Thrown Down (Made in Jersey #2)(51)

“What did you say to him?”

Her father turned, looking wearier than she’d ever seen him. “Nothing he hasn’t heard before.”

“What does that mean?” River screamed the words through her teeth. “I’m tired of being treated like a child who can’t handle hearing truth, or making her own decisions. Answer me like a goddamn adult.”

When he only turned toward his car, muttering under his breath, River snatched the piece of paper he was holding out of his hand. It was familiar. She had the same document inside a file folder inside her bedroom closet, along with Marcy’s birth certificate and her high school diploma. But something was different about this deed…it didn’t have her name on it. Anywhere. Only her father’s name. “What is this? The old deed?” He didn’t answer. “Why do you have it out?”

“No reason,” he answered firmly, reaching out to take it back. But River jerked it away, discomfort settling on her shoulders. “Let’s go inside, River.”

“Yes.” Turning on a heel, she continued to scrutinize the deed. Same dates. Same handwriting. Same everything. The only thing different was the name. When River looked up again, she was halfway up the staircase to her bedroom. From below, her father called her name, but she ignored him, continuing to ascend and walking straight into her closet. A moment later, she had the deeds side by side, examining them with growing dread—dread she didn’t fully understand yet, but it dragged her down, down, underneath roaring waves. “Mine is a copy.”

Until her father released a sigh behind her, River hadn’t realized he’d followed. She stood, the deed held in a lifeless hand at her side.

“Mine is a copy. Is…did you ever actually transfer the deed?” She held the papers up to her face, paying close attention to the name section. “Or did you just white out your name, make a copy…and type mine in? This was never filed, was it?” As she remembered Vaughn’s white face as he stumbled toward the truck, River’s body started to shake. “What does Vaughn have to do with any of this?”

Her father rubbed his eyes with a thumb and index finger. Waiting silently for him to speak was difficult, but she was also semi-grateful for the reprieve. What was coming? Finally he spoke, his voice so low she could barely make out his words. “No matter how many times I told you he wasn’t up to your standards, you didn’t listen. You wouldn’t listen.” His throat worked. “The night he left, we met at the Third Shift. I told him I’d give you the house if he left. He couldn’t give you a damn thing, River. This house was all I had to guarantee you didn’t throw everything away.” The ensuing pause was deafening. “And although the stakes have changed, it still is.”

An agonized sound fell from River’s lips, pressure mounting behind her eyes. “Still is?” She wrapped her arms around her middle. “I don’t understand.”

“He doesn’t get to ride in like a white knight after four years, like nothing ever happened—”

“You happened. You.” Hysteria tickled her throat; her legs quivered with the need to give out. “You threatened to take the house back again, didn’t you? That’s why he left.”

Her father said nothing, confirming her fear and wrenching a pitiful sob from River’s throat. Where had he gone? Oh God, what if he vanished again before she could reach him? No…it couldn’t happen this way. Not after they’d gotten so close to having everything they’d ever dreamed of. Love. A family. No time limits.

“Didn’t you ever stop to think how much Vaughn must love me, if he would leave behind everything familiar in a heartbeat, just so I would have a home? Or how much he must love me if joining the Army and getting sent overseas was the only way he could manage to stay away? Did you?” She had to get out of there. Had to go find him. “I want that kind of love for my daughter some day. I’m sorry you’ve let pride turn your heart black. Get out of my way.”

River ran down the stairs, stopping in the kitchen long enough to assure herself Duke’s sisters could watch Marcy until she returned. Then she kissed her daughter on both cheeks and went after her man.





Chapter Twenty-Two


River sat on the motel room bed, wondering if she’d gone insane. Three hours had passed since Vaughn drove away from the curb in front of her house. After confirming he hadn’t returned to the motel, she’d checked the Third Shift, the factory construction site, Duke’s house…but he’d been nowhere. Vanished. Again.

Somehow, she continued to have faith. Faith that he wouldn’t leave her alone again after making so many vehement promises to the contrary. Most of all, there was a lit candle in her heart, refusing to go out. Maybe it had remained lit over his forty-nine month and three-day absence, too, nothing able to snuff it out. That certainty, that undying need to trust the man she loved, was what led River to renting a room at the motel. Not just any room, though. Their room. The room they’d met in so many times during their youth, making desperate love on the creaking mattress while traffic whooshed softly past in the background.

He would come. She knew he would. And she wouldn’t let him have doubts or worries or reservations about staying in Hook, staying with her and Marcy. If it took forever, she would let him know their fate had been sealed in the Hook High parking lot, and she would never, ever, meet a better man as long as she lived. Just thinking of how helpless he must have felt with her home—a home he’d just needed more time and support to make for them—hanging in the balance…it made her entire body throb with pain.