At his words I felt my body jerk.
“What?” I whispered, my eyes wide, shocked.
“I talked to Cooter.”
“You did?”
“Half a dozen times. First to feel him out. Then I laid it out.”
I took a step back and stared at him.
Then I asked, “Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
“You laid it out for Cooter?”
Dad nodded, studying me.
“What’d you say?”
“I said you were not my girl anymore, I didn’t know what was goin’ on but if what I suspected was goin’ on was actually goin’ on, if it didn’t stop, I’d stop it.”
I shook my head. “But… when did you do this?”
“Year ago,” Dad answered then finished, “Too late.”
“What did he say?”
“Gave me a bunch a’ shit about how he loves you, everything is good, you can get moody and you been tryin’ to get pregnant and it wasn’t happening so you were out of sorts.”
I blinked.
Then I asked, “What?”
“Honey, though I hope everything is all right in that department, God works in mysterious ways and maybe –”
“I wasn’t trying to get pregnant!” I said kind of loud.
“You weren’t?” Dad asked, looking perplexed again.
“Uh… no,” I threw out a hand. “I mean, seriously, the man beat me.” I powered through Dad’s flinch. “What kind of idiot would I be to have a kid with a guy like that?”
“Kiakee –” Dad started.
“He lied to you, point blank,” I informed Dad.
“Kia –”
I whirled then informed Sam of something he couldn’t miss seeing as I was being loud but also he was only three feet away, “Cooter lied bald-faced to my father.”
“Baby, seriously, you look pissed and surprised but this is that piece of shit you’re talkin’ about, how can you be surprised?” Sam asked.
“I don’t know but I am.” I threw up my hands. “I mean, he didn’t just lie. He lied about me trying to get pregnant! I mean, how messed up is that?”
My voice was rising.
Sam just rose, physically, and came to me.
With both hands on my neck, he bent his face to mine and whispered, “Calm down. He’s a dick. You know this. Baby, he put a hit on you. This is the least of his sins. Let it go.”
I glared into Sam’s eyes.
He was right.
I sucked in breath.
Then I let it go.
But I was still pissed so I turned to Dad, Sam’s hands dropped and I laid it out for my father.
“Right, you know everything now. And it’s bad. And I can’t say I’m not scared. And I also can’t say that I have my head straight about all that’s gone on. What I can say is, I don’t need the additional guilt of thinking you and Mom are beating yourself up about this. I understand how you feel and I’m sorry you feel that way, Dad. But the bottom line of it is, I picked him, I married him, I stayed with him and I put up with his shit without asking for help. I brought this on you, you didn’t marry him. So please, I need you to work through it and get past it because it’s done, that part at least. We all need to move toward letting it go. Can you do that for me?”
I watched my Dad’s face get soft and in an equally soft voice he promised, “Yeah, Kia, honey, I can do that for you. I can talk to your Mom too. What I can’t say is that it’ll happen tomorrow but I can say I promise we’ll try.”
I nodded.
Dad wasn’t done.
“But what we’ll need from you is to know where you’re at.” His eyes strayed to Sam before coming back to me and he whispered, “First time in a long time, standing right in front of me, I see even a hint of my Kiakee. I’m glad to have her back but I know there’s work you gotta do. What your mother and I need is for you to let us in and help you do it.”
“You’re already in,” I replied firmly and immediately.
Dad studied me for a long moment but his eyes darted to Sam and back to me before he whispered, “Thank you.”
I sucked in another breath as tears threatened again.
Dad’s eyes went to Sam and he stated, “You hold me responsible.”
My entire body grew solid because, after what Sam laid out for Ozzie, I had no idea what he’d say to Dad. The only thing I knew was he’d say it straight.
I wasn’t wrong.
“I don’t,” Sam replied and I relaxed.
“For Kia, you don’t have to –” Dad began.
“I’m not,” Sam cut him off. “I have not been in your exact position but I have been in a position to know that same shit is happening, to feel powerless, to try to run through every option available and think there are none. I said what I said to Oswald not only because he had the power to step in but he was objective and not intimately involved. The consequences you might have faced coming between a husband and wife, that wife bein’ your daughter who was too scared to be open with you so you could have no clue where she was comin’ from, were not the same for him. He compounded that by makin’ an understandable but incorrect decision on how to handle things after Clementine died. I do not hold you responsible, Ford. But it wouldn’t matter if I did because Kia doesn’t.”
I’m falling in love with you, my mind said as I stared at Sampson Cooper, listening to him speaking to my Dad as he had to me for the last week, removing the emotion, lifting the weight, taking action, giving peace of mind and doing it in a time still burdened with the unknown.
With effort, I tore my eyes away from him as this thought seared into my brain, down my spine, radiating out throughout my body and I looked to Dad who was watching Sam, his eyes working, his face suffused with a mixture of feelings he couldn’t hide, concern, gratitude and relief.
Then Dad nodded and looked to the floor, muttering, “Best get on out. Essie’ll wanna be makin’ the parfaits.”
“Sam and I’ll be out in a second, Dad,” I said to him as he turned toward the doors and I felt Sam’s gaze come to me as Dad looked at me.
Then Dad nodded and smiled, opened the door to the dining room and stopped, turning back halfway through and looking at me.
“I love you, my Kiakee, God shined his light on me the day he gave you to me and no matter what has come since I’ve never felt different, not one day, not for twenty-eight years.”