One Stupid Thing

2:10:75

Ward gets off of his chair and steps towards me with open arms. "Stella, honey. I know this is going to be a shock for—"

"Don't touch me," I snap, backing away from him. He sets his arms down steps away from me with a sigh.

"I'm sorry. Just... just please let me explain."

"Fine. But I'm not doing this for you," I add quickly. "I'm doing it for me... and for Sarah." I keep a wide distance between the two of us as I walk around the room to sit beside Sarah. She rests her head back in her hands and refuses to look at him.

Our father takes a seat once more and folds his hands in front of him. He clears his throat before speaking. "I used the scuba gear on the Druthers. I had it all set up in advance, timed to the second. It was touch and go getting off. I almost didn't make it." He chuckles at the irony of it all. Neither of us join in his laughter.

Rafe enters the room, capturing everyone's attention. He says nothing and Ward goes back to his story.

"What I need you both to understand more than anything is that I never imagined that you would be there. I wanted to call you immediately to tell you that I was okay, to explain it all. It broke my heart that I couldn't." His eyes water and spill over. Crocodile tears.

"Oh please," I scoff, rolling my eyes and crossing my arms over my chest.

Ward ignores my comment. "But I had to make sure Rafe got away."

"Thank you, Dad," Rafe pipes up. "At least one of us is grateful."

"That's psychopathic, both of you," Sarah spits.

"I promised Rafe that he wouldn't go to prison for helping me. I had to make good on that promise," Ward explains.

"Not that you care," Rafe mutters.

"Did it look like I didn't care when I thought Dad was dead?" Sarah replies, her voice cracking.

"It looked like you cared about running off with some asshole."

"It looked like all you cared about was the inheritance," she shoots back.

"Yes, you cared!" Ward shouts, interrupting the argument. "You cared! That's the point! Anybody in that dock could see how much you cared, sweetheart."

"I didn't." All eyes turn to me. "What? You treat me like shit my entire life, blame it on something I can't control, proceed to blow up my entire life and expect me to care?" I pause and scoff. "My whole life is a lie."

Ward sighs. "I know you're angry right now and rightfully so. The important thing is that it's all behind us now. It is."

I scoff again. "So what? You just expect me to move on like nothing happened? You just expect me to pretend like I don't even know my own mother? And I never will because she's dead! Or is she, Dad? What else are you lying about?"

"We're gonna live a new life, all of us together," he replies, completely disregarding my concerns. "Where I'm taking you, it's paradise. It's off this place called Guadeloupe. And oh, by the way, all those A's you got in French are about to pay off, 'cause they speak French there." Ward grabs a pamphlet, unfolds it and sets it in front of the two of us.

Sarah sits forward and pushes the pamphlet back toward our dad without even glancing at it. "We want to call our friends, and we want to call our boyfriends," she says flatly. "Can we at least just tell them that we're okay?"

"Yes, of course you can. As soon as we get there, you can call John B and uh... what's his name again?"

"JJ," I spit.