The Ties that Bind (Kingdom) (2 page)

Ducking, Mason flung up to defend himself from the twirling bottle. “For God’s sake, Taryn, what’s the matter with you? Have you lost your mind?”

Taryn could see the shock on Mason’s face, and she wanted to laugh, sure that he was wondering where the placid woman of an hour ago had disappeared to. It amused Taryn to see just how agitated Mason was becoming. She knew her husband well enough to know that one of the things he disliked most was losing control of a situation.

“No, Mason, I haven’t lost my mind. For the first time in years, I am in complete charge of my faculties, and you know what, it feels good!”

Along with Mason’s loss of control of the spiralling situation, Taryn could see that Hope was having difficulty coming to grips with her behavior. Well she had better get used to it, Taryn thought. They had all better get used to it because this new Taryn was here to stay.

She could see at a glance that Hope was exhibiting signs of distress, and she immediately knew why. The last time she had acted this way, everything had ended in disaster.

Taryn watched as wave after wave of emotion changed her daughter’s expression. Somehow she knew what was coming before Hope even spoke. She was going to try to stop her. Hope didn’t want her to upset the status quo.

Taryn thought she was ready for whatever Hope would do next. Even though she was a drunk she knew her daughter, and she thought she was prepared for what Hope did best, what she had been taught to do all her life. Mason was just standing there, watching her, his mouth hanging open, shock now his only expression.

“You sound like you’ve lost your mind, Mama!”

Hope addressed her mother with such disdain; Taryn immediately recognized the tone of voice. She had lived with it as a constant companion for much of her married life.

“Now that you’ve wrecked the room, do you feel better, Mama, huh, do you?”

Taking a deep breath, Taryn gave Hope her complete attention. She knew worse was to come, and she was ready for it.

“Who do you think you’re fooling, huh, Mama, who? Well you don’t fool me. Where’s your stash? Is it down the back of the couch?”

Walking over to the sofa, Hope reached her hand behind the cushions and searched around. It didn’t take long for her to find what she was looking for. Pulling up a bottle of vodka she threw it on the seat and moved on.

“How about the book shelf, Mama? There’s always a bottle or two behind the books. Isn’t that right?” Sweeping the books from the shelves without regard, Hope scored again.

Holding a bottle in each hand, she turned to look at her mother. “You’re not fooling anyone. You can break every last bottle in that bar, but I know, Daddy knows, and you know that this house is littered with your stash of vodka!”

Coming to the end of her tirade, Taryn held a hand against her throat, her eyes wide with horror at the way Hope spoke to her. As though coming out of a stupor, Taryn rushed towards her daughter, her sudden movement taking both Hope and Mason by surprise. Snatching the bottles from Hope’s lax hands, Taryn threw them to the wooden floor, smashing them at Hope’s feet. Turning she moved to the sofa and did the same to the bottle Hope had discarded there.

“You’re right, Hope. This house is littered with my stash, but I bet you don’t know all my hiding places. You would be surprised at the places a drunk can find to hide their stash!”

Once again on the move, Taryn grabbed hold of Hope’s arm and began to pull her around the room. Using her free hand she retrieved bottle after bottle and smashed them on the floor.

Her desperation plain to see, Hope tried to break free of her hold. Looking at her father for help, both women were shocked to see him standing perfectly still as though rooted to the spot.

“Daddy, help me, she’s mad!”

“Don’t you call me that, don’t you ever call me that, do you hear me, Hope, do you?” Taryn shouted at her daughter. Gabbing hold of both of Hope’s arms Taryn shook her for good measure, desperate for Hope to understand what she was attempting to do.

Breaking free, Hope screamed her resistance in her mother’s face. Taryn drew back and slapped her daughter across the face. Her blow was so hard, she immediately saw the impression of her fingerprints etched against her daughter’s light skin.

Taryn was in shock. She had never struck her child in her life, and she was sorry she had done so now. “Hope, baby, I’m sorry, Mama’s sorry. I didn’t mean it, baby... I’m so sorry.” Taryn cried as she reached out her hand to Hope, only for it to be dashed away.

