Kit and Ivy: A Red Team Wedding Novella by Elaine Levine Page A

him use that tone of voice. “I suggest you don’t start handing out insults five minutes into your visit.” He stepped into Adam’s space. “You’re here to spend an important weekend with Ivy and Casey, but I can take you out that door just as easily as I brought you in it.”
    “You haven’t changed. You’re still the hoodlum you always were.” He looked at Ivy then back at Kit. “Did you give her any choice about her future? Or did you just demand it would go the way you wanted?”
    “Like you ever gave her any choices—least any that didn’t mean killing my daughter?”
    Ivy’s father squared off with him. “It’s because of you Ivy had to hide. You stole her from us.”
    “Oh, God. Adam, please. Please. We agreed—” Ivy’s mom tried to calm their escalating tempers. Ivy didn’t spare her a glance; she couldn’t take her eyes off her father and Kit. They were face to face now. Kit had grown since she’d last seen the two of them together. Her dad, at six feet, towered over her and her mom, using his size to intimidate them. It had always worked before, but now Kit was half a head taller and a good bit wider. She feared Kit was going to eviscerate him.  
    “I’m why. I’m why ,” Kit repeated, his voice a hoarse whisper. “You wouldn’t let me near her. You wouldn’t let my phone calls get through to her. You kept my letters from her. I had to go AWOL to see her, but you’d put a restraining order on me. You took them from me and left them to fend for themselves. My woman . My daughter . They could have died because of you.” He looked over at Ivy.  
    Ivy couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. Even her tears were like crystals at the edges of her eyes.
    Kit stepped away, then faced Adam again. “You never tried to find her. You just left them out there in the world, as I did, because of you. But you know what? They didn’t need either of us. Did you know that Ivy has a degree in business administration? Did you know she runs a very successful small business in town? Did you know Casey is a fucking math whiz? Did you know she’s a brown belt in karate?” He bowed his head and sucked in air. “No. You didn’t know. Because you didn’t care to know.”
    “Boy, you always could pile on the bullshit,” her father countered. “How the hell was I supposed to know where she went? How was I supposed to find her when she didn’t want to be found?” He pointed in Ivy’s direction. “She knew where we were. She knew our address. Our phone number. She never once tried to reach out to us.”
    “You really expected her to do that? When every convo you’d had with her since learning of her pregnancy was about how to get rid of Casey?” Kit shook his head. He paced a few steps to his side, standing between her and her dad. “You were an adult. The burden was on your shoulders. You should have tried and tried and tried. Then tried again. They’re your flesh and blood. They’re my world. I would give my life for them.” He looked Adam in the eyes. “Would you?”
    Adam shut his eyes. When he opened them, Ivy saw a terrible sorrow. He had the look of a man who’d wished for death, but kept living, day after day. Worn and beaten. “I did. I’ve paid for my sins every minute, every hour, every day and week and month and year that’s passed since this started.” His shoulders slumped. “I just want it to end.”
    Ivy choked on a sob. She slipped past Kit and wrapped her arms around her father. Together, they cried. Ivy’s tears came from a bottomless well, one she’d dragged around with her for years, into which her every hope and dream had fallen into and drowned.  
    After a few minutes, her dad straightened. He gripped Ivy’s shoulders, gave her a squeeze. He nodded at her, then at Kit. “We’ll get our things and leave.”
    “I’m not leaving, Adam,” Ivy’s mom said, rejecting his edict.
    “No one’s going,” Ivy whispered through her tears.  
    “She’s right,”