The O'Connells Box Set

Chapter 21

Marcus took in the basement suite in a house he knew was at least a hundred years old. He could smell the mustiness in the dingy tiny place, and he glanced at the papers, a sweater on the floor, a small table knocked over. From the open door to the bedroom, he spotted a mattress pulled off the bed, blankets and clothes tossed. Suzanne was standing in front of Reine.

He knew when someone was terrified, and from what he was seeing, something bad had happened. He also knew when someone had been hit. Her face, her jaw… He’d been in enough scrapes on the wrong side of the law and had been hit more times than he could remember, so he knew what a punched face looked like.

Then there was fear, something else he’d seen too many times.

Owen was in the doorway of the bedroom, and Marcus watched his dad in the kitchenette, looking at the little there was. Ryan was standing off to the side.

The outside door was still open to where Jenny’s Jeep, which they’d all squeezed into, was parked behind an older-model blue Cavalier with its side mirror missing, a rusty old pickup, and what looked like ten old garbage cans filled with junk.

He could hear the compassion in Suzanne’s voice as she again said, “Come on, tell me who did this to you.”

Reine had said nothing ever since Ryan slapped the door open, but he’d seen the fear, the catatonia. The picture he was seeing there was something else he’d seen far too often.

“Marcus…” Owen said from the bedroom of the tiny suite.

Marcus was chewing a piece of gum as he walked around his dad, who was now just standing, watching, saying nothing, and Ryan, who was shaking his head. He didn’t have to say anything to his brothers or his dad. They had to see what he was seeing.

“You think this has anything to do with her face?” Owen said in a low voice as Marcus stepped into the boxlike room, where the single mattress had been tossed over, the blankets and clothes strewn, and the drawers pulled open. He took two steps to the bathroom and flicked on the light, seeing old and dingy.

“Looks like someone was angry. A break-in, maybe? Someone hit her,” Marcus said.

From the way his brother was looking at him, he wondered whether he expected him to do something. “So is this an active crime scene, or do we clean it up?” Owen said.

Marcus didn’t know how to reply. He let out a heavy sigh and stepped back out into the cramped main living space, seeing the old tweed sofa, the tiny side table knocked over, no kitchen table or chairs, a mini fridge, and an old rusty stove. He had to wonder whether it worked.

“Reine, who did this to your place? Was there a break-in? Who hit you?” he said.

Suzanne stepped back to reveal Reine, whose big eyes were still spooked.

Reine shook her head. “You mean you don’t know?” she said so sharply, so accusingly, that it had everyone looking at him.

“I wouldn’t be asking if I knew,” he said. “Look, just tell me who it was and I’ll go and pick him up, hold him accountable, and make sure he leaves you alone.”

The fear was gone from her expression, and the anger was back. She glanced once to his sister, who he realized was a voice of reason. Reine shoved her fingers in her hair, dragging it away from her face, unwilling to share anything. Her lip was starting to swell.

“I highly doubt that,” she finally said, “considering this was a warning because of my visit to you this morning. You mean you aren’t responsible for this?” There it was, the accusation again. “You think I want this getting back to Manny? You already told him I was at your place, and now here you are. Is this your way of seeing that I’m tossed back behind bars and will never be able to see my daughter? I guess that’s one way for you to solve a problem, isn’t it?”

He heard a hiss and thought it was Suzanne.

“Who’s Manny?” Ryan asked, dragging his gaze over to him. Owen was standing beside him. He realized now that Manny had taken his visit that morning as an excuse to really bring the hammer down on Reine.

“Manny Meskill, Reine’s parole officer,” he said in a low voice, looking around, then dragged his gaze back to Reine. “Did he hit you?”

She pulled her arms over her chest. The look she gave him was hard, that of a woman who had shut down. When had she decided to hate him? It was clear she wasn’t about to offer anything.

“Can he do this?” Owen said to him.

He wanted to say no, but the truth was that he could do anything to his parolees and would always be given the benefit of the doubt. “Unfortunately, he just has to say he had reasonable cause, and the way the laws work, he’s believed over a convicted felon. His story just has to be better.” He pulled his hand over his face, looking over to Eva’s mother, knowing it would upset his little girl to see her mom like this. He wanted to kick Manny’s a*s. “I’m sorry, Reine,” he said. “I went to see Manny to find out where you lived. I didn’t do it to stir up trouble for you.”

Her arms were still crossed, pulled tight across her chest. She angled her head, disbelief in her expression, her eyes. She wasn’t about to be reasonable. Anger was anger. “Now, why don’t I believe that?” Sarcasm dripped from her tone. “This morning, you warned me off. Then, after my daughter was so happy to see me and asked me to come to your mother’s place, you told me clearly that I wasn’t welcome. Isn’t that what you said? So forgive me if I don’t believe you, Marcus O’Connell. I’m very clear on how this works, being warned off from my seeing my daughter, from contacting her, you, or your family. You know these ridiculous rules make no sense. Any contact like this is a one-way ticket back to prison for me. I’ll serve out my entire sentence, with additional time tacked on for whatever you decide to charge me with.” She gestured sharply.

