“Don’t,” she warned.
Fear. That was the emotion coloring her voice.
I was numb. I had nothing left to lose. “No.”
Glenda flicked a glance up the stairs, but then, with a ragged breath, stepped aside. “You can’t say I didn’t try to stop you.”
As my feet stomped up each step, I should have worried about what I’d find. I didn’t. I was furious. The anger was the only thing keeping the panic at bay.
Setting my luggage beside the office door, I lifted my fist and pounded on the wood. The door rattled.
In the echo, a hushed sound vibrated behind the wood. I leaned forward to catch any words. I came here to discuss the state of my life with my dad. The puppet master behind the scenes, who’d royally screwed up everything. His business could wait.
The energy from the other side pulsed. A vile chill wafted down the hall.
The door ripped open, and a brutally ugly face leered down at me. “Well, hello there, pretty girl.”
The door widened. Dad glared at me. “Amanda, I’m busy.”
“This is Amanda?” the stranger mused, accent heavy and harsh. His tongue darted out to run over his thin lips.
I stepped back as a foul note hit my nostrils. Onion, beer, and the stench of an unwashed body. The stranger wasn’t much taller than me. His body was built in hard lines, which were filled with enough muscle to stand out under his black and white Adidas zip up jacket. His thin hair was dark, gelled back to make it look fuller than it was. But it was the square face, deeply scarred with pock marks, and the beaked nose that set me on edge.
I didn’t want to be Amanda in this moment.
But I was already here.
“Hi, Dad, we need to talk.” I pulled my shoulders straight.
“I’m busy—”
“No, Archy,” the stranger lisped. “Your beautiful daughter is here. She needs to chat. I’ll take a piss break, and you can tell her the good news.”
Snakes writhed in my stomach.
“The good news?” My dad shot him a tight look.
“I think I’m…how do you say?” The stranger wrinkled his nose. “Amicable? Aimable? Whatever the fuck word. I’ll take your terms.”
“You weren’t in favor of them five minutes ago,” my father observed dryly.
The stranger shrugged and stepped into the hall. “That’s before I saw this lovely woman in the flesh.”
I didn’t move fast enough. He reached out and chucked my chin before laughing as he sauntered down the hall.
“Dad?” I croaked.
I felt like I was eight years old, rushing from my bunk bed to my parents’ room because I had a nightmare. But Dad was never home. Mom…well, Mom would have comforted me, but she gave up the fruits of capitalism to live a free life out in the bowels of nature, where bathing took place in the mountain springs and the stars were her ceiling. A modern hippie, she was gone now, too.
I had no parent to keep the demons away.
“Get in here,” my dad hissed. “I must say, I’m surprised you’re back after whatever stunt you pulled yesterday.”
His fingers sank into the flesh on my wrists, and with a vicious tug, he pulled me inside and slammed the door.
“It wasn’t my stunt,” I said before thinking better of it.
He gave me a withering look. “Quit lying, girl.”
