Jared looked over when the older man walked in the door. There was no doubt this was Shelby’s father, judging by the scowl on his face. He wasn’t sure what he expected the man to look like, but not this. Shelby said he was big, but not in his eyes.
He was maybe five foot eight. Sure he was barrel-chested, puffing it out even more. Broad shoulders and thick forearms, but no match for Jared’s six-foot-four-inch frame and build, not to mention age. He was looking at someone that took pleasure in throwing his weight around on his kids and wife. It was disgusting.
“You have no right to be here,” he told Shelby.
“I wanted to see if Mom was okay. I’ll leave now.”
“You’re damn right you will. You’re nothing but a whore that snuck out in the middle of the night to meet an older man. You’ve never had any respect for me or your mother and she doesn’t need you in her life.”
“Don’t say that, Bart,” Shelby’s mother said, trying to sit up, showing more courage than he expected. “She came to see me. She’s done nothing wrong.”
Jared was already holding himself back after Shelby’s father called her a whore, but the next words set him off more. “Shut your mouth, bitch,” he’d said to his wife. “She’s nothing to us and you know it.”
Jared had the older man up against the wall in a blink, his forearm against his throat. “I think you need an attitude adjustment. I’d be happy to give it to you. I don’t care where we are or who sees it. You’re nothing but a poor excuse of a man to talk to your wife and daughter that way.”
“Get the fuck off of me,” her father said, but he wasn’t struggling. He wouldn’t dare. It’d do no good.
“Not until I’ve said what I want.” Kayla was crying in the background, but he pushed it off. He’d deal with that later. He’d apologize for upsetting Kayla, but he wouldn’t apologize for this. “Shelby is going to have whatever communication with her mother she wants, if she wants it, and you aren’t going to stop it. And you aren’t going to lay a hand on your wife or the remaining kids in your house ever again. If you do, I’ll know it.”
“You can’t do a damn thing to me. A man has the right to discipline his wife and kids.”
Jared’s forearm tightened on Bart’s throat, lifting him a few feet. His face was turning red, but it didn’t stop him. “That’s abuse, not discipline. I’ll know. I’ve got a lot of reach and a lot of people in my life in high places. You’ll be sorry if you cross me, so don’t push it.”
“Jared. Stop,” Shelby said. “He’s not worth it. He’s not worth you getting in trouble over this.”
Jared stepped back and let the man down, who was gasping for breath. “You’re nothing but a piece of shit on the side of the road to me.” He turned to Alice, lying still on the bed, tears in her eyes, but not fear for her husband, more like hope. That maybe someone stood up for her too. “I want to know if he doesn’t do what I said. And I want you to know I’ll keep my word.”
He turned and held his hand out to Shelby, transferred Kayla to his arms and walked out with them, knowing he made a difference today. It wasn’t in the world, but it was in someone’s world and that was all that mattered. He was finally back to the way he wanted to be.
***
“What is wrong with you?” Shelby asked when they climbed into Jared’s SUV. She hadn’t felt that much fear in years. Not for her or her mother, but that Jared could get in trouble. That Jared might have done something to cost him everything he’d been trying to get back. “Are you crazy? He’s not worth it.”
“No,” he said, “he’s not worth it. Not at all. But you are. You’re worth everything in my life. My life isn’t much if something happened to you and I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit by and let it happen.”
She was speechless. She’d never seen him this angry before. Never realized he could get that way. Not just with her father but with her.
“Why are you mad at me?” she asked, feeling her eyes fill again.
“Because you’re so stubborn sometimes. You don’t want help from anyone. You got it once and you feel it’s enough and now no one is supposed to do anything for you. I can’t take you out to dinner because it’s a treat and you don’t want to spoil Kayla. You got annoyed over the Mother’s Day gift at first because it was too much in your eyes, yet you never take it off. I can’t offer to pay to get you here faster without you wanting to rip me apart. I finally work up the nerve to ask you to move in with me and you still have all the reasons not to before you finally agree. Why is that?”
The tears were rolling down her cheeks now. This wasn’t how she expected this trip to turn out. “I don’t want to be hurt again,” she all but yelled at him. “It’d hurt worse this time. I told you that. I’ve said it enough!”
