Unbroken (36 page)

I can’t even enjoy my strawberry cheesecake cake from Mom’s bakery without throwing up. And the fucked up part is, I’m not even sure if that’s because of me being nervous or because of Jelly Bean. Either way, this birthday is turning out to be the worst.

I probably wouldn’t even be worried if he would pick up his
phone
. Or if Henry hadn’t shown up two hours ago with Nomi on his arm. Or if I had any idea where Brody might be. This is unlike him to not answer my calls, or not tell me if he was taking a detour before coming to Mom and Daddy’s. I’m not possessive or paranoid.

But I know my boyfriend.

And this is not like him.

I’m trying to keep calm because stress isn’t good for me or for Jelly Bean. But pissed off Sabrina isn’t good for anybody.

I have half a mind to interrogate Henry, since he was the last person to see him. But I don’t want to jump to conclusions.

Maybe he headed home to shower and change first? He’s normally all greasy and sweaty after work, so that makes sense. Or maybe he stopped to get me a last minute birthday gift. I know he felt bad about only getting a tattoo and not getting me an “actual” gift, so perhaps that’s where he is?

Either way, I can’t enjoy my birthday party without my man on my arm.

“Sabrina, I’m sorry. I thought he was coming straight here. Do you want me to try calling him and see if he answers for me?”

I narrow my eyes at him at what he’s insinuating—that my boyfriend is ignoring me
purposely
on my birthday—but I nod anyway. What harm will it do for him to try and call Brody, to see where he is? At the very least, maybe it’ll give us more information.

“Yeah. Yeah. Have at it. And if he answers, let him know I’m going to kill him,” I say, folding my arms over my chest.

Bianca, who’s been watching from the doorway, comes over to wrap her arms around me. She hugs me tightly, and I bury my face in her hair. She’s always known how to comfort me when I need it, and this moment is no exception. I hold on to my sister as I wait for Henry to dial Brody’s number. He puts it on speaker phone, and the entire room goes silent as the phone rings.

I close my eyes and hold my breath, hoping for dear life that he answers this Goddamn phone call so I can yell at him. All I want is to yell at him for making me worry, and everything else can be figured out later.

But then it happens.

The call goes to voicemail, and Henry hangs up.

I shake my head, unable to stand by and wait any longer to find out where he is or what’s going on. Nothing about this feels right. I release myself from Bianca’s hold and grab the keys to the Honda off the hook near the door. I throw my hoodie on over my head and race out the door.

I hear pounding footsteps behind me, and I turn to stare them down.

“Don’t you
dare
try to stop me. You either get in the fucking car or leave me alone,” I yell at Bianca.

She makes the right choice. She gets in the car.

I just wish I knew where we were going.

…

THIS SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA when I thought about it a month ago. I had planned to do this on her birthday, but I didn’t want it to be some half-baked attempt at impressing her. She knows what my life was like, how much I struggled mentally, physically, and financially at the hands of my father.

What she doesn’t know, though, is that my mother had a will. And in that will, she implicitly states that her bridal set belongs to me.

I never got a chance to grab it from her room before I left here with the kids all those months ago, but I’m here now, ready to take what’s rightfully mine.

He can have the house. He can have her clothes. He can have the memories, good and bad and all that comes with them. But he can’t have those rings.

My mother told me that those rings belonged on the finger of the one girl who made my world turn. That girl is Sabrina, and I know it’s not much, but those rings are the most important possession I have, and I can’t wait to put that engagement ring on her finger. I know she’ll love it the moment she lays eyes on it, simply because it was Mom’s, and because she’ll know how much she means to me once I slide it onto her beautiful hand. All I have to do is get in there, get the rings, and get out.

I honestly don’t know what possessed me to bring Cason and Dalis along. But they’re in the backseat, ready to face the demons of this home with me. I’m not the only one who has valuable possessions in the house. Dalis has a locket, Cason has Granddad Greer’s pocket watch. And I have the rings. And after today, after we get what rightfully belongs to us, we can walk away from this place and never look back.

I look in the rearview mirror at my little sister, and she’s shaking in fear. Cason looks distant. And me…I’m shaking, but from another emotion entirely.

Rage.

The last time I was parked outside this house, my girl was inside, and that bastard hurt her. No one can put their hands on my girl, but worst of all, she’s been emotionally scarred ever since. Some days, I’ll watch her with Henry, or with her dad, and if they move their hands too quickly when she’s within arm’s reach, she’ll flinch.

The fucked up part is, she’s scared because of me.

And what’s even more fucked up than
that
is, I’m the only one who notices when that happens.

I hate that he put his hands on her, that she even had to breathe the same
air
as that asshole. He is a threat to her, merely because he knows about her now. He knows who she is and what she means to me. And he already hurt her once. There’s absolutely nothing stopping him from hurting her again.

