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“Hey, sweet pea. How are you doing?” he asked, using the nickname he’d had for me since I was a little kid. My throat clenched tight. I never had the adolescent acting-out phase that usually stamped out the usage of such childhood nicknames between child and parent. Once he was gone, Mother dumped me at boarding school, and I had to grow up fast.
I swallowed hard and gave him a bright smile. “School started a few weeks ago. I like my classes. My roommate is cool. She’s the same one I had during the summer. Oh, and Cat started as well. She got wait-listed, so she didn’t learn until just before school started that she was accepted, but we’re together again,” I finished in a rush.
It was sometimes awkward to recap my life to my dad in a few sentences. One would think I should’ve been used to it, but Otisville was an artificial setting, and nothing could change the harsh reality of that fact. He had access to call me collect, but he rarely used it, preferring to wait for me to visit to talk. It was frustrating that he should be stubborn about communication, but I reminded myself that he must have his reasons. Perhaps our calls were recorded. Either way, it was one of the many reasons why I never missed a visit.
“See the guy to your left, two tables away?” my father said suddenly.
I angled my head slightly and spotted the table he indicated.
“Wide receiver for the Giants.”
“No,” I said in a low hush.
“Yes, and the guy two tables to the left is a rapper. Nicest guy you’ll ever meet. More importantly, move up one table toward us, and check out the man with the graying crew cut.”
I turned my head slightly and squinted just enough to see a middle-aged man with graying short hair gesticulating wildly with his hands.
“Yes?”
“One of my old associates. Total dick. The US Attorney finally nabbed him for insider trading. God knows he’d been getting away with it for decades. Like I’ve told you in the past, you always get what’s coming to you. Thought I’d at least get away from the assholes so far away from everything.” He shook his head sadly. “No such luck.”
My heart fluttered with fear. Not sure what to say, I remained silent.
“The guy plagues me, talking on and on. I know life is dead boring on the inside, but he’s making my life hell.”
He slitted his eyes in the man’s direction, as if plotting his death.
“Don’t,” I said. My father’s crimes were financial, but there’d been some witness tampering and threatening that had led to a hung jury at his first trial, so I knew there was more than meets the eye. And seeing this side of him, the possibility of what he was capable of, frightened me.
“What?” he replied innocently.
As if.
My dad may be many things. He may be charming, wickedly intelligent, and still handsome, but he would never be innocent. I didn’t think he’d take a hit out on the guy or anything that drastic, but he could still do underhanded, conniving stuff.
“Whatever it is you’re thinking of doing, don’t do it. Tell him to leave you alone. Be up-front and honest about your needs and leave it at that,” I advised. “Because if you get caught, like you said, you’ll pay the price.” And so will I. His incarceration was a price I was continuing to pay as well. Absent father. Absent mother. Broken family. A bitterness coated my throat, and I swallowed it down, as I always did. Who was there to show it to? My father was in jail, and Mother erratically flittered in and out of my life like a butterfly with damaged wings.
His eyes slanted away from me to the man for a long moment, as if weighing the options of how to get rid of him. Finally, they returned to me, and he resumed our prior conversation, “I’m glad to hear you and Cat are together, at least. It must be a relief to have your best friend with you. I’m surprised she isn’t your roommate. Is she living in the same dorm as you?” he asked.
“No, she’s actually engaged and living with her fiancé off campus,” I replied.
“I thought you said her engagement fell through,” he said.
Talking to my father about a subject that was marginally related to Nicu made me nervous. Of course, he didn’t know what had gone down, but he’d be adamantly against Nicu. He didn’t know about Cat’s family. Not only was it not my business to tell him, but I tried to keep our conversations light and not burden him with any stressors.
While he wasn’t in a horrible max-security facility, I knew it wasn’t easy for him. He didn’t sleep well in the bunk bed in the barracks he shared with over a hundred other men. The guards were none too quiet when making their rounds throughout the night. He might have sounded cavalier about it, but I saw his jaw muscle tick as he ground down on his teeth.
“It did, but she’s now engaged to his brother, which is for the best. They truly love each other, and Luca is good to her,” I replied.
“Love…” my father said with a slight edge.
I grabbed his hand and shook my head. “Not everyone is like Mother.” Meaning, not everyone dumped you the second things got difficult.
Remaining silent, he gave a curt nod. Mother had been the love of his life. I believed she returned his feelings, to the point she was capable of. They’d been a golden couple. It had been easy to be with my father. He’d been a charismatic and handsome man and came from the kind of wealthy family that was integral to my mother’s lifestyle. But when things went to hell, she’d shed him like an old fur coat at the end of the winter season.
“And what happened to her first fiancé, being the brother?” he asked curiously.
“Everything was fine. Nicu was happy for them,” I blurted out.
