After Before and After

Phase 4: Chapter 3

The following day, Jeffery took the morning off work to drive Jack to Dalton. Paige offered to come get him, but Jeffery kindly insisted that he was happy to make the drive himself. Truthfully, Jeffery wanted, or more like needed to have a face-to-face conversation with Evan Merridew before he'd be comfortable with returning the boy to the environment that had put him in the hospital a couple weeks earlier; and almost every time before that.

"Why do we have to ring the bell?" Jack asked as he stood behind Jeffery at his own front door.

"I'm not going to just send you in there without making sure an adult is home" the man half-truthfully responded.

Jack scrunched his eyebrows in confusion just as the front door opened, revealing Evan Merridew on the other side. Jack took in the familiar, bored expression on the man's face. Alongside disappointment and anger, boredom was the only other emotion Evan really expressed towards him.

Before anyone had the chance to speak, Jack pushed his way past Jeffery and then his father to enter the house without a word. He dragged his bags up the grand stairs, leaving the two men alone in the entryway.

"He give you any trouble?" Evan practically mumbled to Jeffery when he realized the man wasn't leaving.

"He never does" Jeffery assured him. "Jack's a good kid, and a good friend to my boy. It seems to me that he only gives trouble where he gets it."

"Excuse me?" Evan's mumble rose to a defensive, more audible tone of voice.

"I'm not trying to step on any toes here, I'd just like to know that Jack will be safe here once I head back to East Point" Jeffery carefully answered.

Evan just laughed a little, seemingly more to himself than to Jeffery. The latter was not nearly as amused by the conversation as Jack's father was.

"Not trying to step on any toes here but this family's business ain't none of yours" Evan countered.

"Evan, we both know Jack didn't fall down the stairs in August. I'm not trying to be in your business, but I do need you to understand that if anything detrimental happens to that boy, I will do my due diligence to protect him" Jeffery bravely claimed.

This time when Evan laughed, it wasn't a light chuckle but an offensive belly laugh; one that made Jeffery feel like he was twelve years old again and had just confidently shouted out the wrong answer in front of the whole class.

"Don't waste your energy" Evan said as his laughter began to subside. "And if you ever threaten me or my family again, it won't be Jack who needs protecting" he added much more seriously.

"Just leave the kid be, alright?" Jeffery reiterated as he took a couple steps back, closer to his car parked in the circular roundabout around the flower garden in the middle of the driveway, and further away from Evan Merridew.

Evan simply chuckled again at Jeffery's pursuit to protect Jack. It was beyond Evan what Jeffery Langley and his family saw in the boy. Jack wasn't blood, he wasn't a good person, he should've meant nothing to them. But he didn't, for reasons Evan Merridew didn't have the heart to comprehend. Evan closed the door as Jeffery made his way back down the Merridew's luxurious front steps.

Jack returned to school for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday that week. That first night of the weekend, Ralph came to Dalton to spend the weekend with Jack. Most of the time, Jack would come to East Point for the weekends, but Jeffery and Laurie were both adamant about Ralph going up there instead. The truth was that they wanted Ralph to go so he could report back to them on how things were at the Merridew house now that Jack was home for the first time since he was hospitalized. Both Ralph's parents trusted that he would tell them if anything was seriously off. Given that Evan's never laid an ill-intentioned finger on Paige, they weren't necessarily worried for Ralph's safety anymore. Jeffery gathered enough from his conversation with Jack in the hospital to know that Evan's rage was directed at Jack specifically, rather than the fact that he was just an all around abusive parent. Jeffery and Laurie's concern for Jack's safety after he was so badly injured was at the top of their priority list when they dropped Ralph off that Friday night.