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I made it a point to know about all my students’ lives, especially someone as quiet and withdrawn as Sydney. From what I gathered, her parents divorced and shared custody, and her mother had been the one to sign her up for the community basketball team. Once, her dad picked her up from coaching, so I knew he was a man of about average height and build who liked to wear fancy suits. From the first time I saw the man, I never liked him. I saw the way he’d looked at some of the girls like they were beneath him, and he’d spoken to his daughter like she was a dog.
Come, Sydney. Get in the car. There was no affection in his tone, only command.
I’d wanted to report him to the school immediately, but you couldn’t report someone just because you didn’t like them, so I kept my mouth shut.
But now that Sydney was missing practice, I had a bad feeling.
“Any of you know where she lives?” I asked, and most of them either shook their head or just shrugged.
“I do,” Macy said as she stuck her hand up. “I went to her house a couple of times, but then she said we couldn’t be friends anymore because her dad didn’t like my mother.”
Macy’s mother was a powerful attorney who owned one of the law firms in the city. I wondered what his issue with her was.
Right then, my co-coach, Robert, ran into the room with a sheepish grin on his movie-star face. “Sorry, I’m late, Charlie. I got hung up with traffic.”
Uh-huh. Most likely, he got hung up with his new flavor of the month, but I didn’t say anything.
“Hey, could you supervise the girls solo today while I go take care of something?”
Robert nodded and said, “Sure. But what do you have to take care of?”
“Sydney isn’t here. They said her dad is trying to pull her out of the program.”
Robert gave me a doubtful look. “So? He’s her dad. It’s his right to.”
In response, I gave him an incredulous look. “That girl loves basketball. She loves being here. It’s the only time I ever see her smile. I won’t let that man take it from her.”
Robert shook his head, making his blonde locks swing. “In case you forgot, that man is her father. It’s none of our business, Charlie. Don’t get involved.”
“You know I can’t help it,” I said to him, and he gave me a resigned eye roll.
“Fine,” he said with a sigh. “It’s your funeral.”
“Or his,” I said sweetly before turning back to Macy. “Can you give me Sydney’s address off the top of your head, Macy?”
She shook her head but then ran to her bag to whip out her brand-new iPhone, pulling up the address for me.
“I pinned it,” she said as she showed me her phone. I memorized it and knew where the area was. It was pretty far, about thirty minutes from here. I couldn’t use my dad’s truck today, which meant I would probably have to take the bus, so it might be an hour instead. I didn’t know the exact route, but I would need to figure it out.
Either way, I was going to do it.
* * *
It tookme three buses and a thirty-minute walk to get there, but two hours later, I was at the address Macy showed me. Sydney’s father’s home was a condo with several floors and a flag planted out in the garden in front. The door looked like fortified metal protecting Fort Knox itself, but I swallowed my nerves and approached it anyway, rapping on it lightly.
There was no answer on the first knock and none on the second knock either. After I knocked the third time, I heard angry, loud steps storming toward the door.
The door was ripped back, and an angry man filled the doorway and glared down at me. I took a couple of steps back as the angry man got all up in my face.
“You knock on my door one more time, and you’re not going to like what I do, missy,” he practically spat at me.
“Err…sorry to disturb you.” My heart was in my throat, still startled by his hostility. I knew he wasn’t a pleasant man, but I didn’t expect to meet him in this mood. “But I’m looking for Sydney.”
“Who are you, and what the fucking hell do you need her for?” he growled, and I felt a prick of annoyance hit me. I wasn’t a prude, but I didn’t like when people swore excessively. It was so unnecessary, plus his daughter could be upstairs, hearing him.
Did he display this type of foul temper in front of her? Poor Sydney. No wonder she sometimes seemed scared of her shadow.
I just hoped the bastard didn’t abuse her because if he did, I wasn’t going to stay quiet about it.
