AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The street is quiet.
When I attempt to get out before him, he reads my mind and grabs my arm so tight, I’m sure it will bruise.
“Don’t be a stupid bitch, Claire.”
There he is.
There’s the monster.
A heavy tear falls, but I bat it away before Hannah sees.
He waits for me when he has her out of the car. I follow because what else can I do?
Inside, it’s cold. It takes a minute for my eyes to adjust when we walk down the long hallway and into the kitchen. He switches on the light and it’s blinding. Empty gin bottles are in a neat pile on the counter.
Everything is spotless.
“I wanted to have it ready for when Beth comes home,” he explains, reading me. “I thought she was coming home this evening, but I got you instead.”
Right here, in this cold, unlived-in-house, a monster is walking the line and is on the verge of toppling.
He sets Hannah on her feet and pulls an ice-cream from the freezer.
“This isn’t the right ice-cream,” she moans.
“We’ll get the good stuff later. Daddy needs to talk to Claire. Why don’t you go play in your room?”
“It’s boring, Dad,” she whines, scooping the ice-cream into her mouth.
She’s beautiful.
Innocent.
But depending on how this interaction goes, she may be marred with scars that will never leave her.
“Hannah,” he warns, and she stiffens.
He may have never touched her, but she knows.
It’s in the tone of his voice, in the way his body straightens.
I kneel, desperate to calm her, to bring her any comfort I can offer. I’m shaking so badly, I’m not sure I have much to give.
“Hannah, can you do something for me?”
She nods and comes to me.
I take the ice-cream from her hands and place it on the floor.
She doesn’t notice.
I pull my headphones from my bag and connect them to my phone.
Rob takes a menacing step forward.
“I’m not calling anyone,” I assure him. “You can look.”
He does. He looms over my shoulder with his breath in my hair.
