Page 55 of Embattled Return

Arthur looked at Logan. “The other two children? Your brother and sister?”

“Jana is dead,” he told them softly. “She was killed when her boyfriend who was high at the time plowed them into a tree. She was just moving out of Dad’s house after I left. Clint has been into and out of jail for as long as I can remember. Before I left to come here, he was in jail again.”

Reaching for a tissue, Eugenia wiped at her eyes. “Jana was such a beautiful girl. Always so full of life. It was hard for her to accept you when you were born, because she was our first grandchild, so everyone doted on her.”

“She became my protector when we left,” Logan said. “Mom was caring for Clint, so itfell to her to watch over me.”

Arthur nodded. “I can see her taking on that role. She took care of her dolls that way as well.”

“Do you have a picture of her? Grown, I mean?”

Logan flipped through the Gallery on his phone, finding his favorite picture of them together. It was the day he’d left for basic training, and their last picture together. He handed the phone over. It was a picture of a picture, but it was all he had.

Eugenia cried more, her hands shaking as she held the phone. “We tried to keep you here, but they wouldn’t let us. When we refused to bail Chris out of jail, he said he would make us pay. But what were we supposed to do? He had gotten into trouble so many times, and we just couldn’t watch him do it to you kids. Sharon was no help.”

“Who was Sharon,” Marigold asked.

“My mother,” Logan murmured.

“She was a spineless twit who catered to your father, no matter what he wanted,” Eugenia said, her own spine straight.

“She still is,” Logan admitted.

Eugenia shook her head. “That woman was no mother to you kids. She was a broodmare and a maid, never a partner.”

Logan agreed with her. “She worked at the restaurant while my father was in the Army?”

Arthur nodded, rubbing his wife’s back. “We gave her a job because he always went through his pay so fast. Usually cigarettes and liquor, gambling. He never cared if you kids had enough to eat or not. He always came first. Yes, he was my son, but Christopher seemed to take joy in doing the exact opposite of what he should have done to be a man and take care of his family.”

Logan nodded slowly. “It was only yesterday that I learned of his criminal charges in the Army, and his jail time.”

Arthur’s jaw clenched. “It was disgraceful. Our family has served in the United States military for generations with an impeccable record. I felt that pushing him into the military would help him grow and experience the world, but he didn’t take to it. Didn’t take to the discipline. He was the baby of the family, so we’d given in to him a lot. By that time, he had met your mother, and it was only because she encouraged him that he stayed in. She was pregnant with Jana within a few weeks of meeting him, so they needed the benefits. It wasn’t enough to keep his damn mouth shut though.”

“We would hear stories of him mouthing off to his sergeants, then getting out of trouble somehow. We think he was...well,” Eugenia looked at her husband. “They were supposed to be doing drug tests and stuff, but maybe they weren’t as good back then. Or maybe they missed him.”

So, he skated through service by being a pusher. Considering his charges later, someone had caught and reported him. Logan glanced at Marigold and he could read the same thought in her expression.

“Thank you for sharing that with me,” Logan said. “After so many years I’m finally starting to hear the truth. My father still maintains that the Army screwed him over. He always told us that he was bumped out because he had contraband in his pocket.”

Eugenia snorted derisively, her eyes flashing. “He always had contraband in his pocket. I swear, I don’t know what happened to him to make him behave that way.”

“Sometimes addictions can’t be controlled,” Marigold murmured. “He may have actually been doing the best he could.”

“Well, it wasn’t enough,” Arthur said, jaw clenched. “Our family had a history. We believe in our democracy and have literally bled for the people of this country, many times over in fact. Your uncle James was killed in action, and the rest of your aunts and uncles have all served. Karen is still serving and plans on retiring.”

Logan nodded. “I read that.”

Eugenia held out a hand, motioning to his legs. “Did you serve?”

“I did,” he said, gruffly. “I almost fulfilled my six-year contract when my squad was hit by an IED. I was the only one in the vehicle that survived.”

Arthur’s eyes reddened and grew damp with emotion, and Eugenia cried a little. Logan appreciated the sentiment more than they could know. No one in his family had acknowledged what he had been through.

Arthur held out his hand. “Your heart pumps with Showalter blood.”

Emotion tightened his throat as he shook his grandfather’s hand. “Thank you, sir.”

The silence stretched for a minute as they gathered their emotions.