you’re out.”
“Not acceptable,” Alexandra objects. “Clearly. You are not in a state of mind to be making decisions, and you are still a minor. You are coming with me, Allie, and that’s the end of it.”
“I’ll run away,” Allie says, eyes still fixed on Braden. “You’ll never find me. This is harm reduction. Braden knows what that is. They teach it in AA, right?”
Braden’s heart twists and twists again at his daughter’s words, at the sight of her drinking, at the thought that his faulty genetics and personal weaknesses have infected her despite his long absence. Or maybe because of it.
It’s nearly impossible to think, to find any words at all, let alone good ones.
“AA is about total abstinence,” he finally says. “They aren’t much into harm reduction. Drinking is not a good idea for you, especially right now.”
“Oh please. If ever there was a perfect time to drink, this is it.” Allie lifts the glass again.
Before it reaches her lips, Braden’s hand acts without any conscious direction from his brain. As surprised as everybody else in the room, he watches it lift in a smooth arc and strike the glass from her hand. Time stops for an instant, just enough for him to know that the intensity of her hate is about to ratchet up three notches. Her eyes widen, her mouth drops open. The glass catches a rainbow of light before gravity brings the inevitable.
Glass shatters on the floor. Wine sprays out over the carpet and onto the wall. A red stain on Allie’s breast looks like blood.
Braden, observing his fingers carefully so he doesn’t fumble, lifts the other glass from her unresisting hand and carries it to the sink, where he empties it, sets it next to the untouched glass on the counter, and dumps what remains in the bottle down the drain.
“What the hell?” Allie’s voice is closer to tears than rage.
Alexandra’s could cut diamond. “And this is how you plan to parent?”
Braden dredges up a rusty voice of authority. “If I’m going to live here, there will be no alcohol in this house. No alcohol, period, for either you or me. You’re a smart girl, and I’m sure your mother has explained why you, in particular, are at risk.”
Allie still stands, unmoving, in the middle of a dramatic stain that mars Lilian’s once pristine white carpet.
“Mom’s not here.”
“I think we’ve established that.”
Lilian’s absence is loud. She’s not scurrying around blotting up the spill and planning how to get the stain out. She’s not berating or lecturing. She is, simply, not anything.
Alexandra, on the other hand, is overly present and keeping up a stream of unwelcome and unhelpful commentary. “How on earth are you going to get that out? That was new carpet, what, just a year ago, wasn’t it, Allie? Lil was so excited about it, and now look!”
Braden is too exhausted to move away from the sink. The empty bottle is still in his hand, the intoxicating smell of alcohol filling his sinuses.
“I wish—” Allie begins, then breaks on a sob. Deliberately stepping on the broken glass so it crunches beneath her shoes, she stalks out of the room. He hears footsteps on the stairs, the slamming of a door.
Alexandra switches up her approach. “Look, Braden. I’m not saying you don’t mean well. But surely you can see this isn’t going to work. Walk away. I’ll give you a ride back to your apartment. Allie will be much better off in a structured environment with two adults.”
He weighs the logic of the words against all of his weaknesses.
“And if she runs away?”
“She won’t. You know nothing about teenagers, Braden. She’s just making threats. She has no idea what she wants and certainly doesn’t know what she needs.”
Alexandra is offering him an out. If he takes it, he can tell himself it was all for Allie’s good, that he made a noble sacrifice of his own wants and desires for her best interests. But he’s already told himself that lie once before.
He’s endured half a year of visitation, once a week, on Sundays. Lilian would drop the kids off at McDonald’s after church. Braden would feed them burgers and fries, watch them play in the ball pit, on the slides. And then he’d hug them, kiss them, watch them get into the car, and drive away.
Every time, it broke him. Once, he couldn’t bring himself to do it and stayed home drunk. Twice. And then the phone call from Lilian.
“Let’s just cancel visits, Braden. They’ll