now you have no notion whatsoever that that what you asked me to do was heinous and wrong. I’m your daughter, goddamn it!”
“Kat, don’t speak to your mother that way,” Dad snapped.
“Then she shouldn’t be speaking to me the way she is. She seems to forget she has two children, not just one.”
Behind both of them, I could see Derek begin to pace, wringing his hands. I tore my eyes away.
“Was there anything important you needed to say? I’m going to leave,” I finally said.
“Don’t leave. Come to the house, girlie. I promise we’ll be civil.”
“There’s nothing I want there, anymore. I’m still really hurt by the way you’ve all treated me so I don’t think I can.”
Mum shook her head at me with a disgusted curl of her lip. “It’s always been all about you and only you, hasn’t it, Katya? Why oh why did I raise such a selfish girl? Your brother is sick. Didn’t you listen for one moment during all that family therapy? He’s sick!”
New tears sprang to my eyes and now Derek had stopped and was watching us talk about him like he wasn’t even there. “Yes, he’s sick. And it breaks my heart—” my voice cut off in a sob. “And it’s broken my heart over and over again. And every time he promised to do the work to get better, I hoped against all hope that this one time, that one time would be the time. And over and over again, he’d fall again. And instead of learning what you needed to do to be the support network he needs, you enabled him to keep doing it. Derek may be the addict but this entire family is sick. You two are addicted to enabling him.”
Now Dad was trying to shush me because my voice was raising and people were on the sidewalk nearby. A mother pushing her baby in a stroller had her eyes glued to us and almost ran into a pole. Some man in a dark suit out of the corner of my eye veered from the curb and headed straight for us. Maybe he was an officer of the court who was going to threaten us with disorderly conduct or something.
This was Canada, after all, didn’t the world know us all for our politeness and cheerful friendliness? There was nothing cheerful or friendly happening on this sidewalk right now.
“I told you I’m not going to shush. If you’re going to stand there and accuse me of being selfish—”
Suddenly the man in the dark suit was beside me, holding my arm. Dad jerked his head toward the newcomer, his expression angry.
I looked up at the man beside me and almost fell over when I saw who it was. Lucas. I rush of so many feelings raced through me—confusion, joy, relief, betrayal. I blinked.
Maybe I was imagining things, and I’d just dreamed him up out of delusion.
“Hello,” he said, clearing his throat. “I’m Lucas Walker, your son-in-law.” And just like that he was shaking my stunned dad’s hand and then my mum’s.
Lucas then waved to Derek who was staring at him. “Hi Derek.”
My brother dropped his gaze to the pavement. “Hey Lucas.”
“I’ve come to take my wife away from whatever this is. She doesn’t deserve this sort of treatment. She is the one who did the right thing. And it was wrong of you all to ask her to do anything else.”
Dad looked at Lucas as if he had no idea what to say and Mum was now crying. Great. This family… we’d be a great case for the Jerry Springer show if there was anything like that in this country. And I’d be embarrassed that Lucas was even here witnessing this if I hadn’t seen just as bad behavior on his own parents’ part.
Lucas tugged my arm lightly, trying to get me to disengage but all I could do was look at them with those crazy mixed-up feelings I had. Should I just walk away again without a word—like I had before?
It felt wrong not to say anything.
“You’re my family. You’ll always be my family. But that doesn’t mean you get to tell me how to live my life anymore. I’m going to make the decisions I need to be happy. And if you can’t love me anymore, then I’m sorry for you and I’ll find the people who will truly love me.”
Dad and Mum looked like I’d just set off an explosion in their faces. They were clearly shell-shocked. The