Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 54721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
“I want you to be happy.”
“Me too,” I say with a bitter laugh. “And to me, that’s saving my marriage. Yet you want me to give up and not fight?”
Max nods at Malik and Lucas. “I agree with these bozos. I think you’ve done everything you can. I don’t agree you should give up hope, but I think you should give up trying. Van knows how you feel. It’s on him now.”
Always the voice of reason. Lucas and Malik are the hotheads, but Max has always been so steady, you can’t help but take his opinions seriously.
I grab a pillow and put it on my lap, tugging at the tasseled fringes. “I’m going to ask all three of you the same question and I want you to be honest with me.”
“Shoot,” Lucas says, draping his arm over the back of the couch and angling more my way.
I address him first as he’s the most vocal about disliking my husband and he tried to beat the shit out of him on the ice tonight.
“Do you care about Arco’s biography? Does that change how you view Van or feel about him?” Lucas opens his mouth to answer, but I hold my hand out. “And don’t tell me you dislike or hate him, because I know damn well you don’t. He was your teammate and he’s your brother-in-law, and I’ve watched you two over the years and—”
“Fine,” Lucas says with a grimace. “Yes, I like Van. I’m pissed as hell at him though for even going where he went with you. He’s disappointed me. And to answer your question, no, that shit doesn’t bother me at all. Arco was a psychopath and anything he wrote in those journals that got turned into a book was probably done with the intent to manipulate perception. I mean, anyone who reads that shit can see he’s just glorifying things in an attempt to torture Van long after the asshole kicked the bucket.”
“You read the book?” I ask, completely incredulous. Lucas hates reading.
“Of course I did. I wanted to be able to defend him if someone said something to me about it.”
Tears prick at my eyes over how thoughtful that was.
“We all read it,” Max says, and my head turns his way. “Even Mom and Dad, and we all discussed it.”
My jaw drops. “Without me?”
“You had enough on your plate,” Malik says, drawing my attention. “All of us think it’s horseshit, by the way.”
“And have any of you actually said that to Van?”
Utter silence. They glance at one another, then at me with guilt-ridden expressions.
“Jesus,” I mutter, taking the pillow and slinging it hard and fast at Lucas. It catches him in the face and beer spews out of his bottle all over his shirt. “You couldn’t have taken five minutes of your time to reach out to your brother-in-law to tell him not to worry about it? That it came across as kooky? That you had his back?”
“We just assumed he would know that,” Malik says in defense of their inaction. “The stuff in that book about Van was so ludicrous, I honestly didn’t think it even required me saying I didn’t believe it.”
I throw my hands in the air. “And here we are… I’m on the brink of divorce, you jerks are trying to beat Van up and telling me you hate him, and not one of you tried to support him.”
More silence. They all look regretful, I’ll give them that.
“I have a question for you,” Malik says. “Why is this upsetting Van so much? I mean, I get there are horrible innuendos made and it’s awful having a serial killer as a father, people wondering if you got anything from him and all… but it’s no different from what he went through three years ago when he was outed as Arco’s son. There was an article and the press went nuts. All of his teammates stood by his side and no one believed the negative shit. So why now is this upsetting him to the point he wants to cut you loose? It makes no sense.”
I hadn’t wanted this to come up, but it has, and I can’t lie to my brothers. I also want them to not be disappointed in Van. I want them to understand that his feelings and emotions are legitimate and must be given credence, even if none of us like the way he’s handling things. “Van and I had been trying to get pregnant when the book came out.”
“I didn’t know that,” Lucas exclaims and looks to Max and Malik. “Did y’all know that?”
I don’t give them a chance to respond. “We didn’t tell anyone we were trying. Didn’t want the pressure of all you busybodies checking in all the time, asking if I was knocked up.” None of them have a rejoinder to that, so I continue. “But to answer your question why Van was so upset, he couldn’t see past his children having to live with this stigma. He didn’t want them to suffer the same embarrassment or bullying he had to endure. The book was a lot different than just being outed as the son of a serial killer. That book told lies about Van that he’d have to defend and he doesn’t mind taking that on for himself. But he didn’t want our kids to have to suffer so he changed his mind, doesn’t want to have kids and asked for a divorce.”