“I’ve learned that we don’t always get what we want in life and when something doesn’t go our way we have to figure out the next step. You taught me that. Yet here you are having all the same fears. Don’t you see that?” He ran his hands through his hair. “I give in to you all the time. Always. I never argue with you, never fight. I’m not that person. I don’t want to be that person. I can yell at you and give you hell without you worrying I’m going to leave you. Without you worrying I’m going to hurt you.”
She hadn’t realized that about him before. That he was holding back for her. That he was giving in to her all the time. Here she thought he wasn’t fighting for things, when all along he was doing it for her.
She swallowed once and finally said, “Thank you. I don’t know what to say. I’ve never had anyone stick up for us like that before. Not just me, but my whole family. It’s overwhelming and I’m afraid to depend on it. Is that what you wanted to hear? Then if something happens to you and I’m alone again, I’m this weak woman who has to pick up all the broken pieces.”
“There are no guarantees in life and you know that. And if something happens to me, then you’ll be fine. You were once and you would again. You’re a survivor. You’re a fighter. You taught me how to fight again. How to survive again. I’ll keep my word, Shelby. I’ll keep it to you and your family too. I hope you know that.”
She knew. It was the way he was. Loyal and honorable. Maybe she’d be able to have some contact with her family, maybe not, but at least she knew she could try now. And it was because of him.
“Shhh, Kayla. It’s okay,” she said as she turned around. Kayla was still sobbing in the back. “You’re fine.”
“Jay,” Kayla wailed, reaching out for the seat in front.
“I think she’s more upset over you. Fearful maybe,” Shelby said. “I don’t normally raise my voice, and if I do, it’s when I’m mad. She thinks I’m mad at you.”
“And she’s trying to comfort me. She gets that from you. Don’t you see it? Both of you are alike. Both of you are so strong and brought that strength into my life. And I want to bring it back to you. Full circle, Shelby. Family feeds off of each other. Let’s be a family.”
He turned around before he started the car. “I’m fine, honey.” He reached his hand in the back and let Kayla hold it, her tears stopping almost immediately.
Shelby looked on and saw how close the two of them had become and knew she had to stop being so fearful of everything now. Jared was right. She’d be fine. She was fine.
“I want to go meet your brother,” he said suddenly.
She turned sharply. “Why?”
“I want to thank him. I want him to know he has a place in your life. That all your siblings do if they want it.”
“I don’t know that Billy will want to though.”
“Why?”
“He’s different. Quiet. I think he felt that a lot of his punishments were because of me.”
“I doubt it, Shelby. I’m betting if he’s half the man I think he is, he’s afraid you blame him for not being able to protect you.”
“I don’t know. He was just a kid,” she argued.
“He probably wasn’t as much of a kid as you think he was.”
Jared was probably right. “Let me call him quick and see if he can meet us tonight before we leave.”
“Let’s sleep tonight and leave in the morning.”
“Since my father is at the hospital, do you think we can go see my other siblings? I’m guessing they might be home.” And he’d be there with her if her father showed up. He’d protect them all.
“Why aren’t they there with your mother?”
“My father would keep them separated. A fear tactic. Billy said none of them know what’s going on. They’d stay in line right now hoping to find something out.”
“Give me the directions then.”
They pulled in front of the old beaten-down house she’d grown up in. The one she ran from years ago and got out. The first time she came back after she and Ethan eloped she’d had fear like rattlesnakes slithering around her bare feet and nowhere to turn. Nowhere to turn without getting bit. That dark hole she’d hid in in her mind so much as a kid had resurfaced; the week away hadn’t diminished it a bit back then.
She’d known her father wasn’t home, but it didn’t stop the dread of returning here with Ethan. Of facing her mother and seeing her siblings’ faces when she told them that she was leaving them. That maybe she was abandoning them too.
Was Jared right? Was that what Billy felt?
Now there was more fear. Would her siblings hate her? Could she handle it if they did? Only one way to find out.
She knocked on the door that she knew would be locked. Her sister Carolyn opened it up and smiled, then threw herself into her arms and hugged her tight. “You came back? I didn’t think you ever would.”
It broke her heart to hear those words. To know that maybe she was wrong to leave like she did. That maybe she should have stayed and tried to help the rest of them out. Not look to escape and think only of herself.
“I always knew I would someday. I always hoped we could get back together.”
