Chief spits blood out like it’s poison. Then he looks at me, and everything slows to a crawl. There’s nothing about his face that’s soft, not like when he used to hold me after nightmares, or when he’d pat my hair and call me baby girl. This is a hard man, looking at the wreckage of his own goddamn heart. “You think I wanted any of this for you?”
He’s talking to me now, not even pretending otherwise.
“You think I wanted you with someone like him? You were supposed to get out. Get away from all this. And you pick the one scumbag who could ruin you the fastest?”
Travis flinches.
“Dad, please.” I taste rain, salt, and fear.
My legs are trembling so badly I can barely stand.
Chief laughs, but it’s just a snap of air, no joy in it at all. “Don’t.” He turns on Travis again. “I trusted you. I let you into my family. I saved your fucking life.”
“I never wanted to hurt you.” Travis glances at me, like I’m the only thing holding him up. “I’d do anything to fix this. I appreciate everything you’ve ever done for me.”
Chief snorts, the noise savage. “You can start by getting the fuck off my property. Out of my sight. If you ever come near her again, I swear to God—”
I step in front of Travis, my arms out. “No. Absolutely not. You don’t get to just erase him. I love him. I want him. That’s my choice, not yours.”
He looks at me, and for the first time in my life, I see my father’s hands start to shake. “You want to go with him?” His voice is quiet, deadly. “Go.”
Wind blows the rain straight into my eyes. I blink, but I can’t clear my vision. “Daddy,” I rasp. “Please don’t make me choose, because I will choose him.”
I don’t even recognize my voice, cracked and small.
Chief flinches, and I can see the hurt wash over his face, like I have just taken his heart and ripped it into a thousand pieces. “If you leave now, Violet, don’t come back.”
The words land like a bullet.
Travis’s hand finds my arm, but he says nothing.
I look at my father and all I see is a man standing before me, daring me not to break his heart. “Please, Daddy.” My eyes burn. I can’t breathe, can’t move. If I blink, I’ll fall apart. “Don’t do this.”
Chief doesn’t flinch, doesn’t blink.
The tiniest twitch in his jaw, and then he’s done.
He turns and walks inside, the slam of the door rattling the windows.
I drop to the ground, knees in the mud, sobbing so hard I think my chest might actually cave in. Travis kneels beside me, wraps his arms around me, presses his forehead to mine. “I’m sorry,” he says. “God, I’m so fucking sorry.”
We stay like that for a long time.
Just two ruined pieces, trying to glue each other back together in the rain.
“OH, HONEY.”
I rush into my mother’s arms, crumbling into her. Behind me, Travis stands under the porch light, his face bloody, his eye swollen. She ushers us inside, not a single question asked. She wordlessly points Travis to the dining room, and he obeys, dropping into the nearest chair like the fight has scrubbed all the bones out of him.
“You stay right there. Violet, go get towels and the hydrogen peroxide from above the sink,” she says, and I move because I can’t not. My hands are trembling so badly that I have to press the towels to my chest, so I don’t drop them.
Travis is holding a tea towel to his face when I come back, spots of blood soaking through over his cheekbone. My mother, goddess among mortals, grabs his chin so gently I can’t help but smile. “You always did know how to get yourself into trouble, Travis.”
He huffs a tiny, grateful laugh. “Yeah, so I’ve heard.”
She dabs the wound, batting away his protests. Travis flinches as she pours hydrogen peroxide onto a washer and wipes it against his wounds. “Jesus.”
“Do you want an infection?” she says, not even smiling, but nothing about her is cruel.