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Chapter Ten

Jayden

Ten years later

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“What do you want?”I asked, positioning the phone against my ear and shoulder as I plucked a nail from my tool belt and held it to the wall.

Bang! Bang!

“Damn it, Jay, do you have to do that right now? I'm trying to talk to you.”

“You called me while I'm at work, what the hell did you expect?” Slamming the nail into the wall, I pulled out another one and set the sharp edge against the sheet rock.

“Dick,” she huffed out, not even trying to say it under her breath. “I need to talk to you, and it would be a whole lot easier if you weren't cracking a hammer in my ear.”

Sighing, I dropped the hammer into my belt and climbed down off the ladder. “Fine, you have my attention for two minutes.”

“Two minutes, that's all I need.” My sister swallowed hard, and I could hear her breathing intensify as she cleared her throat.

“Get on with it, I don't have all day.” Rolling my hand, I knew she couldn't see it, but I did it anyway. “This house won't build itself.”

There was a long pause, silence filling the speaker except for the occasional raspy noise of air as Beth let out a breath. “Well? Spit it out already,” I said, slightly annoyed that she was taking forever to just get to the point of the phone call.

I had a schedule I needed to keep, and the longer I stood there with my hands in my ass, the further behind I got.

“Beth, come on, I need to get—”

“Dad's dead,” she spat out suddenly, her voice rumbling with hidden sadness.

“What?” I asked, not sure I heard her right. I had always thought about that day, when the world became a little less dickish.

It had been years since I had seen the asshole, years since I heard his voice or had to stare at his drunken face or smell his rotten whiskey breath. And still that didn't matter, I hated him just the same, because he was still out there, still living.

Beth had a soft spot in her heart for him, she always had. After I left to make a better life for myself, she was convinced that our father needed her. It didn't matter that she had a wonderful new family to care for her, she couldn't fully separate the cord that connected her to our father. Beth was always there for that man, and all he could do was take from her.