The Return

Chapter Nineteen

Vaughn Steinfeld was not a yeller. Neither was he a talker. In the Steinfeld marriage dynamic, Georgia Steinfeld was the voice and the pants. Vaughn Steinfeld was the good cop, the one brooding in the background whenever Holly or Heaven were in the wrong. The one they could look onto and depend on to save them from Georgia's rage.

That was until he cheated.

And everything changed.

Holly didn't even know where to start with that one. Gretchen, Abigail, Olivia... And who knows how many others. He didn't bring them to the house. It was no wonder Georgia hadn't pieced it together till women were banging down their front door demanding to speak with him.

He wasn't good at it. He was playing a dangerous game and threw caution to the wind. With each woman, he grew more careless.

He was an amateur playing a game that was way over his head. And Georgia and Heaven might have forgiven him, but Holly didn't know where she stood with him. 

"I'm not going to lie, I'm disappointed, in the both of you," Vaughn said glaring through the rear-view mirror.

He took the exit to North Avondale Avenue. Holly sat transfixed on a closed food truck until it drifted into a small dot.

Vaughn was red, a tableau of concealed rage. He didn't have an unsentimental face. Welcoming and understanding were two words that were always tossed around to describe Vaughn. There wasn't even a wisp of hair out of place. "Prison, really? Did you once think about what this would do to our reputation?"

His words jolted her back.

"We already have a reputation, Vaughn, we're the most talked about family in our neighbourhood. And we all know who's to blame for that."

"Are we still on this?"

"We never left it." She was going to be sick. When he made multiple mistakes with his restless tongue and impulses, he was weak. When she slipped up and landed in prison for being at a party with underage drinkers, she was a threat to their reputation.

He took Georgia's hand in his. "I already apologized to your mother. I was a terrible husband—"

"And a shitty father. Or did you not for a second stop to think about how this would affect us?"

"What do you think it was like being uninvited to parties as the outcasts all because our father couldn't keep it in his pants? People still come up to me telling me they regret having me around because I'm your daughter."

"Holly stop," Heaven pleaded leaning against the window.

"How do you think we felt listening to the women rip our precious reputation to shreds?" Holly hissed. "Or were you too self-involved to hear the jabs they were taking at us?"

For sixteen years, they were a tight-knit family, joint at the hip. After school, Georgia would have a native dish waiting on the dinner table Vaughn would place a chaste kiss on her head and blab about his job interviews with colleges in the area. Holly hadn't noticed it before, but there was a seamless bond of love that held them together. Lies and deception ripped them apart. Any trace of that connection was gone.

And somehow, Georgia and Vaughn were trying to desperately resuscitate it.

"Look at it from our perspective," Holly whispered. "We wanted to believe you. I wanted to believe you. That it was a one time thing. But it was never like that for you." She will never let that go.

Pressed into the back seat, Holly wanted to disappear.

Instinctively, she continued. "I did everything I could to pretend that we would make it through this... But when I knew that you were getting a divorce... I..." She was sixteen.

Her fingers were frigid.

"I needed space. I needed time." The vein in his neck bulged.

"You needed help and you pushed away the three people that could save you," She held her hands out in an empty gesture. "And now you're groveling, trying to pick up the pieces from where you left off."

He was stumped.

"That's enough." Georgia turned in her seat.

"How do you know this isn't going to be like the last time?" Holly felt helpless, like a child lost at sea.

"We don't. All we know is that what we're doing, sticking together, feels right and for now, that's enough." She reached out a hand to squeeze Holly's knee. "It's going to be hard, adapting to all of this, but, time heals, and this way, we can both be there for the both of you."

Vaughn swerved onto Kennedy expressway. "I can speak for myself, Georgia." He said curtly. "I got caught because that life wasn't meant for me. I was selfish, and I want to make it right. Are we going to hold that over me forever?" He was testing the speed limit. "I love you girls and I love your mother; I always have. And it's about time I fight for that." He continued. "That doesn't mean I'm going to watch the both of you turn wayward."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Holly kicked the back of his seat. "What guarantee do we have that you wouldn't run off with some blonde bimbo at the University?"

"I'm a better man than that." He said. "I'm not the one who had to be bailed out of a goddamn cell."

Her stomach revolted.

"Stop the car." Holly pried her eyes off Heaven's red eyes. "Stop the damn car!" She thrashed in her seat. He pulled into a residential street and cut off the engine.

She needed air.

Georgia would never pitch in when he did things like this.

Holly unbuckled Heaven's seatbelt and reached over and pushed the door open. She undid her own seatbelt and went around the corner to get a hysteric Heaven out of the car.

"Until you give us a goddamn reason to trust your cheating lying ass, you have no place to judge us for our little mistake." Heaven climbed out into the night. "And Mom, open your eyes, this is what flatlined your marriage before, don't sit idly by and let it happen again," She had more to say, but couldn't get the words out.

Heaven sat by the edge of the sidewalk knees hugging.

What in God's precious name were they going to do?