Page 55 of Her Ex-Husband's Brother

“Of course she does.” Almost a smile. “She seemed fine to me too, in the beginning.”

“Go home, Jake,” Lennon says.

“I’ll go home when I’ve said what I came to say.” His entirely pleasant façade remains as he keeps talking, talking to her, but still facing me.

“What do you think Priscilla would have to say about your amended custody agreement if she found out you seduced your brother’s wife and were causing mayhem? What willOwenhave to say when he grows up and finds out what a head-case his daddy is? I think Priscilla will agree he should be protected from someone so erratic with such bad decision-making skills?—”

Son of a bitch?—

I am going to hit him.

It’s only Ricky jumping on my back that keeps me stomping forward to cross the distance between me and swinging at him.

“Whoa there, big guy,” Ricky says.

But it’s Lennon’s voice saying my name that really stops me. “August.”

Right. Not my fight.

I take one step back. Then another.

Which is when I notice Jake reaching for his phone and dialing. What, is he calling Mom?

But I realize it’s much, much worse when he starts speaking, satisfaction in his eyes.

“Yes, hello, I need to report an incident at the Cielo Vista RVPark?—”

The motherfucker is calling the cops.

“He’slying—” Lennon moves toward him and Raven is there first, pullingherback, and she’s shaking, she’s actually shaking.

I’m glad Ricky’s still got hands on me, because I don’t trust my newfound ability to self-regulate under circumstances like this, especially when my big brother has that glint in his eye, begging me to deck him.

Baiting me.

Wanting me to go absolutely apeshit on him.

Jake turns slightly away, voice dropping into the phone, still perfectly calm:yes, my estranged wife appears agitated. I’m concerned for everyone’s safety. There was a physical lunge toward me and theft of a significant sum of money?—

And I understand it now. Why he actually came here.

He had 911 on speed dial the whole time. Probably practiced the speech on the way over.Volatile brother-in-law. Agitated wife. Domestic disturbance.

None of it technically false, but all of it a complete lie.

This is the exact playbook that got me 51/50’d twice, and that wasafterthe trauma wilderness camp from hell.

They’ll listen to Jake. They always listen to Jake. He’s so reasonable. And not covered head to toe in tattoos. He wears fucking polo shirts and khakis. No one will hear me.

No one will listen they’ll take me away they’ll take me away and there’s nothing I can do about it?—

Staring in the middle distance, a loud ringing starts up in my ears.

And I absolutely just close down.

It’s the wrong thing, the thing that gets me taken away. But I can’t do anything more, as every system shuts off, than what it takes to keep standing and staring at nothingness.

The world recedes, everything growing more and more blurry and distant around me.