Chapter 14

Fin looked from Tina to Olivia, who was still holding the can of whipped cream. He scanned his wife from head to toe, seeing what the scars on her thigh lit up like neon signs. His eyes met Olivia's, and without saying a word, he knew what she was thinking. She wanted to keep hiding her secret from Tina, but at this point, Tina was either going to find out the truth or think that the worst of her mother.

"Olivia, go put some clothes on. Tina, take your bag to your room, and then come out here. We need to talk," he said calmly.

"No! I'm not staying here with…with…that!" Tina yelled, pointing disgustedly at Olivia's leg. She picked up her duffel, slung it over her shoulder and got as far as putting her hand on the doorknob before Fin cut her off.

"Tina," he began, determined not to lose his temper with her. Tina recoiled, anger pouring off her.

"How can you stand to live here? How can you share a bedroom with a woman who despises us? Huh!?" Tina yelled.

"Tina, I mean it. Go put your stuff away, and we will talk," Fin said calmly and evenly. He glared at her to tell her he meant business. Tina swallowed hard, but she was determined to stand her ground.

"Tina, Honey…" Olivia began. She reached out to take her daughter's arms to force her to look at her, but Tina jerked hard. Before Olivia could process what had happen, Tina raised her free hand, bringing it hard against Olivia's cheek. Olivia's hand flew to the injured flesh, and her jaw dropped as she stared at her daughter in shock. The instant Fin heard the sound of skin on skin, he jerked Tina hard, pressing her against the wall as if she was one of his perps.

"You listen to me, and you listen good. You will NEVER raise a hand to your mother again, do you hear me?" Now it was Tina's turn for her jaw to drop. She stared at her father in absolute dis belief. "I swear to God, Tina, you may be my daughter, but you will never see the light of day again if you so much as THINK about pulling a stunt like that, do I make myself clear?"

"Yeah, Dad," Tina squeaked. She had seen him lose his temper before, but never like this, and never directed at her.

"Good," he said, releasing his grip on her. "Now, you march your ass into your room, put your stuff away, and get right back out here."

"But Dad," Tina started.

"GO!" he boomed. Tina flinched, but quickly picked up her bag and scurried into her room. Fin turned his attention to Olivia who was still standing in the kitchen in absolute shock at what had just played out in front of her.

"Are you ok?" he asked, examining her cheek.

"I'm fine," she whispered. "She didn't hit me that hard."

"She shouldn't have hit you at all," Fin told her.

"Fin, we can't tell her," Olivia said, her voice barely more than a whisper. He placed his hands on her upper arms.

"It's time, Liv," he whispered to her. He kissed her on the forehead and gently nudged her back towards their bedroom. She reappeared, having thrown on a pair of pajama pants in addition to the shirt she had grabbed earlier.

"Tina! Come back out here," Fin called towards her room.

"She doesn't need to know about this," Olivia insisted again.

"Yes, she does. Come over here," Fin said, patting the cushion next to him on the couch. Olivia sat, not wanting to fight with him. "Either we tell her about her brave, selfless mother, or she continues to think you're no better than Adam or Joseph. Which would you prefer?"

"Neither," Olivia said.

"Well, I don't think that's an option anymore," he said. Tina stomped out into the living room and perched in an armchair, Indian style, crossing her arms over her chest. Olivia instinctively reached for Fin's hand and clasped it between both of hers.

"Well?" Tina asked with a scowl.

"Ok, first of all, drop the attitude. I know you're pissed, but that doesn't give you the right to pull this garbage," Fin scolded. Tina rolled her eyes and uncrossed her arms, but said nothing more.

"Fine," Tina answered, with a slight hint of annoyance. Fin took a deep breath, but now that the time had arrived, he wasn't sure where to begin.

"Tina, do you remember the nightmares you had the last time you were in the hospital?" Olivia asked. Tina nodded. "You told me – several times – that they felt real."

"Yeah, and every time you said they were just a dream," Tina replied.

"They're more than a dream," Fin explained. "They're probably your earliest memories. You see, when you were just about four years old, two men named Adam and Joseph Colin broke into our apartment. They abducted all three of us and locked us in the basement of a gas station in Jersey. I did my best to shield you from most of it, but they did some horrible things to your mother."

