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As I walk down the hallway, I run my hand over the hallstand to find something,anything, I can use to defend myself. And then I think—defend myself?What are you going to do, Noah, murder your father on your lounge room floor?Am I really capable of that? Even if I was, all that’s on the nightstand are Margie’s and my keys, Sadie’s leash and a half-eaten tennis ball. No weapons I could use in a break and enter.
All those cameras and yet we forgot the baseball bat by the front door. Classic.
Thecameras. He must have noticed them. I hazard a quick look up to the one stationed by the front door; the little red light is off. In fact, all the lights are off. The house is dark and quiet. Clearly, Dad’s turned the electricity off at the mains.
‘You’ve been a tough one to find.’ Dad’s hot breath hits my face. He stinks of rum and smokes. ‘I knew it was only a matter of time before you tried to contact your mother.’
I see Margie sitting at the dining table, back straight and eyes rimmed with tears.
‘Sit down,’ he says again, grabbing the back of my shirt and throwing me against the table. My head hits the wood and when I push myself up, there’s blood on the varnish. Running my tongue over my lip, I taste blood and realise I’ve bitten it.
Dad paces around the kitchen, rifling through the cabinets.
‘What are you looking for?’ I demand. Is he after booze? Money? Whatever he wants, I tell myself I’ll give it to him if he’ll leave us alone.
Dad draws a knife from the knife block near the stove. It’s a sick threat.
‘There’s booze in the cupboard,’ Margie says. ‘Take it and leave.’
Dad grins, slinking towards the walk-in cupboard. He grabs the half-empty bottle of vodka on the top shelf—bought for Moscow mules on warm summer days and to accompany pierogi during long frosty winter nights—and downs a mouthful like it’s water.
‘Why are you here?’ I ask Dad, reaching across the table to take Margie’s hand.
‘Thought I’d send a message to your mother,’ Dad says. ‘I don’t know where she is, but I’m sure she’ll hear about this.’
Kill me. He wants tokillme. I feel vomit rise in my throat, and it mixes with the blood in my mouth. I swallow it down, feeling the bile burn as it slides into my stomach.
I’d been happy to hear from my mum. Ecstatic even.
All this time, I’d been telling him things about my life. What I was doing. Where to find me.
And he’d played along with it. Thesick fucking bastard.
Margie’s hand squeezes mine and that’s when I feel it. Something hard and smooth against her palm.
The emergency alarm to our home surveillance.
Thank god for Margie and her batshit idea to hide it under the table like we were a fucking bank. Oh my god, I could reach across and kiss her. We just gotta wait this out. Someone’s coming.
Dad swallows, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. ‘Knew you couldn’t have fucked off far, but your mother disappeared after the trial. Even my retired buds couldn’t help me track her down—but they found you no problem. After that photo of you at the tennis, we found his hotel—’
Shit. Gabriel could have been in danger.
He puts down the bottle of vodka. ‘It wasn’t hard to track you from there; you led me straight to your home. It’s not hard to find someone, Noah, not in this day and age.’
God, I thought I’d been so careful. Dad pulls out Mum’s phone from his pocket; still the same phone with the old fluffy key chain on it. ‘She’s always been able to disappear,’ Dad says, flipping the phone over in his hands. ‘Been a good trick of hers for a while now.’
‘Maybe it’s because she despises you, like I do. You’re fucking disgusting.’ I spit at his feet before I can stop myself.
Anger bursts from my father. It flows up his body and through his shoulder, his arm, his enclosed fist and finally erupts against the side of my face. The world spins. Suddenly, I’m falling. I put out my hands to catch my fall and the emergency alarm skids across the kitchen floor. I try to grab it before he notices, but I can’t move. Everything’s all fuzzy and far away.
Dad looks at the alarm. He was a police officer for twenty-five years. He knows exactly what it is as soon as he sees it. He raises one boot and stomps on it, breaking the plastic casing and destroying the transmitter inside it.
I groan against the floor tiles, feeling blood start to pool around my cheek. Dad grips me by the collar and hauls me to my feet. ‘Up.’
With a final feat of strength, I push against him, kicking, clawing, doing whatever I can to get him to let me go. Distantly, I hear Sadie barking in the front yard, and I wonder if Fei’s called the cops.
Dad twists suddenly and his arm comes in range of my mouth. I bite down, hard, and he screams. There’s slack on my collar and I realise he’s let me go. I dash forward, running down the hallway. His boots thump behind me. Closing in.
