"I heard," Izzy said, and she met his gaze-just long enough for him to see her fear. She was afraid-terrified-that he was going to believe the stupid s.h.i.t her mother was spouting. heard," Izzy said, and she met his gaze-just long enough for him to see her fear. She was afraid-terrified-that he was going to believe the stupid s.h.i.t her mother was spouting.

"Ron said it was going on for months," Ivette shot back.

"Yeah, great," Eden said. "Trust the crack addict. Because he'll never never lie." lie."

"Eden was fifteen, fifteen," Izzy said, and Eden looked at him again, even as Ivette countered.

"Going on forty," she scoffed. "He had disgusting pictures of her on his cell phone."

"Because he used to walk in on me in the bathroom," Eden countered.

"Oh, so now you're back to saying that it never happened?" Ivette sucked furiously on her cigarette. "Because that's not what you told Sandy-"

"I told Sandy the truth. truth."

"That you sucked her husband's c.o.c.k," Ivette shot back. "That he made made you. How does that work, exactly? Without him holding a gun to your head?" you. How does that work, exactly? Without him holding a gun to your head?"

"Oh, my G.o.d," Jenn said, putting her arms around Eden, as if trying to protect her.

"Jesus Christ," Dan said. "You make me sick."

Out on the stoop, Eden flinched, as if she were certain her brother was talking to her.

But he wasn't-he was looking at his mother like she was some kind of monster. "Do you even hear what you're saying?"

"You don't know what she did," Ivette implored him. "What she's capable of. She was home with the kids, babysitting. After Ron relapsed, Sandy and I had to get second jobs, waitressing. We were working that night-"

"With a hurricane coming...?" Dan asked. "You left Eden home alone with three kids with a category-five hurricane-?"

"We didn't have a choice. If we didn't go in, we'd lose our jobs. Besides, they weren't alone. Ron was there."

"A relapsed crack addict?" Dan gave voice to Izzy's own disbelief.

"He was clean," Ivette said.

"He was not, not," Eden countered. "He was using again. He was high, and when the time came to evacuate, I was not not going to let Ben and those little girls get into his car with him." going to let Ben and those little girls get into his car with him."

"Ron said they had a lovers' quarrel," Ivette countered, talking to Danny, "and she left him behind to die."

"We argued," Eden said. "And he hit me and he knocked me down and he tried to rape rape me, but Ben hit him with one of our cast-iron porch chairs. I grabbed his keys, and we got into the car and locked the doors, and he started trying to smash the windows-with his own daughters inside!-so Ben got us the h.e.l.l out of there." me, but Ben hit him with one of our cast-iron porch chairs. I grabbed his keys, and we got into the car and locked the doors, and he started trying to smash the windows-with his own daughters inside!-so Ben got us the h.e.l.l out of there."

"Except Ben conveniently doesn't remember that," Ivette said.

"He doesn't remember much about any of it," Eden said. "The hurricane or or the Superdome...And I thank G.o.d for that!" the Superdome...And I thank G.o.d for that!"

"He also conveniently doesn't remember you abandoning him," Ivette accused her. She turned to Dan. "She left him and Sandy's girls with a stranger stranger, so she could go meet Ron at the store."

"Yeah," Eden said. "Right. I left my brother, who was going into a coma coma from lack of insulin, and I waded through water that was up to my from lack of insulin, and I waded through water that was up to my shoulders shoulders, so I could meet Ron at the store and give him a b.l.o.w. .j.o.b. What planet do you live on? Although you're right about one thing. I sucked him off. And I didn't didn't have a gun to my head." Her voice shook. "Okay, have a gun to my head." Her voice shook. "Okay, Mom Mom? Are you happy to hear me admit it? You're right, I didn't have have to do it. I could've left the store without the insulin-I could've just walked away, and let Ben die." to do it. I could've left the store without the insulin-I could've just walked away, and let Ben die."

"Ah, Jesus," Dan breathed. "There was insulin at the store."

Eden nodded. "We went there, every day, after school. There was a minifridge in the back. I knew the power would be off, but I thought maybe it would still be cool enough. And I figured it was better than nothing. But when I finally got there? Ron was already there. And at first, I thought maybe he'd be sober and, I don't know, maybe just a little bit glad to see me-to know that Kimmie and Kendra were alive. But he was still high, so he didn't give a s.h.i.t. You can relate to that, huh, Ma?"