“Dad’s not here. He’s at the hospital. Rodney is working though. Dolly, Gretchen, come out of the bedroom, it’s Shelby!”
Her younger sisters came rushing out, both of them launching themselves at her and hugging her tight. Everyone was crying, herself included.
“Are you back to stay?” Gretchen asked. She was too young to understand.
“No. I wanted to see Mom. We ran into Dad and it wasn’t pleasant, but I know he won’t be here for a bit.”
“What did Dad do?” Dolly asked. She was a teen now, but quiet and shy, it was obvious. These kids’ lived in a world of restriction, abuse, and deprivation, a world not fitting for any child.
“Nothing,” Jared said. “Just like he isn’t going to do anything to you guys for seeing Shelby. And if he does, you’re going to let your mother know and she’s going to let Shelby and me know.”
Dolly’s eyes went wide. “Are you Shelby’s husband? Are you the person she ran away to be with?”
“No,” Shelby said. She wasn’t surprised they didn’t know what happened. That her mother never said a word to anyone. “My husband died a few years ago. Jared is my boyfriend. This is my daughter, Kayla, though. You’ve got a niece.”
Kayla was still in Jared’s arms. He set her down and watched her walk over to Dolly. Not a shy bone in Kayla’s body.
They stayed a few hours, with Shelby promising to come back and get them for dinner once Rodney was out of work and the same with Billy. They were having a dinner together and there wasn’t a damn thing her father could do to stop it. She knew and she was taking advantage of it.
***
At seven o’clock, Jared pulled his SUV to a stop at a restaurant outside of town. Three rows in his SUV had come in handy. Shelby’s three sisters and her brother Rodney were in the back with Kayla with everyone talking a mile a minute. It was sad to think the younger ones had never been to a restaurant before. Never been out to eat. Only Rodney and Carolyn because they had jobs and money.
Billy was supposed to meet them there and he had to say this might be one of the happiest times he’d ever seen Shelby.
The house she grew up in disgusted him. He’d known they didn’t have much, but he wasn’t expecting to see what he did.
The house was clean for the most part, but it was old and falling down. Stains on the ceilings from leaks, cracks in the walls, one broken window. They’d never survive in the colder climate.
They were all seated in the restaurant now when another man walked in. Jared didn’t need Shelby jumping up and running toward Billy to know it was him; the resemblance to his father was there. Jared wondered if Billy looked in the mirror and thought of that and wished it weren’t so.
“How did you manage this?” Billy asked, reaching for his younger sisters and hugging them too.
They were strangers in some ways and not in others. The six of these siblings loved and cared for each other and didn’t feel any resentment toward Billy and Shelby for leaving.
“Jared threatened Dad,” Dolly said. She’d been the quietest, but now it seemed she was finding her voice. “He told Dad that he’d come after him if he laid a hand on us again. Or on Mom.”
“Dolly,” Shelby said. “Jared didn’t say that exactly. Don’t be putting words in anyone’s mouth.”
Jared smiled. “I want to know if your father lays one hand on any of you, then I’ll deal with it.”
He’d find a way to get them out, or get Bart behind bars. If he had to help Shelby move her siblings to Annapolis, he’d figure out a way to do that too. He was going to give her that family she wanted so desperately. Or give her the one she had back as best as he could.
When dinner was done, Billy pulled Shelby aside and had a few words with her, then they hugged and Jared took her siblings home, going back to the hotel afterward.
“What did Billy say to you?” he asked once Kayla was sleeping.
“He apologized. You were right. He said he wished he could have done more. That he felt like a failure to me and everyone else. He offered to have Carolyn move in with him, but she wanted to go with her friends once they worked out the details.”
“He’s a good guy.”
“They all are, surprisingly. Considering our life, you’d think we’d all be damaged or repeat the cycle. There are all sorts of reports and studies saying that.”
“I don’t see it. I think you all have a bond that you were looking for all along. That you’re all hoping to get back at some point. I’m just going to help you get it sooner rather than later. At least for some of you.”
“Jared. I love you. I love everything about you. That you stood up for me. That you’re giving me what I’ve wanted for so long. That you even knew what to do to see that I got it. I don’t know how I got so lucky in life. And to think I fought myself by trying to hold back. Thank you for not giving up on me.”
“No. It was me that got lucky. And I’m only going to get luckier.”