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"I mean, you know, Mommy is busy, but what if she's busy so she can't tell anybody? What if she's tired too?"
I wouldn't have gotten what she said if I didn't have some context. In adult terms, Skylar is saying that there's thepossibility that her mom is even too busy to admit that she’s busy or to inform anybody ahead.
In other words, I should calm down. How such stellar advice managed to come from a girl that is still working her way around proper speech makes me feel embarrassed for my emotional tantrum.
We read too many stories, and halfway into the sixth one, her overactive mind finally succumbs to her body's physical tiredness. I take her back to her room and return to my own room and fall asleep shortly after.
When I wake up the next day, I wake up to an empty house like always. It's just the three of us: me, Skylar, and Marie. One of these days, I would challenge Rebecca and ask her why she's avoiding me.
I just don't want to do it now and risk the chance of sounding angry or needy. Both emotions have equal and opposite effects on my mission, and I need to maintain as much calmness as possible. I'd be lying, though, if I said I wasn't a little hurt.
I prepare Skylar and take her safely to her car seat, ready for the day's journey to her school, when I get quite a shock. A black Buick is parked right outside the gate, preventing us from moving out by blocking our exit.
Of course, I know who it is. I step out of the car and clench my fists tightly, but I don't make a move. Instead, I wait for him to emerge.
"Bodyguard, I don't want any trouble, just let me see my daughter," Thomas's voice booms across the nearby distance between us.
"I don’t think Skylar wants to see you, buddy. I really suggest that you get back into your car and move off; we are in a hurry here," I respond calmly.
"No, you don't know that" he chuckles. "Listen, we can either do this the easy way or the hard way. It’s your choice."
He isn't dressed officially, and that alone is an indicator that he's not here to talk amicably. The door to the back seat is still open, and I can see Skylar pale in fear.
I wonder what he must have done to the girl to make her hate him so, and why he thinks she still has the obligation to see her.
"Come at me with your hardest, sir, and I guarantee you would regret it," I say simply, but with every intention to kill.
All he needs to do now is to make one move, and I promise myself that if he leaves here alive, he’d go and take his own life anyway from how miserably I would maim him.
In fact, right now, I can make a move. I can challenge this situation and force a fight out of him, one that would end in him obviously losing.
But I look at Skylar. At her small face and how she blinks rapidly, matching her terrified breaths. Her eyes dart between me and her father on the other end of the driveway, and it makes me pause.
She doesn’t need to be traumatized further. She has endured way too much. She has witnessed her mother being abused, probably had a fair share of the emotional blackmail as well, despite being such a young child.
Even now, when she is supposed to have escaped all those things, she is facing slight neglect from her mother, which can't be helped.
Both Rebecca and Skylar are suffering from Thomas. And it would be evil for me to add to those ills and make Skylar watch me pulverize him.
That’s why, even when he says, "Well, why don't you come here and open the gates, and we can have this hard way you want?"
Even when there's the promise that I could end it all right now and get the revenge I need, I relax my fists and ease the tension off my shoulders.
I dip my hand in my pocket and pull out my phone, pretending to dial a number. I’m sure he was banking on the fact that I would choose violence because his face changes.
"You’re really going to be a coward?" he spits.
"You're really going to stay there?" I shrug.
It doesn't take long for him to accept his defeat and leave, much to my relief but more to Skylar’s.
Immediately, the man steps into his car and leaves, and Skylar bursts into tears. I must pick her up and rock her in my arms.
"It’s OK, baby. I’ll never let him come near you ever," I promise her. That’s going to be a very easy promise to keep, considering I’ll make sure he never comes near anyone, in fact.
"I love you, Skylar." I don’t know when the words come out of my mouth, but they do, and I don’t regret it.
"I love you too, Daddy," she echoes.
