Sins of My Father
Disclaimer: I own nothing
A/N:
Chapter 21 (The Elephant in the Room)
"I told you already, I am not going in there." Trina rolled her eyes at Derek and stared at the house they were parked in front of. He was sitting in the back seat with Casey. They came along just to hear how things went afterwards, and because Derek honestly felt more secure being with Casey and having her with Trina. "And you asked if there's anything you need to know or expect, well I have a list."
"I don't want a list, Derek." She looked in the rearview mirror, her face expressionless.
"Okay. Well. Expect arrogance and selfishness."
Casey sighed and raised a finger. "Make sure Marti is there, she still lives with them. Edwin and Lizzie might be in there, I don't know. They're your age, so they're living their lives." Trina twisted around and curled her arm around the head rest of the chair.
"Hey Casey, you don't associate much with your family either?"
"I kept up with Edwin, Lizzie and Marti for the most part; but that was it. Mom and George, no…" Casey pulled her phone out and started to shift through her texts. "I sent Edwin and Lizzie a message to see if they were there. Lizzie said she was in class, but Edwin's at the house."
"Okay, good. I could use all the backup I can get, I suppose." She wasn't sure why exactly she had to go in alone; but she'd been in worse situations. She was trying to figure out if she could help mend fences in any way; but more importantly was trying to get any information out of George about his ex-wife.
"Don't worry," Derek replied, "I'm sure it won't be too hard. They think I'm a penniless drunk, so don't expect anything good out of them."
"Well, when I found you, you were drinking in excess." Derek let out a heavy sigh and Casey wagged her finger at him.
"I'm sending him to AA meetings." Derek smiled at Casey and gingerly wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
Trina laughed once. "Come to LA, you can join our sister at those meetings." He raised an eyebrow and shook his head. "But really Derek, how are you affording all that alcohol."
He raised up a hand. "Okay first of all, I do not drink that badly. Second of all, I work."
"He works at a burger joint," Casey answered, "Have you heard of Good Burger? They're regional, I think."
"Heard of them." They started up not terribly long ago, and were similar to In-and-Out in the sense that they were a family owned business that didn't want to open too many stores. To her knowledge, there were only a few in Canada.
"He's the head fry cook there. You need to try his food though." Casey's eyes popped and Derek turned bashful, looking away and smiling coyly. "My god, even the owner of his franchise thinks he should be like a world class chef or something."
"No he doesn't," Derek said in a small voice. Casey turned towards him and placed a hand on his chest.
"When I found you, I heard you talking Ed Mitchell at that restaurant near your house. I heard him saying he thought you be an actual chef somewhere and not stuck working at a fast food place."
"Okay, okay…" Derek scratched the side of his face. Trina raised her eyebrows and slanted her eyes. A smirk curled at her lips and in the back of her mind she was considering if she could help in any way. "If I would have been able to go to college I would have fucking studied culinary arts; but that didn't happen."
Trina tilted her head at him. "Doesn't mean it can't still happen, Derek."
"You see!" Casey pushed him a bit. "Even Trina agrees."
He rolled his eyes at them. "Hey, didn't we come here so Trina could go ask our family some questions, or are we talking about my career path?"
"Oh." Casey pointed at him. "We will be talking about your career." He sank in his seat and started to chuckle. "But you're right, let's not keep Trina any longer than she needs to be."
Within fifteen minutes, Trina was inside and had gone through all the introductions. George and Nora were in their fifties and to say they looked exhausted was an understatement. Marti sat beside them on the three-seat couch, while Edwin sat in the recliner opposite of Trina.
"So, they won't come in." George leaned back, sliding his hand through his long, dirty blonde hair. "Still not bothering to talk to us." He scoffed and looked at his wife. Nora kept her head bowed and wasn't saying much, as if she didn't want to deal with the drama for much longer. "I don't know if Casey has any idea how this separation hurts her mother."
"Casey?" Edwin piped up, raising his hand and shaking it in the air. "It's your damn fault for pushing Derek out. What I don't understand is why you hold the grudge. Marti, Lizzie, and I-even Simon, has never met Micah because of this stupid grudge you hold against Derek and Casey."
Simon. She recognized the name. Casey mentioned that Simon was the youngest child, and the first child born of both George and Nora. He wasn't much older than Micah was. Conveniently, the child wasn't here currently. Like Casey, it appeared his parents wanted to keep him out of all the drama.
"I don't know if you know this…" Trina wasn't too sure whether or not it was her place to reveal the news; but at the same time, she knew Derek and Casey wouldn't. "Casey found Derek maybe a couple months ago. She's pregnant." Edwin's jaw dropped and Marti's eyes grew wide. Both siblings eventually shot heated glares at their parents.
Nora gasped at the news and threw her hands over her mouth while George remained expressionless. There was emotion in his eyes, however, and for a moment Trina wasn't sure if he was just confused.
"It appears to me that Casey already made the decision not to bring Micah into your lives, but now she's got a second on the way. Primarily, I'm not here to mend fences or judge, but I have a kid on the way myself and, well, I can't imagine how difficult a decision it would be not to let that child meet their grandparents for fear of their grandparents hating it."
