Chapter 198 - Their Son
Zac saw the porch light before he turned into the driveway.
The living room curtains were open. Four shadows moved behind them.
They had seen the photograph.
Rumors traveled through Briarwick faster than traffic, especially when the former quarterback kissed someone in the middle of school. His family had probably known before the end of first period.
Zac stopped the truck near the street instead of parking beside the garage. He left it facing forward so he could drive away without backing out.
He noticed what he had done after switching off the engine.
His father had punched him once this week, and Zac was already planning how quickly he could leave his own house.
He pulled the key from the ignition and kept it in his hand.
Usually, every vehicle key went into the dish near the front door. Tonight, Zac slipped the key ring into his jacket pocket and closed his fist around it.
A few more months.
Tennessee waited after graduation. Once he left, his father could arrange interviews, issue orders, and complain about the family name without Zac standing in the room to receive any of it.
He crossed the driveway and unlocked the front door.
The house was quiet enough that he could hear the television playing upstairs in Mia’s room.
His father stood near the fireplace. His mother sat in the center of the couch with her back straight and her hands folded over one knee. Nathan occupied the chair across from her. Holly sat beside him.
Nobody looked surprised to see Zac.
His father held up his phone.
The hallway photograph filled the screen.
Zac’s hand rested against the side of Roxie’s neck. Her fingers were twisted into his shirt, and students crowded the hallway behind them.
"Explain this."
Zac stayed near the hallway instead of walking into the center of the room.
"Roxie is my girlfriend."
His mother’s expression remained cold.
"How long?"
"Long enough."
"That is not an answer."
"It’s the one you’re getting."
His father lowered the phone.
"So she is where you were for two nights."
Zac said nothing.
"She is why you missed the interview."
"I missed an interview I refused to attend."
His father started toward him.
Zac stepped back.
The reaction happened before he could stop it. His shoulder nearly touched the wall, and his fist tightened around the keys inside his pocket.
Everyone noticed.
His father stopped several feet away.
For a second, Zac expected him to understand what the movement meant.
His son had seen him coming and prepared to be hit.
Instead, his expression hardened.
"Now you’re going to act afraid of me?"
A humorless laugh escaped Zac.
"You hit me. What reaction were you expecting?"
His mother stood.
"Watch how you speak to your father."
Zac looked at her. "That’s what matters?"
"Your father lost his temper after you deliberately humiliated him."
The punch had already become another consequence Zac caused.
When he was younger, his father used a belt. He ordered Zac to stand still and explained that each strike was meant to teach discipline.
The fist was newer.
Inside this house, both counted as correction.
"It’s always my fault," Zac said. "Aren’t you tired of saying it?"
"You refuse to accept responsibility," his mother answered. "You disappear, lie to us, and mock your father. Then you focus on his reaction instead of what you did to cause it."
"He hit me."
"And you knew how far you were pushing him."
Zac stared at her.
Nathan shifted in his chair but remained silent.
His mother returned to the couch and folded her hands again.
"You have become increasingly willful over the past year. You reject every opportunity we arrange, disappear whenever this family expects something from you, and speak to us as though we are obstacles in your life."
"I’m eighteen."
"That does not make you capable of managing yourself."
"It makes my life mine."
His father laughed.
"You cannot even decide whether you want football unless some girl tells you what to think."
"Roxie never told me to stop playing."
"She did not need to," his mother said.
Zac looked at her.
"Roxie is a beautiful girl. I’m sure she understands exactly what she can get from you."
His jaw tightened.
"Be careful."
His mother raised her eyebrows.
"Is that a threat?"
"It’s a warning to stop talking about her."
"I am trying to make you see what everyone else already sees. You disappeared from home for her. You ignored your family for her. You missed an important interview, then made a spectacle of yourself in the middle of school."
"I kissed my girlfriend."
"You publicly attached yourself to someone with no plan for her own future."
Zac closed his fingers around the keys.
"You know nothing about her future."
"She has no college applications, no financial security, and no family capable of supporting her. Yet you are ready to damage every opportunity offered to you."
"Roxie never asked me to give up anything."
"She does not have to ask. You volunteer."
The words struck exactly where his mother intended.
Zac had searched for schools, jobs, and housing because he wanted Roxie in Tennessee. He had offered her a place beside him before she had decided what she wanted.
