Dare-Sexual

Chapter 32

Dereck's Pov:

We walked into the church and sat down in the front row. I grabbed Vin's hand and gave it a squeeze for support. The service was tragically beautiful.

Vin kept his grip on my hand tight and sniffed a few times but stayed strong for Sams who was seated on the other side of him.

"Now Veronica's son Vincent will get up and give the Eulogy." The priest said solemnly.

Vin gave me a quick kiss on the temple and stood up and walked to the podium. He cleared his throat and began.

"Um My mom was an amazingly complicated woman. Until fairly recently I'm sad to say that the relationship my sister and I had with her was a bit.. strained. But she was persistent and for that I'm beyond thankful. She actually pulled me, my boyfriend and sister's girlfriend out of school a few months back so we could go and discuss her 'frigid bitchiness' her words not mine. We met Sammy and sat down and connected, for the first time in way to long. She explained things to us that made us realize what an amazingly strong woman she was and regret not being able to help her all those years she suffered in silence.

When we asked what made her take that important step in her life she'd smiled and winked at Dare and basically said my boyfriend made her 'man up' I'm grateful to him and mom both, because they fought to make us a stronger closer family and we were. In fact we'd just celebrated the best Christmas together ever, not because the gifts or the food. But because we were all so genuinely happy to be together. It was by far the best memory I have of my mom.

Many of you know me as the jokester of the family but what very few of you knew was my mom was the original jokester. In fact to show her support my mom got my boyfriend and I some incredibly embarrassing and extremely funny gay pride gag gifts. I'll spare you the traumatizing details but I remember thinking this is where I get my craziness from. But hearing her carefree laughing is something I'll never forget. I wouldn't trade the last few months for anything and I just want to say.. I'm so proud of you mom and I'm going to miss you so much."

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We skipped the traditional reception after the service was done. Instead Sams, Ariel, Mitch, Jared, Lisa, Vin and I went to a quiet restaurant and had dinner. Away from everyone and everything. Sams and Vin wanted it to be sort of how it was a Christmas. "Our little misfit family'

Vin never let go of my hand. Even when they lowered the casket into the ground and people came by to give their condolences. Even through dinner which was a somber affair and all the way home. I gave him all the support I could.

We laid down and he curled around me. He cleared his throat.

"I've been thanking and already talked it over with Sammy. We're gonna use mom's estate to set up a battered women and children's shelter. We don't have anything like that here and I know mom never would have went there but what about all the other women and children that have to suffer through abuse. What do you think?"

"That's a great idea and I think Veronica would have loved it. I'll help any way I can. In fact I'll make a donation large enough to set up a charity event and you should set up a press conference to announce it. Shouldn't be too hard considering the media is camped on our front steps and with the trial beginning in a few days I don't see them leaving any time soon. Might as well put them to work."

He sighed. "Is it wrong that I'm not going to the trial? I mean he already confessed to the police and with the evidence stacked against him there is no way he can worm his way out of this. Even if he pleads not guilty he's not gonna get away with what he did."

I wrapped my arms around him. "No he wont and there isn't anything wrong with you missing the main part. But we will go when they do sentencing. The DA said he wants you to write an impact statement and I think you should. Even if it's just to tell Peter to eat shit and die. You need the closure."

He nodded. "I know it's soon and everyone is gonna be weird but I just want to go back to school already. Get back to normal, not that I won't miss her or anything. I just, tomorrow we have to clean out her condo and after that I just want a break from all the sadness and anger."

"I know babe, and yes it'll help but you're never gonna be completely over what happened. In time it'll be a little twinge of sadness when you think about your mom and eventually it'll be bittersweet because you'll be able to remember the good more so then this but it'll still hurt just a bit because a good woman's life was cut short and you were jipped in the amount of time you had with her. But you need to focus on how happy she'd been these last few months. That was all you and Sams. Y'all forgiving her meant the world to her and at least you know in her final days she was truly happy."

He rubbed my cheek. "You gave us that Dare. You are what gave mom the courage to leave Peter and the will to keep fighting to get us back. You are the reason we took that first meeting with her and I'm so grateful that you did all those things because it gave me a chance to get to know the real woman she was. The one that wasn't beaten down and broken to an empty shell by that bastard. We owe the last few happy months to you and... Thank you for being you baby." He whispered.

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We just finished packing the last of the boxes and the mover's will be here in an hour to put it all in a climate controlled storage building. We stepped back and Ariel handed us all a bottle of water. Vin kissed my cheek and stretched.

Mid stretch he groaned. "Are you f*ckin kidding me?!?"

Before we could ask what, he was stomping to the back patio door and throwing it open. We rushed to the door to see Vin red with anger and a group of about ten reporters all gathered round and trying to get a look inside.

I rushed to his side and clasped his hand. "I know you're upset and you have every right to be but keep your cool." I whispered.

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. His next actions surprised me though. He pasted on a fake half smile and raised the hand I wasn't holding up to get the reporters to stop firing question after question.

"I know you all have loads of questions and would like nothing more then to get in there and click away where the scene of the gruesome crime took place. However I can assure you that there is quite literally nothing to see. The crime scene has already been cleaned and everything my mother had in here has been boxed and is about to be taken away. My sister still refuses to have any dealings with you and if you can respect that we'd like just a couple more days to grieve privately. Then I'll have a press conference at the Ford Estate and as long as you can show some decorum I'll answer your questions. I even have a surprise announcement to make and I'd love to have all you good people there for it."

"What kind of announcement?"

"Is about you're father?"

"Sources say you haven't been to see him not even once?"

"DO you believe he's guilty?"

"Are you and Mr Smith getting married?"

I shook my head and rolled my eyes. "Oi! He basically just told all you idiots that if ya back the hell off and let our family have some peace to come to terms with things he'll freely give you what you want. You're not getting it now so you might as well respect his and his sister's wishes. Either that or I can have my very good, very loyal and reporter hating lawyers smack a lawsuit on all of you for harassment, stalking, and trespassing. This is private property and unlike at our house where you can camp out on the damn street. You are currently trespassing in a fenced in back yard, I'm sure my kick ass attorney's could push to up the charge from trespassing to breaking and entering. They're that good. So?"

We watched as one by one they left. Vin pulled me into a hug and kissed me. "I love it when you get all mouthy and nerdy. It's a hot mix." He whispered against my lips.

"Ya know nerdy is not an endearment that I like."