“We can still do something. Your mother could come forward about the abuse. I could—”
“My mother is driving back to DC as we speak. She’s in no place to go against the Beauregards. She still thinks she loves the asshole. You want to make a difference, Hamilton? Talk to your father. Sort your fucking shit out. It’s too late. Your mother overdosed. There is nothing you could have done differently.” Hamilton walked over to me and reached for my arm, but I took a step back. “I should have never trusted you. You didn’t just hurt me. Joseph beat up my mother. She had cuts and bruises all over her body, Hamilton. Because of us. Because of your fucked up family. You knew what your brother was capable of, and you still let me pursue this. You put us at risk. You used us for some ridiculous vendetta.”
“I’m just tired of everyone thinking my family is perfect!” Hamilton roared. “He doesn’t get to just live his life. Joseph once snapped my arm in the door. He’d knock me down, then kick me in the stomach. And Jack had his head shoved so far up his ass that he didn’t once take my side. And then Mom died. And shit got worse.”
I swallowed my emotions. “I’m sorry, Hamilton. I’m so sorry. But this is just too much.” Straightening my spine, I gave him a cold look before saying goodbye. For good. Forever. “Don’t talk to me again. I’m going to get my mother out of this mess, and I’m going to forget you ever existed. I hope you get whatever closure you’re looking for, Hamilton. But I’m not going to let you ruin me to get to it.”
“Petal, no. Please! I love you.”
His declaration did nothing. I had no sentimental reaction to his affections, only rage. “You’re not capable of love. You wouldn’t know what it was if it slapped you in the face. Petals aren’t meant to be plucked, Hamilton. When you love something, you let it bloom.”
26
I couldn’t go back to Jess’s car. Not only was I devastated by the revelation about Hamilton, but I quickly realized that Jess was probably in on it too. There was no way she didn’t know about Hamilton’s plan. They were best friends, and she was probably in on it from the beginning. I felt like such a fool. I couldn’t go back to Greenwich. I couldn’t go back to my apartment. I wanted out of this mess of a family.
I walked through the woods, leaving Hamilton to stand there alone, his hands outstretched for mine but only clasping air. He didn’t chase after me, though. How could I have been so foolish? How could I have ignored all the signs? My mother warned me. Even though Joseph was a monster, he warned me, too. I was starting to realize that everyone was a villain. Everyone had an ulterior motive. There were no innocents. I should have seen Hamilton for what he was.
And even though I was angry, my heart still hurt for the boy who shared the trauma of Joseph’s abuse.
When I saw the Beauregard’s home, I pulled out my cell, fully prepared to call an Uber to my apartment so I could pack a bag and take the train to DC. I didn’t exactly know what I’d do once I got there, but I had to convince my mother to leave Joseph. No amount of financial security was worth being with a monster.
“The guards told me you were here,” Jack said. I hadn’t even noticed him sitting on his back porch. He was clutching a glass full of amber liquid in his palm and staring out across his property at the tree line. I’d never seen him dressed so casually, with a black shirt and sweatpants; he looked normal, almost. “Is Hamilton at the sycamore tree? He always loved it there.”
I debated on ignoring him. Jack had a role to play in all of this. He supported a monster. But my need for answers outweighed my sense of self-preservation. “Did you know?” I asked while marching up the steps. “Did you know that Joseph is a psychopath? Did you know that my mother showed up on Hamilton’s doorstep yesterday bruised and bloodied? You’re a hypocrite, Jack,” I added before sitting down in the chair beside him. I didn’t want to look at him—I couldn’t. So instead, I stared out over the swaying blades of grass while finding my bearings. Ten more minutes couldn’t hurt. Ten minutes of sitting and searching for answers before I’d figure out what the fuck my mother and I were going to do.
“I’m the worst kind of hypocrite,” he admitted. I didn’t have to pull the admission out of him. He readily agreed, like it was a plague on his mind he needed to sweat out with a fever. “I did you and your mother a disservice. I sat there, pretending that it was my son who needed protecting from your mother, when in fact it was the other way around.”
“He beat the shit out of her, Jack. How can you just sit there, knowing what he’s capable of, and still support him?”
“I suppose the same reason you still love a woman who lied about her pregnancy so she could marry into my family for money.”
I sputtered. “It’s not the same.”
“No. I suppose it’s not. Yet here we are. Stuck.” Jack lifted his drink and took a sip. “I learned to prioritize from my father. The day I started working for him, he told me that every thriving business has a million problems under its belt. The key to success is finding the biggest one and focusing on it. And if it isn’t fixable, you move onto the next.”
“Is that how you approach your family, Jack? You treat your children like problems you can’t fix?”
Jack smiled. “You’re a smart woman, Vera. I can see why Hamilton is so fixated
