“I’ve just heard a lot about you both,” he said, taking a step back to Mekena, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Unfortunately, we can’t say the same,” her father said, his eyes dark and full of anger. “But then, we didn’t even know our daughter had moved back, so what do we know?”

“I’m sorry. I just haven’t had a chance to call. I’ve been busy.”

When she looked to her mother, hoping for some kind of reprieve, Mekena found her staring at Markus. Her mom’s face was twisted in almost a painful way, and Mekena wasn’t sure what her problem was. “Mom?” she asked, but her mother didn’t look away at first. It took a whole minute before she looked back to Mekena.

“Is this Markus, Markus?”

“Wait, you know this guy?” her father asked, hooking his thumb to Markus, and Mekena’s stomach dropped once more.

Swallowing hard, Mekena nodded. “Yeah, Markus. The one I dated before I moved to Florida.”

Her father’s mouth snapped shut when the realization of who Markus was dawned on him. Looking back to her mother, Mekena found her with tears in her eyes as she stared Markus down. Markus looked uncomfortable as he tucked his hands in his pockets.

When he looked over to Mekena, he cocked his head. “This is fun.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” she said quickly, and when she went to apologize to her parents, she saw her mother was moving, her arms coming around Markus quick and tight, almost knocking him over. Mekena’s eyes widened as Markus stood there, unsure what to do. Since he was the guy he was, he patted her back as she cried into his shoulder.

“I am so terribly sorry,” she said, and Mekena’s eyes grew even bigger.

Holy shit.

“Excuse me?” Markus asked as she pulled back, holding his biceps in her hands.

“I am so terribly sorry for what our daughter did to you. She is sick, and I know that’s not an excuse, but I’m so sorry. As her mother, I take full responsibility for what she has done to you. For the pain and sorrow she has inflicted on you. I pray for you every night. I pray you’ll forgive us, forgive her. I just hate it. I hate that you were a victim of her sickness.”

Mekena was speechless. Blinking, she watched as Markus took hold of her mother’s hands and squeezed them. “I don’t blame you guys. Never have. This wasn’t your fault, it’s hers.”

“We know, but still, we hope you can accept our apology,” her father said, and at that moment, Mekena’s mouth dropped open. “We are thankful you didn’t press charges. She doesn’t need jail, she needs help.”

“She needs Jesus and an ass-whooping!” Mekena said, unable to take it anymore. While she was thankful they were kind to Markus, she was sick of them making excuses for the stupidity of her sister.

“Mekena,” her mother said, but she shook her head.

“No, I am so glad that y’all are apologizing to him, you need to, but what about me? She hurt me too, and all y’all did was tell me that she is my sister and I should forgive her!”

“Mekena,” her father stressed. “That was before we knew how sick she was.”

“No, it doesn’t matter how ‘sick’ she is. She isn’t even sick. She’s a druggie who needs to get help, and we can’t help her. She has to do it. In the meantime, while she’s fucking around and getting high, I almost lost him because of her. I love him. I love him so much it hurts, yet that didn’t matter. All that matters is that I forgive her.”

Markus came to her side, grasping her hand, holding it in his own. “Babe, it’s okay. Calm down.”

“No, it’s not fair. She broke my heart, she made me live without you—”

“But we are good now, and nothing will come between us. Don’t get worked up over that or the choices they have made. They love you both, they are parents. Parents don’t see wrong in their children because their eyes are clouded by their love for them.”

“Well, in the meantime, their love for her hurt me.”

He nodded before leaning in close, his lips at her ear. “So I’ll love you for everyone, okay? Just please, calm down. I don’t want you this upset over something we can’t change. You can’t change them. You can’t change Skylar. All we can do is worry about each other. Breathe, baby, I got you.”

Pulling back, he smiled, kissing the side of her mouth. She hadn’t realized she was shaking or that she was on the brink of tears, but she was. Her whole body was red with anger, and her heart was pounding against her ribs so hard. Looking around, she saw that people were staring. Lucy was in the corner, her eyes wide, and Mekena felt stupid. Small. She felt out of control. Something she rarely felt.

Except when she was with him.

Looking deep into his eyes, she nodded as she sucked in a deep breath. “Okay.”

“Okay,” he said, kissing her nose once more.

“Mekena,” her mother said, but she shook her head.

“I can’t. I can’t do this. I am so mad at you, at Dad, and the reason I don’t call is because of my anger—”

“Then let us fix that,” her father stressed, coming in closer. “You’re right, we shouldn’t have handled it the way we did. But we really thought it wasn’t that big of a deal. We didn’t know it was this deep, that she had done what she did. We thought he was scum, and in a way, we were glad you were rid of him. But when we heard the whole story, when she admitted to what she did, we realized our mistake, and we are so incredibly sorry.”

“We never meant to hurt you. We just didn’t have all the facts,” her mother added, but Mekena shook her head.

“You don’t need the facts. If I’m hurt, feel for me.”

“Oh, baby, we did. But like your dad said, we’d thought it was good he was gone. Who sleeps with someone’s sister, you know? But when the truth came to light, we realized that Skylar was the scum,” her mother said, struggling on the last word. “Kennie, she is so sick.”

When her mother’s voice broke, Mekena looked up, her heart hurting for her mom. She didn’t like the way they’d handled the situation, that was a given, but these were her parents and she did love them. Markus was right; they loved their children. It was apparent all over their faces.