Forced Promises
Chapter Nine
"Logan?" Max's voice was meek. It should have been his first indication that something was wrong, but he was distracted and not all that together after a lovely little evening with the people he unfortunately called family, so he didn't notice Max staring morosely out the window, fidgeting lightly as she spoke. Though, her words did register enough to make him wince. Everything they said to each other lately seemed to escalate into an argument, and he really wasn't in the mood right now.
She really didn't want to bring this up but curiosity was burning a lovely little whole in her gut. "Yeah?" Logan asked.
"I know it's none of my business and if you don't want to tell me that's fine." Max lifted her hands and then dropped them back into her lap with a frustrated sigh.
A long silence filled the car again as they sat at a sector checkpoint line. "Is there a question?" Logan prompted.
"Why wasn't this trust fund of yours ever touched before, when you were…uh…married before?"
Logan's knuckles turned white, his hands gripping the wheel to the point it was painful. "Why?" He snapped. "You're getting your money, why do you all of a sudden care about the details?"
Logan saw the all too familiar flash of temper, but this time he caught a quick shadow of hurt. He wanted to kick himself for putting it there. "I didn't realize I didn't have the proper security clearance, Commander Cale. My mistake, sorry for asking." Max lounged back in her seat, crossing her arms. It was as close to a sulk as he'd ever seen her get.
Logan sat through the rest of the checkpoint, helpless quiet, wondering what to do. "Max…" He started.
"No, forget about it, Logan." Max said calmly now. "You don't need to tell me anything."
"Max, I'm sorry." It was Logan's turn to sigh. "I just…I don't like talking about my parents death. It was more of an automatic reaction to the question that anything." When Max's shoulders remained tense, he closed his eyes a moment. Had he been stationary, he would have kept them that way, but since they were on a busy inner city street, he did have that luxury. "I'm sure you don't want to hear every single dirty detail, so I'll give you the condensed version. Val got arrest for drunk driving after we had been married for about three years. To keep herself out of jail, she plea-bargained down to voluntary suspended license. I was so pissed off that she got behind the wheel of a car after she'd been drinking, I threatened a divorce unless she went into rehab. She agreed and we found this nice residential six-week program for her. She absolutely hated it, it completely wasn't what she expected it to be when she went in there." Logan laughed briefly at the memory of his ex-wife being expected to do chores. "Needless to say, two weeks into the program, she threw a fit and wanted to come home. Since I had driven her there and it was in the middle of the wilderness, another complaint on her part, she had no way of getting back to Seattle. She called me and wanted me to come get her, I said no, that I wasn't going to help her leave in the middle of her treatment." Of course, that made her throw another fit, screaming that he didn't love her and that he was probably sleeping with other women while she was gone. That had been her trademark, claiming that Logan had been having affairs with everyone from the check out lady at the grocery store, to one of his second cousins who'd dropped by while she'd been in town. "When I still refused, she called my parents. She said to them-"
"Why would she call your parents?" Max asked, confused.
"My parents absolutely adored Val. Especially my father, he thought she was the perfect person for me." Which was why he'd gotten so much pressure to marry quickly. "They thought she could do no wrong. When she called them and told them that she was all-better, but I wouldn't come pick her up so she could come home, they said they'd come get her." Logan remembered the call he'd gotten from his father. He was on his cell phone in his car driving up to get Val. He'd gotten completely reamed out for allowing his poor, suffering wife to stay in that awful place when she was so obviously better. It was the last time Logan ever talked to them.
"It was towards the end of January," Logan continued. His face was shadowed, his eyes dark with grief. "Pretty late at night. A car coming from the other direction hit a patch of ice and swerved in front of my parent's car. My mother was killed instantly. My father lived long enough to get to the hospital. He was on life support, but he'd had a living will." It happened six years ago, but it still hard to think about the night after the accident when he'd been asked for permission to take his father off life support.
"Val was hysterical, she had to be sedated. To her credit, she loved my parents like they were her own. When the will was read after the funeral, I was so pissed off at my parents, for so many reasons. What the hell were they thinking, driving out to the middle of no where at close to midnight? If they'd just waited till the morning they wouldn't have been on that road. With the exception of some charities, I got their whole estate." He hadn't wanted it. He hadn't wanted a fucking cent of it. He'd sold their house, their cars, their boats, everything with in a month. All the money from those sales was donated to charities. What was he going to do with the money? Take a vacation? Money didn't buy happiness, especially when that money came from your recently dead parents. "My lawyer was handling most of the details, including the divorce I had just filed for. It probably wasn't right, but in a way I did blame Val." She never stopped drinking and I know for a fact that she was sleeping around. The simplest thing to do was move out of the house outside the city they'd lived in then. When Val had received the papers, she'd signed them with out the slightest protest. She seemed almost relieved that she could drink and screw all she wanted and not have to feel guilty when or if she ever sobered up. "She never knew about the trust fund and I wasn't about to tell her. To make a long story short, I never touched the trust fund while I was married because I was still grieving. By the time my divorce was finalized, I didn't even remember that it was there." He lapsed into silence while Max considered how to respond to all she'd just learned.
"Logan, I have to say…I really don't like your ex-wife." Her voice definitive, a quiet sort of dedication that said she could turn into Mother Theresa incarnate, and Max would still think she was a bitch. It was enough to make the black cloud that had floated over Logan's mood lift enough to laugh.
