Page 7 of The Me I Left Behind

Her words stabbed Maggie’s heart. “Carol, you and your dad were really close. It’s bound to be confusing and hurtful.”

“But hestillhurt us. I love him. He’s my dad. But he does things.”

Anxiety bit into Maggie’s chest. “What do you mean?”

Carol sat up straighter. “I mean, he’s never hit me or Chloe. Hedidhit Jason once, that I know of, when you weren’t home. I don’t know if Jason ever told you. He smarted back about something, and Dad punched him in the mouth.”

Maggie gasped. “Oh, no.”

“Busted his lip.”

Her mind raced. “When?”

“Last summer. Jason told you he got hit in the mouth with a baseball at practice.”

She remembered that day. He’d not let her look at his mouth and waved her off. She’d thought it was one of those boy things, like no hugging in public. She’d had no clue Max had hit him.

“Oh, poor Jason,” she whispered, looking away. Settling back into her seat, she watched the stars again. “But he’s never hit you or Chloe?”

“No, he just yells at us when you’re not there. Mostly, he yells at Chloe.”

No wonder Jason was so protective of his little sister. Again, her brain stumbled over scenarios when she’d not been home, but Max was. “I tried not to leave you alone with him very often.”

Carol nodded. “I know. But there were times he’d send you out for stuff.”

That was true.

“And he’d get mad so easy about crap. Like, when Chloe spilled her juice.”

“Did she?”

“Once.”

“And?”

“He started yelling and threw a towel at her and made her clean it up. He scared her so much she cried, and she spilled it again, and then he stood over her yelling. He said it was your fault that you hadn’t taught us not to spill or how to clean up, and all that. I tried to help.”

“What did he do?”

“Pushed me away and called me a stupid-ass cunt.”

“That fucking bastard.” Her gaze never faltered from Carol’s, and she saw the hurt in her eyes. Her heart ached for her. “I’m so sorry, honey. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“The same reason Jason didn’t. We were too scared to tell you.”

“Oh, sweetie….”

“If we told you, then you’d say something to him, and then it would get worse. He’d come after you and then probably us again. So, we learned not to tell you.”

Anxiety seized Maggie’s heart. “This kind of thing has happened more than once?”

Carol looked away and ducked back down under the blanket. “Mom, let’s not talk about it anymore. Not right now. Can we forget about it for the rest of the night? Please?”

Her child was shutting down. Her brave, bold young woman of almost eighteen years was suddenly reduced to an uncertain little girl. Just like Chloe.

They’d hashed this around too much tonight.

Shit. They were all going to need therapy. Weren’t they?