"I wouldn't hate my grandbaby," Nora said suddenly. George closed his eyes and dipped his chin down. "I've wanted to see Micah since he was born, but Casey won't let us see her little baby. I want to see my grandchildren!" Nora turned to George. "This is your feud, not mine."
Marti scoffed. "Are you for real?" Norma flinched as the teenager turned on her. "You're just as much to blame for your silence as Dad is. If you would have stood up for Casey, and even Derek, then maybe things would have been different."
"There is nothing wrong with what they have," Edwin proclaimed, "Nothing at all." He threw his hand upwards. "Besides, they were together before you two even met! It wasn't fair to them to force them to break up just because the two of you were getting married."
George groaned. "As a lawyer, I had to portray-"
"Oh you were just afraid of being embarrassed because people might not realize Derek and Casey weren't even related."
"That may be-"
"That's exactly what it was." Edwin pointed a finger at George. "And you know you ruined Derek's life. Just because of your 'embarrassment' and not accepting what was, you disowned him and disconnected from him completely. You only kept tabs on him for your own ego."
George dropped his hand to his knee and started to shout back, growing defensive and irritable. "That is not how it is at all, Edwin. He-"
"It is exactly how it seems. You threw him out and sent Casey away all because you wanted to keep them separate. The only way you let anyone know his location was because we threatened to cut you off."
Leaning against the armrest of the couch, Trina had her left hand slowly rubbing her temple and he eyes were clenched shut. "As much as I don't want to get involved in family drama, which lately it seems everything I've been involved in is family drama…I think it's safe to say Mr. Venturi is not the worst father alive, Edwin. If anything, David would be; and that is what I would like to discuss. His relationship with Abby…"
George frowned in an instant and turned his head away, batting his hand in the air at Trina. "There's nothing to tell." He glanced back and over to Edwin and Marti, who were now quiet and exchanging somber looks. "She was nothing but a pretender."
Edwin leaned forward, reaching for a cup of coffee. "I don't remember her being home very often when I was younger." He raised the cup to his lips and sighed. "Dad's entire demeanor towards Derek changed after we found out the truth. I don't think he's ever gotten over it."
Marti nodded. "Dad, you don't understand how much you're hurting everyone just because you're hurting. So essentially, you're hurting yourself because you're not going to be happy and you feel guilty." George scoffed at his daughter and shook his head at her suggestion of guilt. Marti raised an eyebrow and put her hands on her hips. "And why is it you picked the route to work that you can see Derek's house from the freeway? There are plenty other routes, faster routes."
"I like slow drives…"
"Sure you do." Marti sighed and motioned to Nora. "Nora always sides with you, and she doesn't have to." Nora looked to him, her eyebrows curling up in the center. She rubbed the palms of her hands together between her knees and swayed gently to the side. "She would love to see her grandchild, not to mention her daughter. I mean come on, you stand a chance of losing her because I guarantee you, if Casey needed her, she'd leave you and go to her…"
"No…" George raised a hand under his chin and chuckled morosely. "No, that-"
"Okay." Edwin set his cup down and extended a hand to Nora. "Nora." Nora looked towards him, looking ready to cry. "Trina here says Casey's having another baby. If she needed help, needed someone with her all the time and asked you to go be with her, would you leave us and go to her?"
"I…" Nora moved her hand to her chest. "I mean, she is my daughter. I don't want to say I'd leave my husband or leave you, I would never trade anyone for anything. I mean, of course if she needed help, I'd want to."
"Exactly, and this whole thing is also pushing us away." He put his hands to his chest. "Me, Lizzie, and even Marti are all sick of not being able to see out brother or sister because you don't have the courage to get over mom shitting on you."
George raised his voice and began brandishing his hand. "Courage? You want to talk to me about courage when Derek is sitting outside in his car lacking the courage to come in here and talk to me like a man?"
Trina rolled her eyes at the family and looked over her shoulder, gazing wistfully at the door. Soon, all the members of the family were beginning to raise their voices. "Why?" She whispered to herself. "Why does it feel like my entire trip in Canada has been spent watching a soap opera?"
She rolled her eyes and lifted them skyward. "Oh Canada, Oh Canada, why can't you be good to me?"
Looking back at the family, she shook her head at them. They were still bickering, going back and forth about Derek or Casey, or in the end George and his problems with guilt and anger. "If they really wanted to see anger…" She pulled out her phone and dialed Derek's number.
She put the phone to one ear and her hand over her other ear. "What do you want?" Derek asked.
"You need to get your ass inside here."
"Why?"
"Can you not hear them? They don't even realize I'm on the phone." She turned the phone outwards. Edwin's voice and George's voice were the loudest in the room, and both had taken to banging the coffee table. Marti was shouting to get a word in edgewise, and Nora was pleading for everyone to stop yelling. "There's this thing about pride that seems to be flowing quite thick in this family. I swear Derek, George may not be your biological father, but you got one thing in common…your damn foolish pride."
