Can't Let You Go

Chapter 14

"Dad!"

"Your mother left behind the contact information and copies of all the paperwork she'd taken care of to have you do a year of study abroad in Korea. I've already had one of my assistants confirm that everything is still valid and update anything that needed it."

"Dad!"

"I don't want to hear anything more from you. As soon as the dorms at Alaris close after finals, you're going to Korea. You can meet up with your mother there. I know she left you a letter with more details than she gave me."

"I don't understand what's going on. I haven't had a single word of contact with her since she left. Just because she went to Korea to develop a beauty line doesn't mean I want to join her. Why can't I stay at Alaris University? Why does my life have to change because of... either of them?"

I had some specific terms in mind for both my mother and Bethany, but I miraculously had enough self-control to keep it neutral.

"It's bad enough that you've been harassing a pregnant woman behind my back. I won't let you make the first year of your brother's life miserable, too. You'll go and grow up!"

The fire was burnt out of his system with that. His shoulders sagged and his tone turned gentle. "When you can act like an adult, you can come back and all will be forgiven. You will resume your place at home and in Savis. Then we can do as Bethany asked and pretend like this never happened."

"Dad, I don't know what you're talking about. What happened?"

"Stop it." He snapped with a glare that he held for a moment before softening again. "Honey, you're young. You've had a lot of hard things happen to you in a short amount of time. I understand. I even understand why you've been drinking. I, too, have spent more nights with a lowball glass in my hand than I'd like to admit. But it stops now. You're going to Korea, to your mother. You'll grow up and get your life back on track. It's what's best for you."

I stood there dumbfounded, but nodded my head.

That day I'd gone to the house to work on the nursery had been the first time since Bethany moved in that I was alone with her. "The staff" that made the initial report to my father was comprised of two people. A husband and wife, who Bethany had hired within a week of moving in. The housekeeper, who had been my mother's spy, left a couple of months after mother did, but Bethany fired the replacement and all the rest of the staff.

I hadn't thought much about it other than to wonder if five employees had been too many or if Bethany just didn't care about cleanliness and upkeep the way my mother did. It didn't occur to me that the couple had been picked at least in part for their willingness to lie for her.

Aside from the nursery incident, Bethany and her minions told my father that I had a litany of "imagined slights" and "misunderstandings" and had regularly come to the house to chew Bethany out over them. Not only that, they said I was usually drunk when I came.

It was true that I drank a lot that first year of school, but I only did it at night and on weekends. I had only gone home a couple of times to get something from my room and certainly wasn't drunk when I did. I had no way of proving that though. It was my word against three. I had no choice but to resign myself to the punishment given to me. I liked travelling and decided to view it as a chance to create some nice memories with my mother to replace all the others.

That of course is not how it worked out.

As I'm starting another day in exile, seven thousand miles from home with no mother in sight, Bethany is ending her day in the home my mother and I both used to live in. She's preparing to sleep in the room my mother slept in, while I am steeling myself to go to the police station to find out if I can return home at all or if I'm facing the prospect of years in a Korean prison.