He felt everyone watching him. “Reine, I wouldn’t do that. Yes, the truth of the matter is that when you showed up on my doorstep this morning, I was thrown. You never told me you were getting out. If you’d only called first, talked to me, we could have worked something else out. But we adopted Eva. You know this, you wanted it to happen, and now you suddenly show up to have her back? What is the plan here, Reine? Are you gong to hire a lawyer and try to reverse the adoption? I spoke with Karen already…”

Her jaw slackened, the hurt back in her expression. He felt a hand on his shoulder, Owen, his big brother, as if he needed a reminder that he shouldn’t be there. He glanced back to him.

Owen shook his head and said, “Not helping, Marcus. Give me a hand in here.” He nodded to the bedroom, where Ryan was already standing, looking at the mess.

Reine hurried around Suzanne to where they crowded into her bedroom. “What are you doing? Am I not entitled to any privacy?” she yelled at Ryan, who had reached for the mattress, Owen grabbing the other end.

This was not a woman who could be reasoned with. Marcus knew when emotions could turn a situation volatile.

“Reine, you’re upset,” Owen said in that calm way he had. “We’re just helping to clean up, make this right.”

Marcus watched them put the mattress back on the bed.

Reine reached down and grabbed the blankets before they could. “You want to make this right? Then leave, now,” she said sharply.

How was he going to get through to her that he wasn’t trying to make her life difficult? He felt another tap on his shoulder and took in his dad, who gestured to the doorway, where he realized there was no door. He followed him out to the small kitchenette.

“I understand you want to handle this and wouldn’t stay behind and let us talk to her,” Raymond said. “But she’s right. She’s in a bad spot here, and this authoritative a***e is a result of your actions. I’m not saying it’s your fault, but she’s not going to hear reason if you’re here. I can already see her digging in and coming at you. She’s angry and hurt. I can see from her face, the fear, that she sees you as a threat. I know what her parole officer did, putting the fear of God into her.

“He really did a number, likely threatened her with everything that could happen, revoking her parole, tossing her back behind bars. He made a mess of her place, looking for something. You know how this works. If he’s pissed enough, something will be planted, and she won’t be believed because she’s a criminal. She’ll never get any justice for what he did to her face. If she came clean and told you, could you actually arrest or charge her parole officer? You and I both know what a man can do to a woman. She’s not going to say a word to you, and if she did, in how many different ways would it come back on her?”

It was the way his dad spoke that bothered him more than anything, because he didn’t want to admit he was right.

“Meskill can’t go around hitting people.” Marcus pulled his arms across his chest, watching as his sister opened the fridge and looked inside, then pulled open a cupboard, which held a box of cereal and nothing else.

He walked over to the doorway, where he could hear the back and forth. He thought his brothers were trying to calm Reine, who, he could hear from the pitch of her voice, had gone right back to not being reasoned with.

“The DA would never prosecute,” Marcus said. “And Reine’s right that she’d likely find herself back in prison. Meskill’s story could be anything, that it wasn’t him, that she did it herself, or that she came at him, which is assault on her part. Whatever she claims, a judge would toss it right out. In fact, I’d be ordered to charge Reine with something else, and I wouldn’t have a choice. I can’t believe this. I’m not a monster. I’m not looking to jam her up. I just want…”

“I know, but, Marcus, you have to hear us. Listen to what Ryan and Owen said, and Suzanne. After seeing her reaction to you, I can tell there’s no way you can reason with her. She’s angry with you. She’s not going to be reasonable with you because she blames you for this, and maybe for everything. What’s the outcome here, Marcus? You want her completely out of Eva’s life? Because I’ve got to tell you, she’s her mother. Take it from someone who was forced from his own kids’ lives and had to watch from a distance, although for different reasons completely. I understand where she’s coming from, and you too.”

“What are you saying, that I have to give up Eva? I’m not doing that. We adopted her, Charlotte and I. We’re her parents now…”

“No, I’m her mother,” Reine said.

Marcus turned to the woman staring daggers at him. He hadn’t realized she’d heard him. His dad touched his arm.

“Reine, that’s not what Marcus means,” Owen said, walking around her and Ryan, who was still lingering in the doorway. “We all know you’re Eva’s mother, and nothing can change that. But Marcus is right that he and Charlotte adopted her and are now her parents, her legal guardians. You can’t expect to just walk back in and be a parent to Eva, not when you’re living in a place like this. Do you have a job? What will happen to Eva? Will she hang out here, or what? What’s the plan?”

Reine shook her head, pulling into herself, shutting down. “I know what’s best for my daughter,” she said. “You’re right that I asked you to adopt her, and I’d probably do it again so Eva would be safe and protected, but let me be clear, Marcus O’Connell. I’ve had a lot of time to think and put things in perspective.”

From the way she spoke, he could see the burning hatred. He said nothing, watching her pull her arms over her chest, seeing how thin she was.

She glanced away as if she wasn’t supposed to look at him, then pulled in a sharp breath. “I wish I’d never met you, Marcus. Now please leave,” she said, her voice catching.

He felt a hand on him again and knew he could fix nothing here.

“Come on,” Owen said.

His dad had already walked to the door and pulled it open, and one by one, his brothers walked out, followed by Suzanne and his dad. Marcus stopped in the doorway and turned back to this woman who’d had the s**t kicked out of her, wondering how to explain to her that if it hadn’t been for him, she’d likely have been facing life in prison rather than making it out in a few years as she had.

But he knew the woman he was looking at now could see none of that.

“I’m sorry, Reine,” he said. “I really am.”