"I've heard this sob story before," Ivette started, but Izzy stepped forward.

"Shut up."

There must've been something in his eyes, something dangerous, because she shut her mouth, fast.

"Sweetie, you don't have to explain anything," Jenn told Eden, who was still standing there, defiant, chin high, and ready for them all to side with her mother and call her a liar. "You did what you believed you had to do-"

Eden looked through the screen, directly at Izzy, and whispered, "He said I could have the insulin if I gave him a b.l.o.w. .j.o.b. And I figured, I'd done worse with John Franklin, and it didn't kill me, you know? It didn't mean anything. It was just...s.e.x. I just kept telling myself that. That it was nothing. It meant nothing. Except it did. It meant...that I was exactly what everyone said I was." She looked at Danny then. "What you you said I was, when you came home for Charlie's funeral." said I was, when you came home for Charlie's funeral."

Danny looked ill, but he didn't get a chance to say anything, not so much as an I'm sorry I'm sorry, or a G.o.d, Eden G.o.d, Eden, because Greg couldn't keep his mouth shut.

"We don't speak his name in this house," he said.

"Who? Charlie?" Dan asked, his disgust dripping from his words. "He was a hundred times the man that you are-you're not allowed to speak his name." He turned to Eden. "Eden-" not allowed to speak his name." He turned to Eden. "Eden-"

But she didn't let him speak. "It didn't didn't mean nothing, but it mean nothing, but it got got me nothing," she told him, told her mother, told Izzy with eyes that were resigned and devoid of all hope that any of them would believe her. "Because I never made it back to the Superdome. I got picked up by a boat that took me to one of the highway overpa.s.ses, and I couldn't get back to find Ben or the girls. I tried, and I me nothing," she told him, told her mother, told Izzy with eyes that were resigned and devoid of all hope that any of them would believe her. "Because I never made it back to the Superdome. I got picked up by a boat that took me to one of the highway overpa.s.ses, and I couldn't get back to find Ben or the girls. I tried, and I tried tried, but I kept getting stopped by all these men with guns and...I offered them what I gave to Ron-you didn't know that that, did you, Mom? Come on, let's hear you condemn me for that-for doing anything-anything to try to save Ben. But I failed." to try to save Ben. But I failed."

"Oh, honey..." Out on the stoop, Jenn tightened the hold she had around Eden. "But he was all right. Ben was..."

"He survived. Barely. Because a stranger gave him insulin. He was was all right." Eden shook her head, rigid in her self-hatred. "No thanks to me." all right." Eden shook her head, rigid in her self-hatred. "No thanks to me."

"You tried," Izzy whispered, through a throat that was tight. He'd imagined the h.e.l.l that she'd lived through in the aftermath of the hurricane, but he hadn't come even remotely close.

Eden looked right at him. "There is no try," she said. "Remember?"

"This time," Izzy told her, "Yoda's wrong."

"Ben was was all right-no thanks to you." Ivette couldn't keep her mouth shut. "And, for the record? That's all right-no thanks to you." Ivette couldn't keep her mouth shut. "And, for the record? That's not not the story Ron told us, and he was the story Ron told us, and he was very very convincing..." convincing..."

"What the h.e.l.l is wrong with you?" Izzy didn't have to say it, because Danny did.

"Don't you talk to your mother that way!" Greg said as Ivette gasped and then burst into a fresh flood of tears.

Dan ignored them both. "Get Eden away from this poison," he ordered Jenn tersely. "Get her into the car."

Jenni nodded, but Eden wasn't ready to go anywhere. She stood her ground, still thinking first and foremost about her little brother. "Was there any sign of Ben?" she asked Izzy.

"I don't think he's been here," he told her, but he couldn't withhold the potential bad news. "But I found Greg's cell phone, and he was talking to the people over at Crossroads earlier this evening. There were three different calls."

"Oh, my G.o.d," Eden said as Dan tightened his grip on Greg.

"You had no no right," he started. right," he started.

"I have every right," Greg countered. "No son of mine-"

"He's not not your son!" Eden shouted. your son!" Eden shouted.

"Okay," Jenn said, "sweetie, this isn't helping." She raised her voice to be heard inside the house. "Mr. Fortune, did you make arrangements for Crossroads to pick up Ben from Eden's apartment?"

"I did," Greg said. "And there's nothing you can do about it."