“What about you makes you think I want you to touch me? Don’t you ever touch me again!”

Hope spoke with such dispassion it frightened Taryn. “Please, Hope. I’m so sorry… so very, very sorry.”

Without comment or acknowledgement, Hope turned away from her mother. Looking in her father’s direction her eyes ran over him, her regard blank, emotionless.

“Where are you going, Hope?” Mason asked a curious tone to his voice.

She didn’t answer, she just kept walking.

“Hope! Where are you going?” Mason repeated, seeming determined to get an answer.

“I’m going upstairs. I still have a room here, don’t I?”

“Of course you do. This is your home.”

Reaching the door, Hope turned around and looked back at her parents. “A home… I’ve never had a home in my life. How can any place with you two in it be called a home?”

Walking through the door, Hope closed it with an almost soundless click. The finality of the sound sent reverberations of change throughout the now quiet room.

“Do you see what you’ve done?” Mason asked his wife through bared teeth.

“What have I done, Mason?” Taryn asked, uncaring of his answer, in that moment not caring about him.

“Our daughter came home because she needed us, and your drunken display has turned her away from us!”

“Us? Don’t you mean you, Mason? Well for the first time in years I see you, Mason. I see you clearly. I know what you’ve been doing, and tonight it stops. No more drink, no more pills! Now what are you going to do? I take back my power… so what are you going to do now, Mason, hmm?” Taryn mocked.

“Stop repeating my name in that ridiculous fashion!”

“I take back my power, Mason, and I’m taking back my child!”

“Good luck with that. But to my way of thinking, I’d say you were about twenty-four years too late!”

Chapter 2

Hope laid in bed, her mind running the gamut of her emotions, chopping and changing to all that had taken place over the last two days. How she had so quickly gone from having it all, the perfect life; to having nothing but a drunken mother and a controlling, manipulative father.

The scene that had played out on her arrival home was nothing new. She had been through it a thousand times. Her mother being sorry, professing she was done with alcohol and the pills. Hope clinging to her father, knowing that they were deliberately shutting her mother out of their closeness, just to hurt her. Hope knew that their behavior pushed her mother further into her addictions, she knew it, and somehow she took a perverse pleasure in it.

Tonight though, tonight something had been different. Her mother had acted as though she were actually sober. For the first time in decades, Taryn had appeared sober. Her eyes were clear, her speech lucid, and Hope was unsure how to deal with this new Taryn. The woman who had stood before her an hour ago was the polar opposite of the woman she had known throughout most of her life.

Hope’s introspections shifted, listening intently to the noise that had disturbed her thoughts. It had sounded as though it was coming from the direction of her mother’s room and she froze. She had heard the sound many times before but had pretended otherwise. Gripping the bedding tightly around her shaking body, Hope gasped for breath. She wanted to block out the sounds, but instead, and almost against her will her mind honed in, strained to hear what was taking place.

In the past she had prided herself on her ability to remain untouched, uncaring of what was being played out in her mother’s bedroom. But something had shifted, her feelings of inertia were gone. She needed to know what was taking place in her mother’s room. No more burying of her head under the covers. Too much had already taken place in her life while she cowered behind a closed door.

Rising from the bed, Hope padded on silent feet to her bedroom door and pressed her ear against the wooden paneling. The sounds were still muffled, only now she could hear her mother crying and the deep drone of her father’s voice.

Turning the handle, Hope made her way down the hallway and stopped a few steps away from her mother’s door. In her indecisiveness, fear gripped her in earnest, her breathing increased, afraid at what she was about to encounter.

Turning the handle of the door, Hope paused when it was just wide enough for her to see the scene unfolding before her. Her mother was sitting in a chair crying. Her father beside her, one of her hands grasped in his. He was on his knees, also crying and pleading with her mother.

“Why won’t you love me?”

“You know why. We’ve been through this too many times, Mason.” Wiping her eyes with one hand, Taryn attempted to pull the other out of the death grip Mason had on her hand.

As Hope watched, she was again struck by the look in her mother’s eyes. The tears were gone in an instant. Tugging at the hand enfolded within Mason’s, Taryn gained her release.

