Legacy (Book 5)

Skeletons

|Paul's POV|

It's been a decade since Dan and Stacy passed in the car accident. A car accident that never made any sense to me. Of course I had investigators looking into their cause of death. Neither was intoxicated. The truck driver that hit them miraculously survived. Nothing sat right with me about it, but still nothing was proved beyond if being a drunk driver killing. I thought at first Dan was having one last hurrah. I mean, he did try and kill Stacy once before. We'll get to that. Maybe I should've said something to Jamie sooner, but she blocked them out. Her cousin popping up brings back all the horrific memories. Thinking of Stacy's fractured mental and bloody body, she deserved so much more than the man I had grown up with and called a best friend.

Daniel Brooks was not perfect by any means, but I had noticed a positive shift prior to his passing. We talked extensively about how he wanted Jamie to finish high school in mine and Steph's care while he tried to salvage whatever was left of his marriage. Most importantly, he wanted to distance himself from his family as they had always butted in. Coming from someone who has an extremely tight knit family, the issue with the Brooks is that they were malicious and calculating. 

Growing up in New Hampshire, we had the Brooks family as our neighbors. Dan and I became quick friends. I had my younger sister Lynn and he had a younger brother and sister, Jimmy and Rebecca. Jimmy was around us a lot growing up, only being a couple years younger. Rebecca was almost 5 years younger than us, closer to my sister Lynn's age.

Rebecca or as we called her, Beck, was always a pain in the ass and being the only girl, she always got what she wanted. Very entitled. Lynn tried being friends with her, but she always tried to boss my sister around and Lynn wasn't for that.

Stacy grew up with us as well. She went to middle school with us, but didn't catch Dan's eye until high school. She and Izzy's mother were friends and oddly enough ended up pregnant at the same time. My parents were more supportive, Dan's not so much. I mean we were adults when it happened. Young adults, but adults none the less. We were all in love and wanted to build our families. After graduation I stayed in New Hampshire, wrestling. Dan and Stacy had a shotgun wedding, enrolled at the University of New Haven where Stacy had a full ride. Dan's parents moved to Florida.

Stacy was ready to begin her career as nurse. She has it all mapped out. She wanted her bachelors, masters, and doctorate degrees in nursing; ultimately wanting to teach. Having a baby was not slowing her down one bit. Dan on the other hand was unsure of what he wanted to do.

When we had our girls, I lost the love of my life and in a way, Dan lost his. He started to resent Stacy in so many ways. Even with a newborn she finished college with honors. She had the career and he ended up at a random job. It's not that he wasn't capable, Dan just often did what everyone else wanted him to. Everyone else meaning his parents. He parented Jamie a certain way because his mother said to. He spoke down to Stacy because his father said she needed to know her place. He would send money to his siblings because they needed their "big brothers" help. 

The first time Dan hit Stacy, she called me. She was hysterical and was worried he was going to hurt Jamie. She was just one at the time. Dan apologize and smooth talked her. We got into a fight of our own after he told me just because I had lost Izzy's mother, I wasn't going to take his wife away from him. That just landed him with a black eye. I was a hot head and grieving them. Any word of disrespect usually ended in me knocking someone out. Dan was no exception.

Stacy was my friend above anything else. I also knew how easily Dan could be persuaded by his family. Once he took his head out his ass, he apologized to me and apologized to Stacy. Things were fine for a while, or so I thought.

Dan had a problem with Stacy working at the hospital and made her quit. He accused her of cheating with the doctors, no proof to that. He was verbally abusive and had his family attacking her. Stacy was making more than Daniel and he was upset about it. Anything she wanted to do, he had to know. The abuse became physical, once again, and she wanted to divorce him. She tried to get away, his family was overly involved.