Sweet Liar (Candy #2)(18)

“When Jonah talked about you, he only said that you left. He didn’t say why.”

She seemed to shrink back at my words. “He didn’t know. Victor never hit me in front of him, and he never struck me anywhere the bruises would show. He was too smart for that, although he belittled me in front of Cooper. He degraded us both, every day, but Cooper was so young when it started. He didn’t know that wasn’t how a father should act, didn’t realize that wasn’t how a family should be. Victor would purposely do something to make me lose my temper, and then he’d tell me I was crazy for getting so upset. He was constantly trying to make me look like a bad mother in front of Cooper, like changing the times on the calendar for Cooper’s football games so that I missed them. Then he’d tell Cooper I didn’t care enough to go.”

Her eyes swam with tears. “I felt so helpless. I started finding things to do to keep me out of the house and away from him. But then he got angry because I was never home, and he ordered me not to leave. So I stayed in the house, and I started drinking too much. My anger would build over time and I’d lash out, call him names and throw things, threatening to leave him and take Cooper with me.”

Lorraine tightened her lips, her body stiff with emotion. “Victor hated the idea of losing his son. He thought Cooper was his property. The last time I threatened to walk out with Cooper, he got so angry. I really thought he was going to kill me. When he came after me, I ran into the kitchen and grabbed a knife to defend myself. Cooper came home from school that day using the back door in the kitchen, but I didn’t hear him. I was too terrified, and when Cooper came from behind me and tried to take the knife, I lunged at him. I didn’t realize . . .”

My eyes widened.

Wiping at her damp eyes with the back of her hand, she looked at me. “Did he tell you that was how he got the scar?”

I shook my head. “He doesn’t talk about it.”

Lorraine cried a little harder, taking time before she spoke again. “I left after that, once I knew Cooper was going to be okay. I hoped things might be better for him without me. I thought maybe I was the problem.” She pulled a tattered tissue from the pocket of her robe, and wiped at her eyes with it before giving me a pitiful shrug. “It was clear neither of them wanted me there anymore, and I couldn’t blame them. Not after what I did.”

I pictured the pink jagged line beside Jonah’s eye. She’d given him that scar, and I could see how heavy her guilt was over it. Her story was tragic, and it was Jonah’s tragedy too. One he didn’t share with anyone, and now I understood why. His own mother had done it.

“Does Victor know about you and my father?” I asked because I was fairly sure Jonah didn’t.

Lorraine hugged her arms around herself. “He suspects. That’s why he volunteered to investigate Sebastian. There had been rumors about your father for a long time, but no one really believed them. Victor took those rumors and ran. He made it personal because of me.”

Her gaze pinned mine as she said, “We tried to be careful. We knew Victor would look for me, so I couldn’t live too close to Sebastian. That’s why he rented this house for me. Since he came here so often to see you, it made sense to find a place nearby for me. That way he could check on both of us at the same time.”

My forehead wrinkled in confusion. “He never came here to see me.”

Lorraine released a breath. “Actually, he did. He’d come and watch you sometimes. He wanted to see you, but he didn’t want to bother you or intrude.”

“What?” I whispered, astonished. “I never saw him. Why didn’t he tell me he was here? He wouldn’t have been bothering me.”

“That’s what I told him. But he had his own ideas about things.”

I didn’t want to believe it, but it sounded too much like my father not to be true. I could feel my anger building. How could he do that, be so close and not tell me? Didn’t he realize how much I wanted to see him, how much I needed him?

“Don’t be too hard on him,” she said. “He only wanted what was best for you.”

I hated when adults said that. It was a lousy excuse for not seeing your own kid. I pressed my lips together, trying to hold my tongue because Lorraine had done the same thing. She stayed away from her son too, and I doubted Jonah would think it was best for him.

Lorraine stood up. “I’m going to have a cup of tea. Would you like one?”

“Tea?” It seemed like a ridiculously normal thing to do in light of all I’d just learned. No, I didn’t feel like tea.

I glanced at the time on my phone since I still wanted to see Theo. I was hoping to spend the night at his house, and didn’t want to get there too late.

Lorraine wasn’t what I was expecting when I arrived here, and I wondered why my father sent me. I’d learned more about Jonah and his family, but nothing else, nothing that could help my father.

“You should stay and have tea,” she said firmly. “We’re not quite done yet.”

I arched my brows at her.

“Come sit with me in the kitchen. I have something of your father’s he wanted me to give you.”

She turned and assumed I’d follow. I was too curious not to.

***





Once Lorraine had two cups of tea steeping, she left me alone in the kitchen as she disappeared down the hallway. I sat at her table restlessly, uninterested in my tea, glancing around and trying to picture my father here.