“B, you’ve got steam coming out of your ears,” Cason says. “Are you sure you want to do this today? I mean…we’re already late for Bree’s party. You could just be making things worse on yourself.”

He’s right, but he’s also wrong. We’re late for Sabrina’s birthday party, and she’s going to be pissed. But once she realizes the reason I’m late, she’s going to be so happy, she forget all about my late arrival. Shit, I may even spit a couple movie quotes at her to make her swoon. That always seems to seal the deal with her.

“I’m sure. I want to get my shit, and be done with this. I want to be done with him. You clear on the instructions?” I ask, turning around to face both my siblings.

They nod in silent agreement.

The instructions are simple.

Get in.

Get your shit.

Get out.

Avoid his fists if possible.

I nod at both of them, and I leap out of the car, both of them trailing behind me.

TWENTY NINE

“YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!” DALIS YELLS.

I’m upstairs trying to grab anything of my mother’s and pack it in my bag so we can go, but whatever has her riled up is going to put a dent in our plans to wipe the slate clean with our piece of shit father. I got the rings the minute I made it inside. They’re in their velvet box, tucked into my pants pocket.

Dalis continues shouting, and I hear glass breaking, things pounding. I shake my head. This is precisely what I was trying to avoid. I didn’t want an altercation with him. Hell, I was trying to avoid seeing him at all costs.

“I hate you!” Dalis screams, and more glass breaks.

What the fuck is going on down there? I know that shit is bad if Dalis is yelling. She is the only one of us who is even remotely able to keep her cool. I can hear things crashing, and muffled voices as I bound down the stairs.

A million different scenarios race through my head in the few seconds it takes me to get from Mom’s room down to the living room.

“My mother gave me that necklace!” she screeches, tears streaming down her face. “You had no fucking right to take that away from me!”

I can see that my sister and my dad are mere inches away from each other. She’s screaming at the top of her lungs, her shoulders shaking with rage and fury. She looks as though she’s about to explode and she couldn’t care less who gets caught in the crossfire of her rage—even if it’s herself. I can see violent tremors shaking her from head to toe, and I can’t take it anymore. I forget everything and I race toward her.

“Dalis,” I say, pleading with her. “Dalis, please, walk away.”

She shakes her head frantically, like I don’t understand what she’s upset about.

“He took Mom’s necklace, Bubba! He took the necklace she gave me! It’s the only thing I had of hers and he sold it so he could buy fucking drugs!” She turns on him and glares. “Like he has any right to anything in this house!”

“This is my house, you ungrateful little bitch!” Dad roars.

I grab my sister by the arm trying to wrench her behind me, knowing full well what’s coming if she doesn’t back down. She’s relentless, though, never letting up as she struggles against me.

“No!” she yells. “This was
Mom’s
house! This is my house, and Brody’s and Cason’s. Your pathetic, alcoholic ass just won’t ever fucking leave!”

I know that she’s right, know that everything that she’s saying is true, but even so, I wish she hadn’t said any of it. I just want to shut her up, to drag her upstairs, to tell her that I’ll go to every pawn shop in town and find her necklace from Mom if she will just shut the fuck up.

I’m fucking drained, physically and emotionally. I don’t want to deal with any of this, but Dalis is not going to deal with Dad by herself. Over my dead fucking body.

The one mistake that I make happens when I blink. In the split second that I blink, my dad punches my sister in the face, sending her flying to the floor.

Oh, hell fucking no. This is not going down.

I pick her up, guiding her to where Cason is now standing on the stairs, his eyes wide with fear. She collapses in his arms in a fit of gut-wrenching sobs but she never stops shouting. She’s screeching at the top of her lungs, shouting obscenities I didn’t even know she had in her. It’s all a blur to me—I can’t understand what she is saying. Cason is holding on to her, trying to hold her back, but I can see that he’s struggling.

All that I can think about is that this douchebag put his hands on my little sister and I’m not going to stand for this bullshit. Dalis is the baby; she’s like my baby, and I am not going to let anyone hurt her. I’ll protect her at all costs, just like I had promised Mom before she died.

He put his hands on Dalis, and he put his hands on Sabrina. He hurt
my girls.
That doesn’t fly with me, and it never will.

“You don’t touch her!” I roar as I whip back around to face my father. “Don’t you ever fucking touch her!”

I stalk over to him, fists clenched as he laughs a sick, sadistic laugh. His eyes are filled with what can only be described as pure, unadulterated evil. They are fixed on me like a predator watching his prey, and I know what this is going to come down to, once and for all. It’s going to be me against him, and only one of us is going to come out of this shit alive.

“Cason,” I say, through gritted teeth, “get her out of here.”

I don’t know if he does it. Everything in the room disappears until it’s me and my father, ready to attack each other. This is the showdown I knew was coming ever since the day Mom passed away. I just wish it wasn’t about to happen on my girlfriend’s birthday. She’s going to be
pissed
when she sees my face all fucked up.