"Like what?" Tina asked softly. Fin took a moment to look at Olivia. He could practically feel the embarrassment she was radiating.

"They raped her, Tina," he said as gently as he could. "And they branded her. Right there," he said, pointing to her now clothed thigh.

"How…did they…was I…" Tina stammered.

"No. As far as we were able to tell, they only thing they did to you was shave your head," Olivia said, finally joining the conversation. "But you were separated from us for a while, and that time was…" Olivia's eyes grew moist as she recalled the horrors she had experienced. Tina unconsciously fingered her waist-length hair.

"Is that why you never wanted me to cut my hair?" she asked softly, remembering a time when she was almost 8 years old, and she had wanted to cut her hair off. She remembered being in the salon, with the stylist just ready to make the first cut, and Olivia had stopped her at the last possible second.

"Yeah," Olivia admitted.

"Tina, what those men did to your mother…I still have a hard time thinking about it. And that mark on her leg reminds me of every damn thing, but I also remember that she would have died to protect both of us. So, when I see it, that's what I think of. I think of how much pain she suffered so that we didn't have to," Fin explained.

"Whatever happened to the guys that did this?" Tina asked.

"Adam Colin was killed when we were rescued, and Joseph is currently in Rikers," Fin answered. He left out the part that Joseph had less than a year on his sentence. That part, he would tell Tina when the time was right.

"Why did they pick us?" Tina asked.

"Because I fell in love with a black man and gave birth to an interracial child," Olivia answered simply. Tina sat silently, trying to process everything that she had just been told. There were so many questions in her head, but she couldn't quite form the words to ask them.

"Is there anything else you want to ask?" Olivia asked. Tina shook her head slowly.

"No. No, I think…I just want to be alone," she said.

"Ok, Baby. If you think of anything you want to ask, we're here," Fin said.

"Can I go now?" Tina asked, feeling very uncomfortable with the entire situation.

"Sure," Olivia said, and as soon as she gave the word, Tina bolted for her bedroom, closing the door securely behind her. Once inside the safety of her personal sanctuary, she lowered herself to the floor, and let the tears inside her fall freely. She adored her mom, and the instant she had seen such a notorious hate symbol on her thigh, it had frightened her more than she was ready to admit. For just a minute, she thought there was a chance that her mother might actually believe that white people were better than other races. But now that she knew the truth, she wondered if the alternative was any better.

When there was nothing left in her to cry, she changed into her pajamas and tucked herself into bed. She picked up her Kindle, as was her usual bedtime custom, but flipping through the library of books she had saved, she wasn't finding anything she was particularly in the mood to read. She set the device back on her nightstand, turned off her bedside light, and laid in the darkness trying to make sense of her thoughts until a fitful sleep finally claimed her.

But Tina wasn't the only Tutuola wrestling with the events of the evening. In the next room, Olivia was beginning to doubt decisions she had been so sure of fifteen years ago. Her maternal desire to protect Tina led her to hide the truth, but now that it had come out, she was beginning to second guess herself.

"I think I should go check on her," Olivia said, still pacing the room to work off her nervous energy that accompanied guilt.

"Leave her be," Fin replied. "When she's ready to talk, she'll talk. If you try to force the issue, she'll just pull away even more."

"I know, but…" Olivia countered, running a hand through her hair.

"But nothing. Now, come over here," he said, patting her side of the bed. Defeated, Olivia climbed into bed next to her husband. She let him wrap his arms around her while she rested her head on his chest. "She's tough, like her mother. She'll be ok," he said, kissing the top of her head.

"Do you think we did the right thing? Hiding it from her all these years?" she asked. She was pretty sure he would argue with her, since he had always hated hiding the truth from Tina, but she was surprised by his answer.

"She forgot. Maybe her brain tried to protect her from it, and you just went right along with it. I wish this wasn't how she found out, but I'm glad she knows now," he said as diplomatically as possible. He paused, not sure if he should add the rest of his thought. "Especially now that Colin's back up for parole," he added before his brain could stop his mouth from speaking the words.

"You really think me being there is going to make a difference?" she asked softly. He sighed.

