Page 194 of The Encore’s Crown

“She was laughing you piece of shit,” Rithy says as he tightens his grip on her arm and tugs. "Come on, Nat."

“This has nothing to do with you. You stay out of it. Maybe if I’d beaten you harder as a boy, you would’ve grown up to be a man instead of fruitier than a goddamn Christmas cake.”

Rithy shakes his head.

“Wow. Christmas cake. You really know how to hit where it hurts.” His gaze drags over Dad. “If anything in this house is dry as dust and crumbling apart, it’s you.”

Dad takes one step closer. Natalia holds her ground, so Rithy releases her arm and moves in front of her, putting his body between them. My brain finally catches up to what I’m seeing. The angle of his body over them and every version of this room layered over the one in front of me.

Ma against a counter. Rithy on the floor. Me, too small to intervene so many times. I wasn't strong enough then, but I am now.

I cross the kitchen in three strides. Dad barely has time to turn before I catch him by the chest and drive him backward. His back hits the wall hard enough to rattle the framed pictures. The beer bottle slips from his hand and shatters across the floor. I pin him there with my forearm across his chest.

His eyes lock on mine. They’re older now. Smaller and sunken in, but the hatred in them is exactly the same.

“You don't touch them,” I tell him.

Dad’s face twists, then he laughs.

“Who do you think you are, boy?”

I shove him harder into the wall. I can feel the frailness of his bones grind against my forearm. It wouldn't take much, not anymore.

“Say one more fucking word and I'll shut you up permanently.”

Chapter 66

Ruined

Kiri

“You’ll regret putting your hands on me.”

Dad’s mouth twists. A laugh breaks out of me, deep and empty. “That’s one thing I have never regretted.”

His face changes, and we’re back there. I’m sixteen again, blood across my knuckles and Rithy curled on the floor behind me. Dad is still trying to stand because he can’t understand how the kid he spent years throwing around has finally become strong enough to put him down.

Blood rushes in my ears until the whole room disappears beneath it. Then fingers close around my arm.

“Kiri.”

Natalia’s voice reaches me from somewhere near my shoulder. One word. My name in her mouth sounds like music cutting through static.

“Kiri,” she says again, softer.

The kitchen comes back piece by piece. Ma is crying, begging me to let him go, her voice breaking between Khmer and English until I can’t separate either one. Rithy is somewhere behind me, telling me Dad isn’t worth going to jail for, but all I can feel is Natalia’s hand. Her thumb moves once against my sleeve.

“Kiri. Look at me.”

I turn my head. Her eyes are wide but steady. There’s no fear of me in them. No disgust, only recognition. She knows I’m not entirely here anymore. I force my arm away from Dad’s chest. He sucks in a breath, and I give him one last shove before stepping back. His shoulder slams into the wall again.

Natalia catches my hand immediately. I lock my fingers around hers like it’s the only solid thing in the room. Ma breaks out of Rithy’s hold and rushes to Dad.

She reaches for his face. “James.”

He knocks her hand away. “I’m fine. Calm down, woman,”

She flinches, and every part of me surges forward again. Natalia’s grip tightens around mine. Dad straightens his shirt and looks at me with the same sneer he wore when I was a kid.