Chapter 14 - An Uninvited Visitor in the Garden
Dusk was settling over the garden when the side gate clicked open.
I was pruning Evelyn’s rose bushes near the brick retaining wall when I heard heavy, uneven footsteps.
I gripped the garden shears tightly and turned around.
Standing beneath the arching wisteria was my father, Richard Vance.
He looked ten years older than the man who had ignored me in the living room while Sheila sprayed me with rubbing alcohol.
His jacket was stained, his shoulders slumped in defeat.
"Summer," he whispered, his voice trembling like dry leaves.
"You shouldn't be here, Richard," I said, my voice completely flat.
"I’m your father," he stammered, stepping forward with his hands open in pathetic supplication.
"You watched them frame me," I replied, standing my ground.
"You sat on the sofa watching football while Austin drank champagne and Sheila threw my clothes in the mud."
Tears pooled in his watery eyes, but I knew those tears were not for me.
They were for the lost country club membership, the repossessed Mercedes, and the quiet comfort he had chosen over his daughter’s life.
"Sheila is talking about divorcing me," he choked out.
"The bank is taking the suburban house. We have nowhere to go, Summer."
"Then you can find a shelter, just like thousands of people do when their families discard them."
"Please, just the guest cottage out back. Your grandmother would never want this."
"Evelyn saw right through you, Richard. She knew you were an accomplice through silence."
I pointed toward the front gate.
May you like
"Walk out before I press the panic button for the security team Marcus hired."
He stood there for five agonizing seconds, realized there was no weakness in my gaze, and shuffled backward into the dark.