"I think…that you can appeal to the parole board in a way that I can't. It just might be the difference between whether he gets out or not.

"Ok," she answered. When it looked like she wasn't going to continue, Fin prodded her.

"Ok, you'll go, or ok, you understand?" he asked.

"Ok, I'm still thinking about it," she told him. She yawned into his chest, reminding both of them that it had been a long day for everyone.

"Ok, Baby Girl, let's get some sleep," he said, kissing her head once more. She moved back to her side of the bed while he placed the body pillow between them.

XxXxX

"Tina, run!" Olivia yelled. But she couldn't. Tina tried to lift her feet from the floor, but they just wouldn't move. A vaguely human form in black robes emerged behind her mother, and dragged her to the ground.

"Ahhh….Tina….run!" she screamed. Olivia fell forward on her hands and knees, and a glistening kitchen knife that seemed entirely too shiny, protruded from her back. Her shirt was matted with blood, and a grotesque, decomposing hand appeared from underneath the black robes and tugged on Olivia's pants, tearing them clean off. While Olivia was positioned so that Tina couldn't see exactly what was happening, she could see her face.

"Mom!" she cried. She tried again to move towards the monster that had Olivia. Olivia screamed again. Suddenly, a massive form tackled her. "Mom! Help me, Mom!"

"Tina, we have to go," the form said, who sounded suspiciously like her father.

"Dad, Dad…you have to help her!" Tina cried. "You have to help Mom."

"There's nothing we can do for her. We have to go," he said again, trying to drag her away from…wherever here was. Another scream punctuated the room.

"He's going to kill Mom!" she cried.

"He'll kill you next if we don't leave. No, go!" Fin told her again.

"I'm not leaving without Mom!" she cried. "I'm not…

"…leaving without her!" Tina cried, thrashing around in her bed. Olivia's eyes snapped open at the sound of her child in distress, and she jostled the bed more than she meant to in her haste.

"Liv…whus wrong?" Fin mumbled.

"Tina's having a nightmare. Go back to sleep," she told him gently. Fin mumbled something unintelligible and buried his head back into the pillow. Olivia raced to the next room, not breaking her stride until she was standing over her daughter, shaking her awake.

"Wake up, Tina. Wake up, Sweetie," she said, nudging Tina. Tina's eyes flew open, and her mom's familiar face hovering over her came into view. "It's ok, Honey."

"Mom!" Tina cried, bolting up and throwing her arms around Olivia with tears streaming down her face.

"Oh, shhh, shhh…everything's ok, Honey. Everything's ok," she said, rocking Tina and stroking her back.

"He had you, Mom! He was trying to kill you, and…and I couldn't stop it. Mom!" she cried, still sobbing.

"Shhh….Tina, it was just a bad dream. That's all it was," Olivia soothed.

"I'm sorry, Mom. I'm sorry I called you a racist, and…and…I'm sorry that I…I…hit…" Tina sobbed, still reeling from the images that had been so clear in her mind.

"I know, Baby. It's ok. I know you didn't mean it. Shhh…." Olivia continued to soothe. For a brief moment, other than the fact that her daughter had the body of a young adult, it felt like Tina was a little girl again.

"You know, Tina, I think we have some chamomile tea out in the kitchen. Why don't I make you some, and you can tell me all about your nightmare," Olivia suggested, once Tina started to calm down.

"Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good," Tina said, still slightly breathless. Olivia put an arm around her daughter's shoulders and walked with her out to the kitchen. Tina took a seat at the bar while Olivia put the kettle on the stove.

"So," Olivia said, leaning over the counter as she waited. "Sounds like this one was pretty bad."

"Yeah, this…this thing was trying to kill you. And then Dad was there…but he was trying to pull me away, and I didn't want to leave you there. But he told me there was nothing we could do," Tina said, trying to recall the images. "I guess it doesn't make much sense, does it?" But Olivia knew better. It made perfect sense to her.

"Your brain was probably just trying to make sense of everything that happened last night. But, Sweetheart, we're safe now. Joseph Colin will never be able to touch us again," Olivia said. Olivia pulled the kettle off the stove and poured hot water into two mugs containing tea bags. She reached into Tina's drawer and pulled out a packet of artificial sweetener and added honey to her own cup. "Now, what exactly happened with Lauren?" Tina rolled her eyes, but appreciated the change in subject.

