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“See?” I smirked at him, shoving his shoulder. “I told you you missed getting your hands dirty.”
“Shut up,” he said with a laugh.
30
ROAN
It only tookone day for my father to return to his natural asshole ways. He spent a couple days in the hospital for fluids and observation to make sure there wasn’t any lasting internal damage from whatever it was Sasha did to him. I still didn’t know the extent of it and I didn’t care to ask. Mom tried to keep me updated about his “progress,” but I made a point of zoning out when she talked or ignoring her texts entirely.
I knew as soon as he was back home because my mother called in another panic I couldn’t exactly ignore.
“You need to come home. Right now,” she said, alternating between crying and trying to actually sound like a parent. Too bad she was about twenty years too late.
“Why?” I asked, pushing away from my laptop and rubbing my forehead.
“Your father wants to talk to you. He told me some very disturbing things, young man. You need to come home and settle thisright now.”
“Oh, now he wants to talk to me? Maybe he should have tried that when I actually lived there.”
“I am not in the mood for your sarcasm. Now, I don’t want to think you and your…” She swallowed so hard I heard it through the phone. “Boyfriend… would do this. But why would your father lie?”
“Why wouldIlie about being kidnapped? Hmm?”
Instead of actually answering, she just sighed. I could picture her massaging her damn earlobes or whatever pressure point she could access.
After a minute of dramatic silence, she followed up with, “Are you coming over to sort this out, or not?”
“Not.” I hung up and turned my phone off. It may have been childish but I couldnotdeal with her at the moment. Besides, the more I ignored them, the more pissed off Dad would get, which would hopefully lead to him making some sort of mistake.
When I finally turned my phone back on the next day, a barrage of messages came in — mostly from her, except for one from the asshole himself.
Dad: You think you can steal my money and get away with it? You have no idea the shit storm you’re in. I’ve told the police everything. You and that animal can share a cell at Stateville for all I care.
Me: Steal your money? What are you talking about? Is hallucinating one of the side effects of a concussion?
Dad: Don’t act like you don’t know about the ransom. This whole thing was your fucking get-rich-quick scheme. Instead of working for it, you decide to go for an easy handout.
Me: What ransom? You mean the ransom from when *I* was kidnapped? But, Dad, you said there wasn’t a ransom...
Dad: Is this all a game to you?
Me: I don’t even know what you’re talking about... so no. Did you take too many pain pills today? They can really fuck with your memory.
Dad: You’re dead to me. Do you understand? Dead.
I didn’t bother responding. After all, I was dead now and dead people didn’t talk. They didn’t text. They didn’t do anything. So neither did I.
The only positive out of that whole exchange was that I got a heads up the police would be in contact soon. And they were. A weary-sounding detective from Highland Park called to ask about my father’s allegations.
It didn’t take much to convince him what an asshole my father was and this was some attempt at payback, not only for Sasha battering him in the restaurant but also for the simpler fact I was gay and he didn’t approve. Honestly, I didn’t know if Dad had a problem with my sexuality or not, but the detective sounded sympathetic regardless. I’m sure he’d already gotten an earful from Dad so it was easy to paint a picture of what it was like growing up with him, trying to please a man who was never happy.
The detective thanked me for my time, apologized for the inconvenience, and hung up without any further ado. Case closed.
Afterward, Sasha found me on the couch, staring at nothing, my phone laying facedown on my chest.
“I don’t like that look,” he said, pushing my legs off the couch to make room for himself.
I tossed my phone at him, letting him see the exchange with my father for himself, while I crawled over to sit next to him.
