The Captain's Dirty Little Secret

Chapter 217: Chapter 217 - I Don’t Live Here Anymore

Arthur pointed the folded Tennessee letter toward him.

”You will apologize to Holly. You will apologize to your brother. You will abandon Tennessee and attend the academy interview we arrange.”

”No.”

”You will.”

”No academy.”

Nathan pulled against Holly’s grip.

”After everything they gave you, you still think you get to decide.”

”It’s my life.”

”You lost the state championship, missed the academy interview, lied about Tennessee, and dragged that girl through every decision. You’ve been given every advantage, and you still find a way to ruin everything.”

Zac felt the control slipping.

He counted again.

One breath.

Two.

Arthur continued.

”You are reckless, ungrateful, and violent. You have been since you were a child.”

”I was a kid.”

”You were a problem.”

The words entered the same place as the belt.

Zac lifted his head.

”You never wanted me.”

Miranda whispered his name.

Arthur’s jaw tightened.

”We gave you everything.”

”You gave Nathan everything.”

Nathan tore his arm from Holly’s hands.

”Stop saying my name like I did something to you.”

”You were the son they wanted.”

”I sure earned everything I got.”

”They trusted you before you earned it.”

”They trusted me because I wasn’t a liar.”

”You were good at becoming him.”

Nathan crossed half the room before Holly caught the back of his shirt.

”I should break your fucking mouth again.”

Zac looked directly at Arthur.

His father’s face held the same warning Zac remembered from childhood.

He should have stopped.

He knew what came after that expression.

Every empty seat, every locked bedroom door, every command to hold still pushed through him at once.

”You were never a father.”

Arthur’s fist tightened around the Tennessee letter.

Zac saw it crumple.

”You were a man who paid for things and hit me whenever I didn’t become Nathan.”

Arthur crossed the space between them and punched him.

The fist struck the side of Zac’s face harder than Nathan’s had.

Zac stumbled into the narrow table behind him.

The lamp fell and shattered beside his shoes.

His lip opened again.

Blood ran across his tongue and down his chin.

Miranda screamed Arthur’s name.

Nathan started forward, but Holly grabbed him with both hands.

”Stop. Let your father handle it.”

For several seconds, Zac stood beside the broken table with his head lowered.

He was younger again.

His father had hit him.

The correct response was to remain still.

Wait for permission to move.

Never raise his hands.

Zac’s fingers shook.

He looked at the blood across his palm.

Then he looked at Arthur.

There was no regret on his father’s face.

Zac had spent years getting stronger. He had learned to take hits from boys larger than him and get back to his feet before the next play.

He had never hit his father.

Zac punched him across the jaw.

The room froze.

Arthur staggered one step, more from shock than the force.

Nathan ripped free from Holly.

Miranda shouted.

”You hit Dad!”

He rushed forward.

Arthur reached Zac first and drove a fist into his stomach.

Zac folded around the impact.

His father grabbed his shirt and threw him against the wall.

The back of Zac’s head struck hard enough to blur his vision.

”You ungrateful bastard.”

Zac shoved him away.

”You never came.”

Arthur struck him across the ribs.

Zac swung and connected near his father’s mouth.

”You never listened.”

Arthur grabbed his shirt again.

Zac drove his shoulder into Arthur’s chest and forced him backward into the coffee table.

Everything on top of it scattered across the floor.

Nathan caught Zac around the shoulders from behind.

Zac swung backward before recognizing him. His fist missed Nathan’s face by inches.

Nathan drove him against the wall.

”You’re fucking insane.”

”Get off me.”

”You just hit Dad.”

”He’s been hitting me since I was a kid.”

Nathan tightened his grip.

”Stop saying that like it excuses this.”

Arthur remained free behind him.

Zac twisted against Nathan’s arms.

”Tell him to stay back.”

”You’re the one attacking everyone.”

”He punched me first.”

”You deserved it after what you said.”

The answer hurt more than Nathan’s grip.

Holly came closer and placed one hand on Nathan’s shoulder.

Miranda cried beside the couch.

”How could you do this?” she asked. ”You’ve become violent. You’re dangerous. I don’t recognize you.”

Zac looked at her over Nathan’s shoulder.

His eye had started swelling. Blood covered his chin. Every breath pulled against his ribs.

She looked at him as though he had destroyed the family by fighting back.

”You recognize me. This is the boy you raised. You failed as a mother.”

Miranda shook her head.

Nathan slammed him against the wall again.

”Stop talking to her like that.”

Arthur stepped around the damaged coffee table.

”Let him go.”

Nathan hesitated.

”Dad.”

”I said let him go.”

Nathan released Zac with a final shove.

Zac caught himself against the wall.

Arthur looked at him without emotion.

”Get out of my house.”

Miranda stopped crying long enough to look at him.

Nathan’s chest rose and fell with anger. Holly wrapped both hands around one of his arms.

Zac waited.