Eden stood there, stricken, and Dan looked like he was d.a.m.n near ready to choke the life out of the b.a.s.t.a.r.d as both Greg and Ivette continued to make a s.h.i.tload of useless noise. Greg was proclaiming that he also had the right to call the police after they left, and have them all arrested for home invasion and a.s.sault, and Ivette chimed in with a still-teary and incredibly misguided belief that Crossroads was like a great, big camp, where "Benjy" would go and have fun, maybe meet some nice girls, because maybe he just hadn't met any nice-enough girls...

Izzy had had enough. He put on his deadliest war-face, and stretched himself up to his full height. "Everyone! Shut!" he shouted. "The f.u.c.k! Up!"

The sudden silence was deafening-there was definitely fear in both Greg's and Ivette's eyes. Good. He pointed to Greg. "f.u.c.k you," he said, and then he turned to Ivette, "and f.u.c.k you!" Back to Greg. "I always knew you were a worthless piece of excrement, but you?" Back to Ivette, whose eyes were wide. "I always thought that there must've been at least some something halfway decent in you, because you brought Dan and Eden and Ben into the world. I thought you were somehow responsible, but it's clear that they became the outstanding human beings that they are not only without your help, but with your hindrance. So thank you for showing me this, for this little display tonight. Because now my respect for all three of them is completely off the scale." He turned to the door, where Eden and Jenn were staring at him, too. "Ladies, to the cars. Danny, my friend, I'll take Greg from you, from here. I want a few words in private with your a.s.shole pseudo-parents before I join you at the cars, where we will will go-immediately-to Crossroads to pick up Ben, where he go-immediately-to Crossroads to pick up Ben, where he will will be waiting for us." be waiting for us."

Izzy had it all figured out. Illegally obtained drugs, plus addictive behavior, plus threat of arrest and incarceration...? He was going to use what he'd found in that oven in the kitchen to buy Danny and Eden everything they wanted-Ben's release from that prison of intolerance, and and a signed letter granting the fifteen-year-old permission to go to San Diego and live with either his brother or his sister. a signed letter granting the fifteen-year-old permission to go to San Diego and live with either his brother or his sister.

Izzy had it all figured out, until Greg opened his ugly-a.s.s mouth, and smugly informed them, "He won't be there. Crossroads has a half a dozen sister organizations, all across the country, used when certain family members are uncooperative. Benjamin is on his way to an undisclosed location right now. Even I I don't know where he's going. All I know is he won't come back until he's cured." don't know where he's going. All I know is he won't come back until he's cured."

"You son son of a of a b.i.t.c.h! b.i.t.c.h!"

If Izzy had had to put money on which of the Gillmans would lose their s.h.i.t first on account of getting that kind of bad news about Ben, he would've picked Eden. But it was Danny who went over the edge as he tightened his grip on Greg. The older man flapped and flailed, but he didn't stand a chance as his stepson choked the jumping bejesus out of him.

And maybe Danny was just trying to scare him. Maybe he was intending to stop before the old dude actually stopped breathing, but it sure as h.e.l.l didn't look like it.

Ivette didn't think he was going to stop, either-her screeching started up again.

Jenn, too, was on that bus. "Please, Danny, don't," she said. She looked at Izzy beseechingly in a silent do something do something as she opened the screen door, stepped inside, and tried to pull Dan back. But all she succeeded in doing was hugging him-there was no way she could manhandle him away from Greg. as she opened the screen door, stepped inside, and tried to pull Dan back. But all she succeeded in doing was hugging him-there was no way she could manhandle him away from Greg.

There was no way Izzy could do it, either. Not by force. Well, he could could do it by force, but not without seriously damaging Greg in the process. do it by force, but not without seriously damaging Greg in the process.

So Izzy did the only thing he could. He took Jenn's lead, and just put his arms around Dan, too, holding on to him from behind.

"Don't do this, brother," he said quietly as Ivette wailed from where she'd fallen, prostrate on the floor. "This doesn't make it better, it only makes it worse."

And then Eden spoke up from her place of exile, still out on the stoop. "Danny, Ben needs you," she pleaded. "And...I do, too."

And with that, Danny finally released Greg. Izzy caught the old man and kept him from falling as the a.s.shat gasped for air. d.a.m.n, he smelled bad.

