directed toward her in Jack’s eyes. How easily he could think that of her.

“She can’t read.”

Jack stopped and his mouth opened. No one said a word. Ben came closer, his tone quieter now that the entire room was staring at him. Erin closed her eyes and dropped her head down toward the table. In her whole life, she’d never felt so humiliated or miserable.

She sat down, now that the entire fight was over.

Ben continued, “I’ve been helping her fill out job applications. She can’t do it alone. She can write down what needs to be written, if given enough time, but she can’t read it. That’s why she doesn’t have a job yet. That’s also why you can’t kick her out of here. Where would she go?”

She felt Jack looking at her. “Okay, Ben. Okay, we’ll take care of this. Get back to school now.”

“Promise me, Dad, you won’t let anything happen to her.”

“I promise, Ben. Now go.”

She refused to look up or acknowledge what was happening. She couldn’t bear to see the pity and disgust in all of the Rydells’ faces.

The silence lasted long after Ben shut the door. Dear, sweet, young Ben who seemed to worry about her even though she didn’t deserve it, and who thought staying there could somehow protect her from a world she could barely navigate through to survive.

“Is that true?” Jack spoke. His tone sounded less harsh than before.

She finally nodded as tears rimmed her eyelids. “Yes, it’s true.”

“You had Ben helping you?”

“Yes.”

“You had no right to ask him to keep that a secret. Don’t use my son, either of my sons, for anything ever again; do you hear me?”

She closed her eyes and nodded.

“Erin?” She didn’t look up and he finally said, “Look at me.”

She lifted her eyes to Jack’s. “What exactly is your situation? All of it. How? How can you not read? And how have you ever worked?”

“How? I don’t know. I just can’t do it. People tried to teach me, but I couldn’t do it. I knew I was stupid when I was pretty young. I learned how to compensate for it and hide it most of the time. Most people never guessed. You didn’t guess.”

Jack eyed her. “I didn’t say you were stupid. I realize it’s just a learning thing, not a matter of intelligence. I just… I mean it’s hard for me to get how you survived this long without being able to read.”

“Not well,” she said finally.

“What was Ben doing? Teaching you?”

“Oh no. I can’t do it, so there’s no point. He helped me read through the employment applications so I could fill them out.”

Jack’s eyebrows rose. “And how did you work in the past? Have you ever worked in the past? What do you do if you can’t read?”

She shrugged. “I’ve always worked. I waitressed. I worked fast food. I cleaned offices and houses and stores. I’ve done a lot of different jobs.”

“How do you take orders?”

“I remember them?”

“You remember them?”

“Sure.”

“Who helped you before? Before Ben?”

“My mom. It’s part of why I lived with her. She could read pretty well.”

“The mom who died, and was indirectly responsible for bringing you here?”

“Yes.”

“How did she die?”

Erin looked up and stared at Jack, then at Shane and finally, Ian. “She started my car in a closed garage and died of carbon monoxide poisoning.”

They looked away, since no one could hold her gaze. They didn’t know what to do or say to her now. She almost relished their obvious discomfort.