“All right,” he says, smiling a little.
Aiden moves in.
“Love ya, Aid,” Dad says.
“Me too, Dad.” Aiden kisses Dad’s forehead.
I turn away and bite back the emotion.
“My boys. My princess. Two beautiful grandkids and hopefully more soon. And I’m in love. I’m a lucky man,” Dad says and smiles as his eyes drift closed. “Where’s my hot assistant?”
I laugh. “We’ll send her in.”
“Keep my ex-wife outta here, will ya?” He tells the nurse.
“I’ll keep your hot assistant out of here if you don’t stay calm, Quentin,” the seasoned, sturdy nurse warns.
Dad smiles wide. He’s buzzed right out of it.
“Yeah, I heard all about you two and the supply closet,” the nurse clicks her tongue.
Dad gives her a thumbs up, looking proud.
“Be back tomorrow,” Aiden says, and we head out.
***
When we’re back in the waiting area, Roger rises. “Can I talk to you for a minute, Auz?”
“I’ll catch a ride home with you, Adele?” I ask my sister.
“See you outside,” she says.
“Later,” I say to Carly and she hugs me.
Aiden leans over to whisper to Alice, and she passes me to go see Dad. My mother shoots daggers at her back from her chair. Her arms are folded across her chest and her face is pinched into a classic Audra Carmichael scowl.
Aiden and Carly move toward Mom while Roger and I step outside.
“Austin,” Roger says, leveling me with a serious look. “I wanted to talk to you about my daughter. I realize emotions are running a bit rampant right now, Austin, but I was planning to fly up to see you tomorrow. Since you’re here…”
“Rog, I know things were already strained because of you and my mother, but serious – this isn’t about that. This isn’t about Sienna’s past with Aiden either. It’s all about what she did to me. What she did to me was fucked. This is only about that.”
He sighs. “She’s home right now with her mother, got booked this afternoon and released. She’s traumatized. Devastated. Frankly, Austin, we all are.”
I fold my arms over my chest. “And why do you wanna discuss this? I have no plans to drop charges if that’s what you’re about to get at.”
His expression – the man looks ravaged by stress. “If she gets convicted, she’ll be a registered sex offender, Austin. She’s a troubled young woman, but she’s a young woman. Do you really think she deserves to have that hanging over her head for the rest of her life?”
Sienna’s not looking for a career, she wants a trophy husband, so chances are her sex offender status won’t make a lick of difference to her, provided she snags the next man she wants and he’s like her – without morals. Despite thinking this, I don’t say it. Instead, I say something I’ve been saying far too often in defense of my decision to press charges.
“What if she were the victim, Rog, not me? What if it were me or Aid on trial? Would we deserve the sex offender status?”
He flinches.
He knows what I’m saying is true.
“Yeah. Double standards.”
“I’m asking you, Austin, no, I’m begging you. What she did was wrong. I’m sorry she did that to you, but Austin, she’s… she’s my little girl. I have to ask for this. What can I do to convince you?”
I take a deep breath and a long look at Roger Greer, a man I’ve known since I was a little kid. He looks broken right now.
“Roger, you’ve been like an uncle to me growing up. Dad’s best friend. I’ve always liked you.”
His face relaxes a little.
And then I go for the throat. “But while I thought of you that way, while Aid and Adele also thought of you as an uncle, you were getting away with screwing my mother behind my father’s back. Behind your wife’s back.”
Roger’s expression drops. I’m not done yet, so I keep talking.
“Behind your best friend’s back. Doin’ that to with my mother to your wife, your kids, me, Aid, and Adele. Did you think about the fallout for all of us with that? Seems like your daughter gets her recklessness honestly.”
His expression falls further, and he scrubs his face with the palm of his hand.
“I get it, Austin. But you can’t help who you fall in love with.”
“I don’t know if you do get it. Despite all that shit, this isn’t revenge, man. It really isn’t. This is about what’s right and wrong from that night, my brother’s wedding night. Just that night. That’s one of the differences between me and your daughter. And I know she was there to break up my brother’s wedding. She cooked up a scheme and she just didn’t get there in time, so she decided to do what she could to fuck with us.”
“I know,” he says. “I know because I stopped her by giving her the wrong locale for the wedding.”