His question catches me off guard. I just assumed they knew the history, or lack thereof, between my father and me, but apparently, I was wrong.
I scrunch my nose up at his question, not wanting to go down memory lane and divulge my inner pain to him. He must see my reluctance, and realise I’m not going to answer, as he asks a slightly different question. “Why are you here, in Crescentwood, now, instead of staying wherever you’ve been?”
Deciding to share just a little bit of my past so he doesn’t continue to poke and prod, I quietly mutter, “My mum died,” before looking away from his gaze to stare out the side-door window, not wanting to see any pity in his eyes.
Just saying the words out loud cracks something inside me, causing pain to leak out, even all these weeks later. Things have been so chaotic since I arrived here that I haven’t had much chance to think about my mum, or dwell on my grief. Just thinking about her, and saying those words out loud to another person, threatens to crack my rough exterior and drown me in painful, heart-wrenching sorrow.
“I’m sorry, Sophie.” Tyler, the softer of the two, says from the front seat, looking at me through the rearview mirror.
Looking up into the mirror, I give him a reassuring smile before moving my gaze back to Aiden, whose eyes haven’t left me, reading the wave of emotions as they play across my face. I’m surprised to see no pity on his eyes, only understanding. Of course, I should have known, Aiden isn’t the pitying type.
“Then you came here to live with your dad?” He asks, looking puzzled by something. I can practically see the wheels turning in his brain as he tries to make sense of something.
I can’t help but snort at his use of the word ‘dad’.
“Yeah. I came here to live with dear old dad, the one I didn’t even know existed until a few weeks ago.”
Tyler, who has been a mostly silent participant in this conversation so far, pipes up with his own questions.
“You didn’t know about your dad before you moved here?”
Looking into the rearview mirror, his eyes are focused on the road ahead but I can see he’s surprised by what I’ve said.
“No,” I answer, shaking my head, “It’s always just been me and my mum. Why do you seem surprised by what I’ve said?” I ask, confused about why any of this is new information to them. Surely they are aware that I don’t know my father well, or at all, it’s not like I was ever around their club or whatever growing up.
Shrugging, Aiden responds, “We just figured you knew who your dad was, or at least knew a bit about who he is.”
“So, you’re saying, you were just uprooted, dumped in a town full of strangers, and stuck in a house with some guy you don’t know and had never even met before?” Tyler interjects, seeming outraged on my behalf at the mess that is my life.
“Yup,” I confirm, popping the ‘p’. He just succinctly summed up this whole fucked up situation.
The car is silent for a few moments while Aiden and Tyler digest what I’ve said. Now that we have talked about it out loud, this whole thing is insane.
Tyler disturbs the peaceful silence we were in with a snort of laughter as he shakes his head at whatever he was thinking.
“What?” Aiden asks him, with a hint of amusement on his face.
“I just can’t imagine there have been many memorable father-daughter moments since you arrived,” he explains, continuing to chuckle.
I have to say, the thought of having any moments with my father, doing anything normal with him, has my lips tugging up in a smile.
“Ha, no. He doesn’t strike me as the caring father-figure sort. I don’t think he’s the type to watch cheesy movies with a bowl of popcorn and gossip about boys.”
This comment has both boys laughing. Well, Tyler laughs, Aiden chuckles quietly under his breath. He couldn’t possibly ruin his bad-boy image by doing something normal and easy-going like laughing.
Unfortunately, when the moment passes, it leaves a hollow hole in my chest. How different would my life be if I had had a dad who wanted to get to know me, spend time with me? I’ve never felt like I needed a father figure before, but now that I know who my father is, the type of person he is, the little girl inside of me is heartbroken and devastated.
Finally, Aiden breaks the oppressive silence in the car, “No. He’s more of a ‘control you with fear and make you bend to my will’ kinda guy. You need to be careful in that house, Sophie.” He warns. “He’s already suspicious of you. Don’t give him any more reason to keep a closer eye on you; or worse, decide he doesn’t have a need for you anymore.”
“I know who he is, what he’s capable of,” I assure them, my voice full of gravity, vividly remembering that day in his office when he burnt me. I don’t give them any more details than that though, and thankfully they don’t ask for any.
We lapse back into silence again, the graveness of our current situation sitting heavy on everyone’s shoulders. No one says anything more for the rest of the journey.
When we arrive at the house, Tyler parks just out of sight of the guardhouse at the gate, not wanting to alert anyone to the fact that I know who Aiden and Tyler are.
Muttering my thanks, I grab my purse and climb out of the car, heading through the gates. Once I’m close enough that the guards can recognise me, they open the gates and I stride on through. It’s only once the gates have jangled shut behind me that I hear the car rev and the two of them take off down the road.
Making my way up to the house, I head into the kitchen, too wired from all that has happened tonight. If I go to bed now I’ll just lie there, wide awake, all night.
Stepping into the kitchen, I flick on the spotlights under the kitchen counters so I can have a bit of light while I rummage around in the cupboards until I find what I want.
Digging out a tub of cocoa powder and a bag of baby marshmallows, I grab a large mug and a spoon and set my items on the kitchen counter. I dump a few spoonfuls of powder into the mug and press the button to add boiling water from the super fancy coffee machine. Topping the chocolatey goodness off with a handful of marshmallows, I take the concoction over to the breakfast nook and make myself comfortable on the bench that allows me to look out through the patio doors.
In the darkness, it’s impossible to make out the landscaped gardens, but raising my eyes to the sky, I can see billions of stars sparkling away, completely oblivious to the chaos going on down here; the mess that is my life.
Sipping on my cup of chocolate heaven, I continue to stare aimlessly out the window. I can’t get over the beauty out here, or the sense of peace that comes over me, just sitting here, taking in the night sky. You can’t see the stars like this in the city. It reminds me that life is so much bigger than what is going on right now, that the problems I’m currently facing will one day be a distant memory.
One day my life will be my own. The people I’ve met here, the kids I go to school with, none of them will matter.
I’ll be free of my father, and whatever the hell his plans are.
I’ll just be me, doing whatever I want; being whoever I want to be.
I just have to survive today.
Chapter 22
Ispend most of Sunday catching up on homework and chilling out in my room. Before I know it, it’s Monday morning again. I exchanged phone numbers with Alexis and her friends last week but I haven’t heard from any of them since the party, not that I’ve reached out to them either. I’ve been thinking over what happened at the party, and I can’t work out if they deliberately ditched me or if it was a genuine mistake.