Chapter Nine
"Logan?" Max's voice was meek. It should have been his first indication that something was wrong, but he was distracted and not all that together after a lovely little evening with the people he unfortunately called family, so he didn't notice Max staring morosely out the window, fidgeting lightly as she spoke. Though, her words did register enough to make him wince. Everything they said to each other lately seemed to escalate into an argument, and he really wasn't in the mood right now.
She really didn't want to bring this up but curiosity was burning a lovely little whole in her gut. "Yeah?" Logan asked.
"I know it's none of my business and if you don't want to tell me that's fine." Max lifted her hands and then dropped them back into her lap with a frustrated sigh.
A long silence filled the car again as they sat at a sector checkpoint line. "Is there a question?" Logan prompted.
"Why wasn't this trust fund of yours ever touched before, when you were…uh…married before?"
Logan's knuckles turned white, his hands gripping the wheel to the point it was painful. "Why?" He snapped. "You're getting your money, why do you all of a sudden care about the details?"
Logan saw the all too familiar flash of temper, but this time he caught a quick shadow of hurt. He wanted to kick himself for putting it there. "I didn't realize I didn't have the proper security clearance, Commander Cale. My mistake, sorry for asking." Max lounged back in her seat, crossing her arms. It was as close to a sulk as he'd ever seen her get.
Logan sat through the rest of the checkpoint, helpless quiet, wondering what to do. "Max…" He started.
"No, forget about it, Logan." Max said calmly now. "You don't need to tell me anything."
"Max, I'm sorry." It was Logan's turn to sigh. "I just…I don't like talking about my parents death. It was more of an automatic reaction to the question that anything." When Max's shoulders remained tense, he closed his eyes a moment. Had he been stationary, he would have kept them that way, but since they were on a busy inner city street, he did have that luxury. "I'm sure you don't want to hear every single dirty detail, so I'll give you the condensed version. Val got arrest for drunk driving after we had been married for about three years. To keep herself out of jail, she plea-bargained down to voluntary suspended license. I was so pissed off that she got behind the wheel of a car after she'd been drinking, I threatened a divorce unless she went into rehab. She agreed and we found this nice residential six-week program for her. She absolutely hated it, it completely wasn't what she expected it to be when she went in there." Logan laughed briefly at the memory of his ex-wife being expected to do chores. "Needless to say, two weeks into the program, she threw a fit and wanted to come home. Since I had driven her there and it was in the middle of the wilderness, another complaint on her part, she had no way of getting back to Seattle. She called me and wanted me to come get her, I said no, that I wasn't going to help her leave in the middle of her treatment." Of course, that made her throw another fit, screaming that he didn't love her and that he was probably sleeping with other women while she was gone. That had been her trademark, claiming that Logan had been having affairs with everyone from the check out lady at the grocery store, to one of his second cousins who'd dropped by while she'd been in town. "When I still refused, she called my parents. She said to them-"
"Why would she call your parents?" Max asked, confused.
"My parents absolutely adored Val. Especially my father, he thought she was the perfect person for me." Which was why he'd gotten so much pressure to marry quickly. "They thought she could do no wrong. When she called them and told them that she was all-better, but I wouldn't come pick her up so she could come home, they said they'd come get her." Logan remembered the call he'd gotten from his father. He was on his cell phone in his car driving up to get Val. He'd gotten completely reamed out for allowing his poor, suffering wife to stay in that awful place when she was so obviously better. It was the last time Logan ever talked to them.
"It was towards the end of January," Logan continued. His face was shadowed, his eyes dark with grief. "Pretty late at night. A car coming from the other direction hit a patch of ice and swerved in front of my parent's car. My mother was killed instantly. My father lived long enough to get to the hospital. He was on life support, but he'd had a living will." It happened six years ago, but it still hard to think about the night after the accident when he'd been asked for permission to take his father off life support.
"Val was hysterical, she had to be sedated. To her credit, she loved my parents like they were her own. When the will was read after the funeral, I was so pissed off at my parents, for so many reasons. What the hell were they thinking, driving out to the middle of no where at close to midnight? If they'd just waited till the morning they wouldn't have been on that road. With the exception of some charities, I got their whole estate." He hadn't wanted it. He hadn't wanted a fucking cent of it. He'd sold their house, their cars, their boats, everything with in a month. All the money from those sales was donated to charities. What was he going to do with the money? Take a vacation? Money didn't buy happiness, especially when that money came from your recently dead parents. "My lawyer was handling most of the details, including the divorce I had just filed for. It probably wasn't right, but in a way I did blame Val." She never stopped drinking and I know for a fact that she was sleeping around. The simplest thing to do was move out of the house outside the city they'd lived in then. When Val had received the papers, she'd signed them with out the slightest protest. She seemed almost relieved that she could drink and screw all she wanted and not have to feel guilty when or if she ever sobered up. "She never knew about the trust fund and I wasn't about to tell her. To make a long story short, I never touched the trust fund while I was married because I was still grieving. By the time my divorce was finalized, I didn't even remember that it was there." He lapsed into silence while Max considered how to respond to all she'd just learned.
"Logan, I have to say…I really don't like your ex-wife." Her voice definitive, a quiet sort of dedication that said she could turn into Mother Theresa incarnate, and Max would still think she was a bitch. It was enough to make the black cloud that had floated over Logan's mood lift enough to laugh.