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SAGE WATCHED ALL her father’s belongings being auctioned off. His furniture, his clothes, his awards, and collections.
Her mother sat next to her, the scent of her newly inspired patchouli perfume breezing around them. Celeste had her own auction number too, but neither of the women raised an arm to bid. Instead, they shared satisfied looks of appreciation. Appreciation they were together, appreciation that Dean’s items weren’t their responsibility, and appreciation the money being raised was going to charity. Dean may not have left Sage his estate, but he’d done the next best thing. He’d chosen a charity to donate the money to kids who couldn’t afford music lessons and equipment.
In all his life, this had been the best thing he’d ever done and the only thing that had lived up to the pedestal his fans put him on.
Sage could think of better things to do than this, like helping Ally and Linda set up the party for their new line, but she needed two pieces from her father’s estate. They waited until the auctioneer held up Dean’s first guitar, better known as The Beast. She raised her number to bid.
She knew Duke was tying up loose ends with his father and she wanted to give him something that would make him smile afterwards.
***
DUKE FLASHED HIS VISITOR pass at the guard through the glass. He was buzzed into the dim waiting room with no windows or outside light.
He took a seat at the table and it hit him that within minutes he’d be facing the man who had taken his life away for so many years. He’d planned to tell him this would be the last time he would ever see him, or think about him again. He wasn’t sure why he’d come. He had nothing to say to this man that he’d care to hear. But something had pulled Duke here. The longer he sat waiting, the more he just wanted to punch his father until he was unconscious.
A sound alerted the visitors to the opening door and he immediately recognized his father. Hale’s eyes were as dark and domineering as they’d been in his childhood. Duke felt a small part of the child in him react.
He stood as he father approached, his mind comparing the skinny man he’d been to the bulkier man he now was. He was surprised to find how strong the resemblance was between them.
Hale stopped on the other side of the table. “I never thought this day would come.” His voice was deep, strong, and thick, but in a low whisper for only Duke to hear.
“Neither did I.”
As he sat, Duke followed suit.
“You look good, son.”
“I can’t say the same about you.”
It was a lie. He may have aged, but Duke could see he took better care of himself than most people.
When Hale shrugged, his thick shoulders lifted as if to show off his muscles. “What can I say when you see the sun as much as I do ...”
“I didn’t come here for chit chat.”
His father folded his arms and leaned back in his chair. “Please, tell me why you showed up here out of the blue.”
“I want to talk about that night.”
Hale’s fingers rapped along his bicep, his eyes lowered to intimidate Duke. Only Duke wasn’t the young, scared boy anymore.
“What more could you possibly say that you didn’t say to the judge?” his father asked.
“I want to hear your side. I want to hear why you did it.”
“Why now?” His casualness pissed Duke off and he leaned forward so quickly he got a warning from security.
“Because you left me alone.” Was that was this was about? For the first time in his life, he realized how angry he was that his father had taken everyone away from him and left him alone. For the first time, he didn’t feel guilty for putting his feelings first.
“You wanted me here and here I sit.” He waved his arms at his side before crossing them over his chest again.
“You took away Pete and Annie and put Mom in the hospital. She doesn’t even know who I am.”
“That’s good for you.”
Duke’s hands fisted on the table and he had to force himself to keep from meeting his father’s face with a punch.
His dad looked down at his son’s fist and back up to Duke’s eyes. “I can see nothing I say here will change anything. You still have no goddam idea what happened in that house.”
“You killed Pete and Annie and tried to kill Mom. I would’ve been next if I had stayed in the house.”
Like the dark clouds rolling in over the lake, his father’s eyes seemed to turn the same grey and black colors. “I take full credit for shooting Maggie. It was me or her, but son, think harder.” He leaned forwards, placing his elbows on the table. “I was protecting you that night. I didn’t kill Pete and Annie. Your mother did.”
***
DUKE COULDN’T PROCESS the accusation.
He sat across from his father in a blur of what he remembered, had believed all these years, and what his father claimed now.
“Your mother has dealt with being bi-polar her entire life. She had ups and downs. Sometimes she took her pills and sometimes she didn’t.” He gave a small, almost surrender-type shrug. “That was when her depression would settle in.”
Depression? What the hell was he talking about? He’d made her sad. His yelling had made her cry. She’d always been good before he showed up ... hadn’t she?
“I remember one time she took you and your brother and sister out of school on a weeklong trip before her mind plummeted. I don’t know where you guys went or what you did. She couldn’t even remember half of it once she’d stabilized again.”
Duke remembered the trip and had always wondered why she ever went back to his dad when they’d gotten so far away.
“She took us to get away from you,” he accused.
“She took you because she was on a high from her condition and you came back after she crashed in the bed and couldn’t get up.”
“I’m not here for you to warp my memories.”
“Right.” He clicked his tongue. “I’ll tell you what happened that night because I believe, on some level, you already know, you just can’t remember.”
Now his father was starting to sound crazy.
“That day I was working. I got a phone call from your mom incoherently rambling a mile a minute and I knew she was having an episode. When I got home I was too late. Pete and Annie were dead. I tried to resuscitate them, but I was too late. You were her next target, and I wasn’t going to let your mom hurt you too.”
Duke shook his head. “Bullshit.”
His father sat back in his chair, a solemn look on his face, the look of a tired man who was finally getting to tell his side of the story.
Still, Duke didn’t believe him—didn’t want to believe him. If he did, the anger of his entire life would’ve been based on a lie. His father would be in jail for something he didn’t do.
“You took the plea bargain. You pleaded guilty to murder.”
“I did it for you. They showed me a video of what you thought you saw that day. You said it was me. You believed I killed them. It was my word against yours with two dead children and a wife who couldn’t remember.” His monotone voice sounded like Duke, but his face let flickers of emotion through. Sadness, regret, and pain Duke would never reveal. Emotions a cold-hearted murderer wouldn’t feel. “I wasn’t going to drag you through a trial that I wouldn’t win.”
“That’s quite the story.” None of it added up.
“You want to know what happened that day? I lost everything and prayed my only living son would have everything. Believe me or not, but remember your mom loved all of you. She just sometimes forgot.”
“I remember my parents fighting, my father yelling and my mom crying. I remember being tanned on the backside with your belt.”
“I didn’t say I was perfect. I’m just saying I’m not a murderer.”
Duke couldn’t discuss this any longer. Without another word, he stood up and left.
He climbed into his truck and drove. Today he’d planned to acknowledge his dad’s reasoning and put it all in one of those silly bubbles and watch it float away. But he left with more questions than answers and a feeling of confusion that terrified him.
Before he knew where he was, he’d parked at his mother’s residency and was inside requesting to see her files.
Was she bi-polar? Had she always been bi-polar? Was anything his father said true?
“You’ll have to make an appointment with her doctor to discuss her files,” the receptionist said. “Let me see what he has available.”
Duke rapped his fingers against the counter as he waited. An action so unlike him.
A group of nurses in the corner seemed distraught. Their high voices made it to Duke’s ears but their words were unrecognizable.
Once he had an appointment set up with her doctor, he asked to visit his mother.
“That’s not possible today.” One of the nurses from the group walked up beside them. “Mrs Falkner isn’t here.”
“What do you mean she’s not here?”
Her hands wrung together. “She slipped out without anyone noticing.”
“And where did she go?”
“We don’t know. Would you know where she might have taken a taxi?”
If his father was right, Duke knew exactly where she was headed.