“Go away, Mason.”

Hope was immediately aware of the dispassion with which Taryn spoke. It was almost as though weariness had overtaken her and she wanted an end to the outpouring of emotion.

As Hope watched, she could see that her mother’s words or actions had registered with her father. Rising to his feet, he stood looking down at her, his cheeks still glistening with tears.

“When did we come to this point, Taryn? How did it all go so wrong?”

“What?” Taryn laughed. “Please tell me you’re joking?”

“I love you, woman. I’ve always loved you. You know that, and you abused my feelings for you!”

“My Lord, can you hear yourself? You are not the only one who has had to put up with this farce we call a marriage.”

“What the hell are you talking about? You’re the drunk. You’re the one who has neglected your only child for most of her life!” Mason shouted, all impressions of his pleading gone.

“I know I have, Mason, but you’re the one who made sure I kept doing exactly what you’re accusing me of. When the pills ran out, there was always another bottle. When the vodka ran out, there were always two more bottles to take their place.”

“So, it’s all my fault, is it? You being a lousy mother and an even worse wife, is all my fault?”

“I didn’t say that. Listen to me. For once in your pompous life, will you listen to me? Hear me, Mason, hear…
me
!”

“Why should I listen to you? You’re a goddamn addict. Not even your own daughter wants you. Who does she come running to when she needs something? Who can she rely on when something goes wrong in her life? You, Taryn? Don’t make me laugh!”

Hope could hear the scorn in her father’s voice, and it was all directed towards the beautiful shell of a woman who had given birth to her. She had never seen her father like this before. Never heard him speak to her mother in this way. They were true, all the things her father was saying, they were all true, but somehow Hope knew something unjust was unfolding before her.

“I’m taking my life back, and I’m taking Hope back, Mason.”

Again, Hope heard Taryn’s words spoken without effusion, just a simple truth.

“I already told you, you’re too late. She belongs to me!”

“She’s my daughter, and I want her back. You’ve done enough damage to the women in this mockery of a family, and it stops now.”

Glued to her hiding place, Hope saw her father begin to pace the room, his expression ever changing.

“You have until morning, to leave this house, Taryn.”

“What? You can’t throw me out of my own house!”

“Yes, I can. Pack your bags and get out! You’re sober now, get out there and earn your keep. Let’s see how you manage that. Let’s see how you manage your life without me or Hope in it. God knows you couldn’t even manage to be a half way decent wife or mother!”

Jumping to her feet, Taryn faced off against Mason. “You get out! This is my home, and I will not leave it!”

“You couldn’t keep this house going for a month without me!”

“You just watch me, just watch me and see. Now
you
have until morning, to pack
your
bags and get out, you supercilious bastard!” Taryn threw back.

Looking Taryn up and down, it seemed to Hope that her father was calculating the standoff.

“Okay, I’ll leave. I’ll be gone first thing in the morning, and I’ll be taking Hope with me.”

“For God’s sake, Mason, Hope is a grown woman. Stop trying to manipulate her. It’s time for her to grow up, and I’m going to see that she does whether she leaves with you or not.”

“Oh, she’ll leave with me.”

“In a way I hope she does. At least that way the more time she spends with you the more she’ll come to know you, and exactly what kind of man you truly are, mistress and all!”

Hope saw the look of amusement overtake her mother’s face even as her father’s visage changed to astonishment at Taryn’s last comment.

“Oh my God. You thought I didn’t know. Did you honestly think that I didn’t know that you’ve been changing your mistresses, every two years for the last twenty-two years? I’m a substance abuser, Mason, not an idiot.”

“Well what about you? Answer that, Taryn… what about you?”

“I made one mistake, Mason… one, and it was a mistake that I readily admit to. But you know what, if I had it to do over, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

“You bitch!”

“Yeah, I’m a bitch of your creation, and so is my daughter. I don’t know what happened tonight, but I bet it’s got you written all over it. That man was the first person in her life who could possibly get her away from you. Yet instead of us attending her wedding, she’s here, without Steve; and you’re placating her with ‘Daddy’s going to take care of everything’.”