"I'm done," Danny told his mother. "Sending money, answering your calls...It's over. And I'm taking Ben, even if I have to drag you to court to do it."

"Don't say that," Ivette sobbed. "You're my son, and I love you!"

"No, you don't," Dan said. "You only love your alcohol and your drugs. You want to be part of my life? You lose this a.s.shole, and you put yourself through rehab. If you do that? Then we'll talk."

He put his arm around Jenn and went out the screen door, where, on the stoop, he stopped and roughly pulled Eden in for a hug. "Eedie, I'm so sorry," Dan said, his voice breaking.

And Eden-tough, resilient, screw-you-att.i.tude Eden-started to cry, too, with deep, body-shaking sobs.

"Get them into your car, and wait for me," Izzy told Jenn, who was the only one who wasn't weeping-okay, well, she was, too, but she looked as if she could still see well enough to navigate the stairs. "I'll be out in a sec."

As they moved away from the house, Izzy turned back to Greg and Ivette.

"So," he said. "I'm betting some someone, some somewhere, knows where Ben is..."

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE.

SAt.u.r.dAY, 9 M MAY 2009.

0200.

Ben wasn't waiting for them, back at the apartment.

Danny knew that that had been a real long shot, but he'd been hopeful just the same.

Whatever Zanella had threatened his mother and her sc.u.m-sucking husband with, it had worked like gangbusters-to a degree. He'd returned to their car with signed letters stating that both Ivette and Greg gave their full and complete permission for Ben to move to San Diego to live with either Danny or Eden. And And they'd promised, under threat of...whatever-Izzy wouldn't say-to both appear at CPS in the morning to give a similar statement in person. they'd promised, under threat of...whatever-Izzy wouldn't say-to both appear at CPS in the morning to give a similar statement in person.

But getting Ben released from Crossroads was apparently another thing entirely. When pressed, Greg was foggy about the details of the arrangements he'd made with the Crossroads staff, for picking up Ben. He'd been under the impression that it wasn't scheduled to happen until the morning. But maybe he'd been confused, and it was the transporting Ben to Utah or Alabama part of it that was scheduled for the morning.

In which case, Ben could well still be at the Las Vegas Crossroads compound.

After failing to raise the facility via phone, Izzy had offered to make a little in-person visit. Dan had expected Eden to volunteer to go along-but she didn't. And then he found out that Greg was going, too, as Izzy's unwilling and belligerent copilot.

It was then that the three of them-Danny, Jenni, and Eden-headed back here.

"Ben's last blood sugar reading was after we got home from the wedding," Eden reported now, coming out of the kitchen with the device. "Around ten o'clock."

"And we think he left the apartment...when?" Dan asked. He'd changed out of his uniform and was digging through his pack for a clean pair of socks.

"We don't really know." Eden sighed as she sat down next to Danny on the couch. "Izzy and I had a fight-it must've been around, wow, midnight?" She sighed again. "We got loud. I think it might be my fault-Ben's leaving the apartment the way he did."

"Or maybe it wasn't anyone's fault," Dan suggested. "Maybe it was...just Ben being Ben."

Jenn had been sitting across the room, in the easy chair, with her eyes closed, but now she stood up. "I'm going to make some tea," she announced, but she came over-no easy feat with all of the mattresses on the floor-and she kissed Danny before she went into the other room. Not because she wanted tea, but because she wanted to give them privacy to talk.

Dan smiled at his sister. "She's training me and I just got a kiss, so I must be doing something right."

"Training?" Eden repeated.

"Yeah," Dan said. "That's not what she'd she'd call it, but we Gillmans are so messed up, we need to be reminded, frequently, how to be human. For example"-he raised his voice so Jenn could hear him from the kitchen-"I managed not to kill anyone tonight." call it, but we Gillmans are so messed up, we need to be reminded, frequently, how to be human. For example"-he raised his voice so Jenn could hear him from the kitchen-"I managed not to kill anyone tonight."

Jenn laughed. "Yes, I made special note of that," she called back.

"Even though I wanted to," Dan told Eden. "I had my arm against Greg's throat, but it was really Ivette I wanted to..." He sighed, still feeling sick from all he'd learned tonight. "How come you didn't tell me? About Ron and...the insulin?"

She looked up from her examination of Ben's meter. Her answer wasn't really that much of a surprise. "Because," she said simply, "I didn't think you'd you'd believe me, either." believe me, either."