Kimi looked at her mom. “You agreed to this?”
“He’s my husband and your father. You’re still a child, Kimberly—”
“I’ve never been a child! You didn’t allow it! You expected too much from me.” She tried to keep the petulance out of her voice, but this wasn’t fair, and it wasn’t right.
Aunt Hulda put her arm around Kimi and sent her brother-in-law a pitying look. Then she looked at her sister. “Listen to her, Clara. Eli is just upset that Carolyn married a man he didn’t approve of. He’s taking out his anger on your daughter. Are you going to let that happen?”
“Eli’s decision is final, Hulda. I agree with him.” She wheezed. “When you leave tomorrow, Kimberly won’t be going with you.”
Her stomach cramped. She felt the bile rise in her throat at the thought of being trapped here, in this house, for the next year until she could legally walk away.
“I’m sorry it’s come to this, sister,” Hulda said softly.
Kimi couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Was the one woman she’d counted on giving up that easily? “Don’t make me stay here,” she pleaded. “I’ll run away the first chance I get and no one will ever see me again.”
“I know, sweetheart. But they’re mistaken. They can’t force you to stay here.” Aunt Hulda glared at her sister. “In order to enroll your minor-aged daughters at St. Mary’s, you gave the school guardianship over them. So technically, St. Mary’s makes the final decision. And do you really think that they’ll agree to terminate Kimi’s education and their guardianship when neither of Kimi’s parents has bothered to set foot at the school even one time in the six years she’s been a student? No. I checked. And even if the school opts to remain out of the family issue, I can guarantee you I will not stand by and watch Kimi become an indentured servant.”
“Feminist, hippie bullshit,” her father grumbled. “A woman’s job is to take care of her family.”
“Then Mom failed at that pretty spectacularly, didn’t she?” Kimi snapped.
“I have a parental consent form, signed by you, Clara, giving me guardianship on weekends, the summer and holidays,” Aunt Hulda stated. “If you cared so much about her, then maybe you should’ve read the paperwork the school sent, rather than just signing it without reading through it. Although now, I am so very glad you didn’t.”
“You conniving witch,” her mother said.
“I expected name calling from Eli, but not from my own sister.” She patted Kimi on the shoulder. “I was afraid something like this would happen, so I already put your things in the trunk of my car.”
“This ain’t over,” Eli warned.
“Yes, it is,” Kimi said. “Now that I know neither of you have any power over me? I won’t ever come back here. Ever,” she emphasized. She gave her mother, who’d started crying, a scathing look.
“Kimi, I’m sorry.”
“Yes, you are. Goodbye, Clara.” And because she was so upset, heartsick and disgusted, she looked at her Aunt Hulda and said, “Thank you for bein’ the mother to me that she couldn’t be. Now can we please go home?”
She walked out of the house and didn’t look back.
Chapter Five
One year later…
Carson showed up at Cal’s house an hour earlier than usual, so he knew something was wrong.
Cal poured his brother a cup of coffee and waited for him to speak, knowing even if he asked Carson what’d happened, he wouldn’t talk until he was good and ready.
After a sip of coffee, Carson said, “Clara West died last night.”
That surprised him, even when he’d known Clara wasn’t in good health. “Sorry, man. How’s Carolyn?”
“In shock mostly, even when we both knew this was comin’.” Carson finally looked at Cal. “I fuckin’ hate that I can’t go along and support my wife without makin’ it worse for her. The Wests don’t want me there while they’re deciding on final arrangements. It pisses me off that Eli will expect Caro to deal with everything because he’s gotten used to it in the last year. And all of the years before it. If I don’t go, I’ll be worthless around here because I’ll be worried about her. So I don’t know what the hell to do, Cal.”
Cal scrubbed his hands over his itchy face. He hadn’t shaved in days. “You gotta go with her. If there’s stuff they don’t want you involved in, sit in the truck. But the bottom line is this ain’t about them. It’s about you bein’ close by when your wife needs you. Because we both know she will need you. And the Wests don’t got the right to keep you away from her.”