Chapter 3

Mom stared at the phone in disbelief after the call cut off.

She looked up at me, her eyes going red.

"Mattie, Zion, he..."

"That bastard! How could he do this!"

"My poor Mattie. You've suffered so much."

Mom pulled me into her arms.

Held there against her, my gaze fell on Grandma's memorial portrait.

Grandma was still smiling, gentle the way she always was.

I never got to see her one last time because of that storm.

But it was that same storm that let me finally see Zion clearly.

Grandma's passing had given me one clear moment of waking up.

Zion arrived in the small hours of that night.

When he walked in and saw Grandma's memorial hall, he visibly flinched.

I looked at him, thinking surely now he would believe it, and then Virginia spoke up.

"How come there's nobody here to pay respects? Just your family?"

She turned to me. "You didn't set up this whole memorial hall on purpose, did you, to scare Zion and me off?"

Then she tugged at Zion's sleeve. "Come on, you silly boy, let's go. She put on this whole act just so we wouldn't stay at her place!"

Zion looked over our courtyard.

Grandma had gone suddenly. She'd loved peace and quiet her whole life, and before she passed she told my father not to make a fuss over it, so we'd simply set up a memorial hall at home and kept watch over her as a family.

"That's what I figured too."

Zion let out a cold laugh and looked at me. "Grandma was video-calling you just the other day, perfectly healthy. How does someone suddenly get sick and die?"

"If you didn't want us staying here, you didn't have to go this far faking it."

I clenched my fists and was about to speak when my father shot to his feet.

That afternoon I'd told my parents everything, start to finish.

They stood together in supporting me leaving that piece of trash Zion.

"My daughter already broke up with you. What are you even doing here?"

"It's bad enough you have no manners. Now you show up dragging some other woman along and spouting nonsense at Grandma's memorial hall. What is it you want?"

Watching my father stand up for me like that, I felt a hot sting behind my eyes.

I thought surely now Zion would believe it, but instead he spread his hands and laughed out loud.

"Sir, you two just spoil Mattie too much. She throws a fit and you play right along, is that it?"

"And Ginny isn't some other woman. Ginny's my buddy."

"Even after Mattie and I are married, I'll still keep in touch with Ginny. You're a man, sir. Surely you understand how that goes?"

"No offense, but for us men, our buddies are the ones who stay by our side for life."

Hearing all this, the rage rushed straight to my father's head.

He snatched up the broom beside him, pointed it at Zion, his voice hoarse.

"I told you to get out and you won't? Marriage? You think you're fit to marry my daughter?"

"What kind of nothing are you! Take this woman and get out of here, now!"

My father swung hard at Zion, and Zion dodged and bolted on instinct, running toward Grandma's memorial portrait, and the next second came the sound of something hitting the floor.

Grandma's memorial portrait crashed to the ground, the pane of glass over it shattering into pieces.