"You have the same foolish pride."
"Maybe, but this is a problem I can't fix for you. Put Casey on the phone please." She stood up, still ignored, and walked over to the front window to gaze outside. Casey responded, her voice soothing to Trina's now sore ears.
"What is it, Trina?"
"You and Derek need to get in here. Your family needs you, they need Derek, and you two need them. I can't fix this problem for you, I can't say the things that need to be said. They have to hear it from you. Mr. Venturi has that same pride and anger that Derek has, he won't admit he's wrong; but apparently he checks up on Derek all the time."
"He does?"
"The hell he does," Derek replied in the background. Casey shushed him and asked Trina to elaborate.
"Marti says he drives by Derek's house on the way to work all the time, and I'm pretty sure I just heard Edwin yell about him going to Good Burger every now and then. Maybe he feels some guilt."
"Okay, I'll talk to Derek."
"Please hurry the hell up, I'm getting a fucking headache and will be channeling my own inner-Derek on these people." Derek chortled and Casey started to laugh.
It was not long before she could see them getting out of the car. Casey walked in a confident stride, stopping every few feet to look back and make sure Derek was coming with her. He would look up and smile at her every time she did so. His hands were in his pocket and he was walking slowly, looking something like a wounded pup.
Trina opened the door to them and extended her hand to their family, who amazingly were still fighting. Casey walked in and slid to the side, standing on the opposite side of the door as Trina. Derek stepped in between them, crossing his arms and tensing his body. His brow furrowed at his family and a deep frown formed on his face.
The elephant in the room was here, and no one was taking note. "Oh Canada," Trina whispered, "How I love you and your dramatic shows."
Derek growled at his family. "Hey!" His shout echoed and vibrated off the walls, quickly drowning out the feuding relatives. "Shut up already." The family all fell silent, their eyes enlarging. "Jesus. In my neighborhood, that's the norm; but in this neighborhood, you'd have the cops called on you faster than you could blink an eye." He hoisted his thumb over his shoulder. "I'm surprised the cops hadn't been called yet, to be honest."
George's face was red with anger and his hair was now a frenzied mess, he looked like he wanted to say something, but was too busy panting and trying to catch his breath. Seeing this, a look of satisfaction came over Derek's face. He had the floor and he knew it.
"Now, I didn't come to get into it with you. I've done my fair share of shouting, and as you can see, become an expert at it. I managed to not only shut you up, but left you speechless pop." George rolled his eyes and sank back in the couch. His arms sprawled out and his chest was moving rapidly. "Nora, do you still have those anxiety pills in the medicine cabinet?"
"Oh." Nora blinked and started to stand up. "Y-Yeah. Your father's blood pressure medicine too." George gasped out and waved his hand in the air, saying he didn't need it. "Clearly you do, honey. Take it easy."
"I'll go get them." Derek walked away, still remembering the layout of the room. George tugged at his tie and started to loosen it while watching his son disappear from the room. Everyone remained quiet and Trina couldn't help but to breathe a huge sigh of relief.
When Derek returned with pill bottles in hand, he put a couple pills in his hand and extended them to George. The man eyed the pills reluctantly. "You didn't lace those with poison or anything, did you son?" He chuckled and Derek smirked back at him.
"If I wanted to kill you, Pop, you'd already be dead. I'm in a good mood today, so take the medicine and calm down. You don't need to have a heart attack." George let out a sigh and quickly took the medicine.
"Why did you come inside?"
"Because of Casey. She's just like her mom, you know, all this drama hurts her too." George looked at Nora. Her face was drenched with tears and she was shaking violently. "Speaking of Nora." Derek handed her an anxiety pill and she gently nodded. "I hate pills like these, but if they help you guys, then so be it." He capped the bottle and walked over to Casey and Trina.
Trina leaned towards Derek. "Last I checked, Casey didn't want anything to do with them either." Derek crossed his arms and raised his eyes upwards as he inhaled.
"Yeah, but you didn't see the look on her face when she heard all of them screaming at each other on the phone. Looked just like Nora did, ready to break out in tears…So, here we are."
"Good. You can't fix years of hurt and resentment overnight, but the only way to help it is to start talking."
"You act as though I want to talk."
"No, I know you just want to yell and scream like everyone else." She pat his shoulder and smirked. "Believe me, I'd want to do the same if this were my family."
"Your family is much crazier though, Sis." He smirked back at her and she started to chuckle. "A playboy father with a sick harem and two dozen children, a murderous uncle and conniving grand-relative…my god, all my family's got is high blood pressure."
"They're your family too Derek."
"I know." He waved his hand in the air and sighed. "Christ, I didn't peg you to be the meddling kind."
She tilted her head a bit, slanted her eyes and glanced upwards. "Yeah, neither did I. Tori's the one to get involved in these kind of 'projects'. Huh…" She shook her head and rolled back her shoulders. "No wonder Gary sat this one out."
Bodes to be an interesting talk. What are your thoughts thus far?