For one second, he remembered her saying she had no idea whether she would come.
His mother saw the hesitation.
"She may care about you now," she said. "That does not mean she will stay once she discovers you have less to offer than she expected."
"Stop."
"She leaves, and you are left with whatever remains of the future you damaged for her."
Zac’s throat tightened.
The fear was already there.
Roxie might become tired of his family, his anger, and everything he carried from this house. She might reach Tennessee and realize that being with him required more than she wanted to give.
His mother had found the fear and pressed directly against it.
"Roxie isn’t like that."
"You cannot know that."
"I know her."
His father stepped closer.
"You will end the relationship."
"No."
The refusal came immediately.
"You will speak to her tomorrow and tell her this is finished."
"No."
"She is interfering with your future and your relationship with this family."
"You made the academy plan without asking me."
"Because you are incapable of making a responsible decision."
"Did either of you ever ask what I wanted?"
"We asked before you became obsessed with refusing everything."
"No. You told me what I was doing and called it a conversation."
His father lifted the phone again.
"Every decision you make for yourself becomes another embarrassment."
Zac looked at the photograph.
He remembered Roxie freezing during the first second of the kiss. Then she had grabbed his shirt and pulled him closer.
The entire hallway had watched her choose him back.
"I’m not breaking up with her."
His father moved again.
Nathan stood and stepped between them.
"Dad. Another fight isn’t going to fix anything."
For a moment, it looked as though Nathan was protecting Zac.
Then he turned.
"Calm down."
Zac stared at him. "You’re saying that to me?"
"You walked in ready to fight."
"I answered a question."
"You came in with an attitude."
Zac laughed.
"So I caused this one too?"
"I’m saying you know how Dad reacts."
"That is your defense?"
"It isn’t a defense. I’m telling you to stop making everything worse."
Zac looked at the brother who had once stood behind him in the kitchen and corrected the way he held a knife.
Nathan had taught him to cut potatoes, season stew, and keep the heat low enough that the bottom would not burn.
Back then, Nathan had told him to fight back when their father became unreasonable.
Now he wanted Zac to cooperate because obedience kept the house quieter.
"The academy plan gives you structure," Nathan said. "You only have to cooperate until graduation."
"You sound exactly like him."
Nathan’s expression tightened.
"Maybe because he isn’t wrong about everything."
The old urge to hit him returned.
Nathan stood close enough that one shove would begin another fight. Their father would use it as proof that Zac was unstable, and Mia would hear everything through the floor.
Light showed beneath her bedroom door upstairs.
Zac forced his hand open inside his pocket.
His father noticed the movement.
"Give me the SUV key."
Zac stared at him.
"You heard me."
Zac pulled out the key ring.
The SUV key hung beside the key to the old truck.
He removed the SUV key and tossed it across the room.
His father caught it.
His parents had chosen it, paid for it, and expected Zac to drive it because it looked appropriate parked outside their house.
The truck was older and still registered under his father’s name, but it had been Zac’s vehicle before the SUV appeared. Everyone had referred to it as his old truck for years.
He had quietly started using it again.
His father closed his fist around the SUV key with the satisfaction of someone who believed he had taken Zac’s transportation.
Nobody asked about the second vehicle key still hanging from the ring.
Nobody had noticed the truck parked near the street.
They had no idea Zac had stopped using the SUV.
"You will use no family vehicle," his father said. "You will come directly home after school. Any place you intend to go will be approved first."
Zac closed his hand around the truck key.
His parents thought they had removed his way out.
They had taken the key to the vehicle they expected him to use because they no longer knew which one he actually drove.
"A few more months," Zac said.
His mother stared at him.
"What does that mean?"
"It means graduation is coming."
His father moved around Nathan.
"You believe you are walking out of this family?"
Zac stepped toward the hallway.
This time, he chose the movement.
"I’m going upstairs."
"This conversation is not finished."
"It never is."
Zac turned before his father could reach him.
He climbed the stairs without running, passed Mia’s closed door, and entered his room.
He locked the door.
His hands started shaking after the lock clicked.
Zac placed the truck key on his desk and stood over it until his breathing slowed.
Downstairs, his father held the key to a vehicle Zac no longer used.
They believed enough pressure would force him back into their plan.
They still knew nothing about Tennessee.