"Oh my God, Mom, it's the stupidest thing ever. So, Lauren has this MAJOR crush on Jeremy, right? And she asked me to find out if he liked her because he sits next to me in History. So, I talked to him, told him how AMAZING Lauren is, and I give him her number so he can call her and as her to Homecoming. So, last night, he calls her, but he asks her what I would say if he asked me to the dance. And Lauren FREAKED! She threw her cell phone at me and accused me of stabbing her in the back," Tina said in her usual teenage chatter.

"But you're going with Eli, right?" Olivia asked.

"Yes! You'd think Lauren would have realized that, but no! She was pissed at me because Jeremy thought about asking me instead of her," Tina explained.

"I'm sure she was just hurt. Give her some time. You girls have been friends for far too long to let something like this end it all," Olivia said.

"I know she'll get over it. It's just…well, she's been kind of a bitch since I started dating Eli," Tina explained.

"Language," Olivia warned. "Honey, Eli's a terrific young man, and the two of you spend a lot of time together…time you used to spend with Lauren," Olivia explained.

"Wait, you think she's jealous because I spend too much time with Eli?" Tina asked.

"No, not exactly. You have a busy life between school and swim team and a boyfriend. I think if you let the dust settle, everything will be fine," Olivia said. "But I think Lauren may need some time. And, she's probably a little jealous that you have a boyfriend and she doesn't."

"So if I can manage to hook her up with Jeremy that will solve everything?" Tina asked. Olivia chuckled.

"If Jeremy likes Lauren, that could help, but I think maybe you should stay out of that part," Olivia advised.

"Thanks, Mom," Tina said, stifling a yawn.

"I think the chamomile is starting to work. Let's get you back into bed," Olivia suggested.

"Yeah. Ok," Tina said, sliding off the stool. Olivia walked her back into her room, tucked her in, and kissed her good-night. Olivia quickly cleaned up the mess from the tea, and went back to sleep herself.

The next morning, Fin was awake well before Liv and Tina, so he busied himself in the kitchen with bacon and eggs. As the smell wafted through the house, Tina woke up, suddenly ravenous.

"Morning, Dad," she said as she shuffled towards the kitchen.

"Hey, Baby. There's plenty of food here if you're hungry," he said. But Tina had already headed for the cabinet containing the oatmeal she typically ate for breakfast. She looked at his plate as he reached for the fresh toast that had just popped up from the toaster.

"That entire plate is mostly fat, Dad," she said, microwaving her plain oatmeal. When it was ready, she added a packet of artificial sweetener and some fresh sliced berries.

"I guess I like my plate of fat," Fin replied with a smile. As he sat with his daughter, who was slowly mixing the berries into her cereal, he noticed her mind was anywhere but here.

"What's goin' on, Kiddo?" he asked.

"Hm? Nothing," she replied, still lost in her thoughts. The truth was, there was a question she wanted to ask him, but she wasn't sure how to bring it up without angering her father.

"Hey, Dad? Can I ask you something?" Tina began.

"Sure. What's up?" he asked, shoveling a forkful of eggs into his mouth.

"That man that kidnapped us. You said he was in Rikers, right?" she asked. Fin swallowed hard. He had expected questions from her, but honestly, he would much rather let Olivia deal with it.

"Yep," he answered.

"Do you think…I mean…I don't know how to explain this," she said.

"Just spit it out, Tina," he said.

"Would you take me up there so I can see him?" she asked.

"Now, why in the hell would you want to do that?" he asked, annoyed that she would make such a ridiculous request.

"It's just…I need to know. I have questions that only he can answer," she said. Fin sighed.

"Sweetheart, your mother and I can answer any question you may have," he said.

"No, Dad. I need to do this. I need to see the face of the man that raped my mom," she said. But there was something about the way she said it. Fin looked across the table at his daughter, but he didn't see a little girl. Instead, he saw a young woman with a not entirely unreasonable request.

Of course, if he gave in, his wife would kill him.

What's Fin going to do? It's a reasonable request, but we all know Liv won't tolerate a meeting between Tina and Joseph!

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