After having a great time in Forest Park, Ryan, Ben, and Cassie return to find Liza waiting for them. She acts as if everything is fine. Will Ben be able to stand strong? Will Ryan resist the urge to punch her? See what's happening in this week's chapter of In Pieces. Don't forget to visit the other Briefers and see what they're up to! Their links follow my tale! Enjoy!
“Darling, you’re
looking well,” she began. “I was hoping I could have a little of your time. I
know the band’s on break right now. I guessed that you might come here. There’s
so much we need to talk about.” She ignored Ryan and Cassie, as if by doing so
they didn’t exist.
“Excuse me,” Cassie began in a belligerent tone, “but this
is my property and you are not
welcome on it.”
Liza gave Cassie a disdainful stare. “I was living here long
before you were even a blip on my ex’s radar, little girl. I wasn’t aware he
was in to cradle robbing, but somehow that doesn’t surprise me.”
Ryan clenched his fist at the insult to his father, and he
noticed Cassie drawing herself up as if to strike, but Ben’s voice diverted
them both. Ryan wanted to protest. He wanted to throw himself between Liza and
Ben, use himself as a shield to keep Ben safe from her. Be a barrier between
them, one she couldn’t get past. But he didn’t, and he knew he shouldn’t. Ben
was an adult and he was capable of dealing with the situation on his own. But
that didn’t mean Ryan wasn’t going to support him in every way possible. Even
if he had to step in to do it.
He was pleased when Ben took his hand and clasped it in his
own as he strode toward the house, a determined look on his handsome face. Liza
had risen from the lawn chair and was gliding toward them with a welcoming
smile. One which became a scowl as she took in the sight of their joined hands.
But the next moment, she quickly shrugged it off, focusing on Ben.
“Stop right there, Mother,” he said. “You have no right to
insult either Cassie or Dad—”
“He wasn’t your Dad!” Liza snarled. She took a step toward
Ben, who stood his ground.
“He was the only Dad I ever knew and he loved me!” Ben
retorted.
“If he loved you so much, why did he throw us out?” Liza
countered, hands on hips. Ryan expected to see lightning bolts shoot out of her
eyes at any moment.
Ryan was confused at her words, and he could see that Ben
was as well. How dare she say that Dad threw them out when she was the one who
sneaked away, like a thief in the night? He felt Ben squeeze his hand and he
returned the squeeze reassuringly.
“That sounds like revisionist history to me,” he accused
her. “Dad never did that, that was all on you. You’re just trying to make Dad
look bad and make yourself seem like the injured party, but it wasn’t like
that, was it?”
“How would you know? You were just a child.” Liza tried to
skirt around Ryan in order to get to Ben, but he wouldn’t allow it, placing
himself in between them. Cassie quickly stepped to Ben’s other side.
“I was eighteen, hardly a child,” Ryan said. “Is that what
it was? You saw something, didn’t you? You knew how Ben and I felt about each
other, and you didn’t like it. Jealous much?”
When Liza blanched, Ryan knew he’d hit the mark and pressed
on. “You couldn’t handle the idea that Ben was able to love someone other than
you. You wanted to keep him all to yourself, but you saw me as a problem.”
“Ben belongs to me, I love him. What mother doesn’t love her
child?”
Ryan read the fear in her eyes as glanced between the three
of them. “Because your kind of love isn’t natural.”
“And yours is? Ben’s your brother—”
“Stepbrother!” Ben
quickly interjected. “No blood, mother. We’re not related in any way. You and
I, on the other hand…”
Liza winced as if his words had physically assaulted her.
“That’s different,” she protested. “We’ve always been different, you and I,
Ben. We had something special…”
“Special? Are you really going to justify what you did to me
like that?” Ben asked incredulously.
“What you did was wrong. You led me to
believe that Ryan only wanted to use me, and that he wasn’t good enough for me,
but your love for me was right in every way… even that way…”
Ryan knew what speaking the words aloud must be costing Ben.
His face was turning red, as his voice rose from his exertion.
“You abused me,” Ben continued. “You twisted our
relationship into something horrible and wrong. I don’t think you even cared me
that much, not until you realized that Ryan did. And you couldn’t handle the
idea of someone else coming first in my life. Someone who wasn’t you being
loved by me.”
Liza was struggling not to blow up, Ryan realized, her face
contorting in rage. Perhaps she knew it wouldn’t help her case any, not with
Ryan and Cassie right there. Although nothing would, not now, not ever.
“You were just a child, I was afraid he’d hurt you,” she
said in a pseudo-tender voice.
“I was a child?” Ben echoed. “That’s not what you said when
you took me into your bed after you took me away from Ryan and Dad.”
Liza took a step back from Ben’s anger, then another.
“Perhaps this isn’t a good time,” she backpedaled. “You’re under an undue
influence here. These two”—she glared daggers at Ryan and Cassie—“have filled
your head with false notions about me. You should come home, take some time to
yourself and clear your head—”
“My home is where Ryan is,” Ben interrupted. “I have nothing
more to say to you.”
“What about your precious band? If I cut you off, all that’s
finished.”
Ben took a deep breath, rising to his full height as he
stared into her eyes for a long moment. “I.Don’t. Care.”
As he started to step around her, she reached for his arm.
He drew back.
to be continued
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