A knock sounded.
"Zac?"
Holly.
"Leave."
"I brought water."
"I have a sink."
Silence followed.
Then the handle moved against the lock.
"I’m trying to help," Holly said through the door.
"Then go downstairs."
"Your parents are overreacting, but Roxie should have considered what making the relationship public would cause for you."
Zac crossed the room and opened the door.
Holly stood in the hallway holding a bottle of water.
"Stop talking about her."
"I’m saying the timing made everything worse."
"She is none of your business."
"Nathan is trying to keep everyone calm."
"Nathan explained why I deserved whatever Dad did."
"He stepped between you."
"Then he turned around and repeated Dad."
Holly glanced toward the truck key on the desk.
"Nathan said they took the SUV. I can drive you if you need to go somewhere."
Zac laughed.
Her expression tightened.
"What?"
"You want me reporting my schedule to you now?"
"I offered you a ride."
"I’ll figure it out."
"I’m on your side."
"No. You’re standing outside my room repeating Nathan."
Holly held out the bottle.
Zac took it.
"You helped. Go."
She stared at him for another second, then stepped away.
Zac closed and locked the door.
A few minutes later, three quiet taps sounded.
He opened it.
Mia waited in the hallway wearing yellow pajamas covered in small stars. Her hair had been braided, though one side had started coming loose.
"You knocked properly," Zac said.
"I always knock properly."
"You tried to open the door last week."
"I knocked first."
Zac stepped aside.
Mia entered and climbed onto the edge of his bed.
"Why was everyone shouting?"
Zac closed the door but left it unlocked.
"They found out I have a girlfriend."
Mia looked at him.
"Is it Roxie?"
Zac smiled despite himself.
The nosy little monster had apparently been listening whenever he answered his phone.
"You know about Roxie?"
"You say her name sometimes."
Mia picked at one of the stars on her pajama pants.
"You sound different when you talk to her."
"What does that mean?"
She thought about it.
"Less mad."
Zac looked toward the door.
Everyone downstairs treated Roxie like a problem that needed to be removed.
Mia only knew that her name changed the way he spoke.
"Is she nice?" Mia asked.
"Yeah."
"Does she know me?"
"She knows I have a little sister."
"What did you tell her?"
"That you steal my ice creams."
"I didn’t."
"You did."
"I ate one."
"You ate three."
Mia frowned as though the number was the real accusation.
"Can I meet her?"
The question eased something inside Zac’s chest.
"Someday."
"Tomorrow?"
"Later than tomorrow."
Mia accepted that with a nod.
Her feet stopped swinging.
"Dad said you might leave."
"Dad was angry."
"Are you leaving?"
Zac looked toward the truck key on his desk.
"Not tonight."
"Tell me first."
"I will."
"Promise?"
"I promise."
Mia climbed down from the bed.
At the door, she turned back.
"I like her name."
Zac watched her walk toward her room.
It was a small statement from a seven year old who had never met Roxie.
It was still the first kind thing anyone inside the house had said about her.
Zac locked the door after Mia left.
His phone vibrated.
Roxie: Are you home?
Another message followed.
Roxie: Are you okay?
Then:
Roxie: Zac?
He sat at the desk.
Zac: I’m home. It’s handled.
Her reply came immediately.
Roxie: How bad?
His parents were still talking downstairs. His father’s voice carried through the floor as he discussed Zac’s schedule and what other restrictions might be necessary.
Zac typed:
Zac: Mostly yelling.
It was true.
It left out the order to break up with her, the insults, and his mother’s prediction that Roxie would eventually leave him.
Roxie: Did your father touch you again?
Zac touched the healing split in his lip.
Zac: No.
Roxie: I’m sorry.
Anger tightened his chest.
His parents had spent the evening insulting Roxie, and she had still found a way to blame herself.
Zac: Don’t be. I love you.
The typing bubble appeared.
Roxie: I love you too.
Zac read the message twice.
It was enough for tonight.
He placed the phone beside the truck key.
The SUV key was downstairs in his father’s hand. His parents believed they had taken his freedom because they had no idea which vehicle he had been using.
They knew even less about the envelope inside the locked drawer.
Zac opened it and moved the old football papers aside.
The Tennessee correspondence remained beneath them.
He still wanted Roxie there.
That had never changed.