He waited for Miranda to object.

He waited for Nathan to remember they were brothers.

He waited for Arthur to realize Zac had nowhere to go.

Nobody moved.

”Fine.”

Zac turned toward the stairs.

”Your truck key.”

He stopped.

His hand went into his pocket.

The metal pressed against his palm.

The truck was the only place in Briarwick that had ever felt completely his. He had driven it after fights, slept inside it, taken Roxie to Raven’s Point, and sat behind the wheel whenever the house became impossible.

Arthur held out his hand.

”The truck belongs to me.”

Zac removed the key.

He looked at it once before placing it on the damaged coffee table.

Arthur picked it up.

”Take only what belongs to you.”

Zac looked toward the stairs.

”Then I won’t need much.”

He climbed to the second floor.

Nathan followed.

His footsteps stayed heavy and close, as though Zac might steal something or attack Holly again.

Zac entered his bedroom and pulled a duffel from the closet.

The broken drawer hung open beside the desk. Papers still covered the floor.

He gathered the Tennessee correspondence before anyone could take more of it.

Nathan stopped in the doorway.

Zac shoved the letters into the bag.

”You believed her before asking me anything,” he said.

”I saw you holding her.”

Zac looked at him.

”Exactly.”

Nathan’s hands closed.

Holly appeared behind him and wrapped one hand around his arm.

”Let him pack.”

Nathan stared at Zac for another moment before moving aside.

Zac packed shirts, jeans, underwear, his charger, football documents, and the cash he kept inside an old wallet.

The family photographs stayed on the dresser. He took the portrait of him and Roxie.

A small figure appeared in the hallway.

Mia wore pink pajamas. Her hair was tangled from sleep.

Her eyes moved from Nathan’s swollen face to the blood covering Zac’s mouth.

”What happened?”

Nathan turned toward her.

”Go back to bed.”

She ignored him and looked at the open duffel.

”Are you leaving?”

The anger inside Zac lost its direction.

The shaking stayed.

So did the pain.

He sat on the edge of the bed and wiped his hands against his jeans before she came closer.

”There was a fight.”

”With Nathan?”

Zac glanced toward his brother.

”With everybody, kind of.”

Mia looked at the bag.

”You promised you’d tell me if you were leaving.”

Zac remembered.

She had asked after an earlier family fight whether he planned to disappear. He had promised she would hear it from him first.

He lowered himself until he knelt in front of her.

Pain moved through his ribs.

”Yeah,” he said. ”I’m leaving.”

Her eyes filled.

”When are you coming back?”

Zac looked toward Nathan.

His brother said nothing.

”I don’t know.”

”Tomorrow?”

”I don’t know, Mia.”

Her mouth trembled.

Zac wiped his bloody hand against his jeans again before pulling her into his arms.

Mia held him around the neck.

”Is Roxie going with you?”

”Roxie doesn’t know yet.”

”Where will you sleep?”

”I’ll figure it out.”

”You can sleep in my room.”

A laugh escaped him and pulled painfully against his ribs.

”I don’t think Dad would like that.”

”I don’t care.”

”I’ll call you.”

”You better.”

”I will.”

Mia pulled away and studied his face.

”Did Dad hit you?”

Nathan stepped closer.

”Mia.”

She looked at him.

”Did he?”

Zac stood before Nathan could answer.

”Go back to bed. I’ll text you tomorrow.”

Mia stayed beside the doorway while Zac lifted the duffel.

Nathan moved aside.

Zac carried the bag downstairs.

Arthur stood near the front door with the truck key inside one fist.

Miranda remained beside the couch.

Holly and Nathan followed behind Zac while Mia watched from the top of the stairs.

Nobody withdrew the order.

Arthur opened the front door.

Cold air entered the house.

”Once you leave, you don’t come back expecting us to fix whatever you destroy.”

Zac adjusted the bag against his shoulder.

”You never fixed anything.”

Miranda covered her mouth.

Arthur pointed outside.

Zac walked through the door.

It closed behind him before he reached the sidewalk.

He stood beneath the porch light with no truck, nowhere to sleep, and blood drying across his face.

The neighboring houses remained dark.

Zac started walking.

He refused to look back while the Prescott house remained visible.

He continued until he passed the subdivision entrance and reached the main road.

Only then did he stop.

His hands shook when he took out his phone.

Roxie’s name appeared near the top of his messages.

He could call her.

She would open the bungalow, clean the blood from his face, and ask questions he could barely answer.

His parents would say Roxie had taken him from them.

Zac couldn’t put that on her tonight.

He scrolled farther and called Dylan.

Dylan answered after several rings.

”What’s up?”

Zac looked back toward the subdivision entrance.

The house was no longer visible.

”Can you pick me up?”

Dylan became quiet.

”Where are you?”

Zac gave him the street near the entrance.

”What happened?”

Zac tightened his grip around the duffel strap.

”I don’t live here anymore.”