“It’s Sonia,” she corrects.
“Any day now.”
Offended, she blows out a bitter “Just a minute.”
Shuffling erupts down the line, followed by a marriage of distant voices. I hear what sounds like water, waves…
The sea?
He’s out on a yacht, isn’t he?
On some new boat with some new girl?
What’s next?
Renaming Mom’s boat after one of his whores?
“Hey, kiddo. Sorry, I was out swimming,” Dad says on the other end. “Everything okay at home?”
“You mean apart from the raging bitch living there?”
A deep sigh flares down the line.
“I told you about the house sitter.”
“You did, and it was fine when I wasn’t home, but I’m back now. Feel free to fire her.”
There’s a beat of silence.
“That’s not happening.”
Did he just say…
“I’m sorry?”
“I’m not firing her, Finley.”
“But you don’t fucking need her. I’ll take care of the house. Like I always have.”
“And allow what happened last summer to happen again?”
Here we go.
“It was one party!”
Dismissing me, he continues, “Kid… you didn’t even make it one week at basketball camp before starting shit. What am I supposed to do with that?”
Rage boiling in my stomach, I mutter, “Fine. What about Brody?”
“Your brother’s taking summer classes.”
“So, he can’t come back on the weekends? Bullshit.”
“And leave Lexie alone five days out of the week?”
“She won’t be alone. She’ll have me,” I argue.
“Look, son, no offense, but you don’t exactly have the best track record these days. Maybe if you knew better like Xavier, I—”