Cruel Kisses (It's Just High School #2) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,108
interested parties to have all the facts in this before things get crazy.” It’s the way he says that, that raises the hairs at the back of my neck. I stand at attention, my heart thundering in the silence. “I’ve had your number since you bought this phone at that airport in Paris.”
In Paris! He knows where I am.
“The city of love, of course you’d go there. It was always your favorite city from the first time your stupid aunt and mother tried to get away from me.”
Oh. My. God.
It’s all true! All those nightmares and what Nicky said, they were really running away from him.
“I have nothing to say to you,” I grit out. That was my second mistake, not ending the call as soon as I heard his voice.
“Oh, come on now, Princess, you and I have much to discuss,” he says. “Tell me, do you know what’s currently happening right now in Palos Verdes?”
“I don’t give a shit and you can go fuck yourself.”
“If I were you, I would care, and to be honest you and that bitch, Nicky, almost made me go ‘fuck myself’ possible when you both tried to play me for a fool, but like I always told you, Princess, things always seem to work out one way or the other.”
This man is sick. How did I manage to protect myself against his vile, passive aggressive actions? How did Nancy or Nicky do it for that matter?
“I’m hanging up now,” I grit out then go to end the call, but he stops me when he says something that makes me pause.
“Ah, Amy, you don’t want to do that. I’m calling to help you get out of this situation.”
“What situation?”
“Ah, so you don’t know what’s happening, huh?” he questions with a laugh. “Well, allow your father to enlighten you, Princess.”
I want to tell him that I’m not his princess, that I’m not his daughter but the truth is, I am his daughter. I’m the daughter of a monster.
“Have you switched the TV on by any chance, Princess?”
The TV?
“No.”
“Ah, so you haven’t seen the mess you left here in your bid to follow your incompetent mother’s instructions.”
The mess I made?
Unease starts running down my back as dread starts snaking its way into the pit of my stomach.
“Can you get to the point?” I grit out, hating the note of fear in my voice when I say that, but he hears it.
“Don’t worry, it’s nothing we can’t fix. Really,” he says. “There’s a missing person’s report on you here.”
Everything in me stops. Time stops moving. My heart seems to stop pounding. I stop breathing as the words register in my mind.
“What?” I croak.
“Yes,” he says, dropping his voice to concern but now I know better. “You see, Princess, as the concerned, worried out of my damn mind father that I am, I went to the authorities after they called me to report that they found your car on the side of the road, the window busted out, your shoes scattered and blood stains on the door and trunk.”
No, no, no. This can’t be happening. This can’t be going where I think it’s going.
“No doubt you and Nicky did that to frame me, but unfortunately for you two, I’m your father. Nicky signed you away to me years ago.”
What the fuck? She signed me away to him?
“So, it was only right that they call me. I don’t have to explain how I bought you that car and that it was in my name and all that shit do I?”
“Stop patronizing me, I’m not stupid.”
“Yeah, but your recent actions have made me question a lot lately. I thought you and I understood each other, that you were my little girl and we would eventually get where we need to get.”
“Aw, I’m sorry to have disappointed you, Dad,” I say sarcastically, and he sighs.
“No matter, you made up for all that because you see, when I was with the police officers, I immediately told them that you’re a good kid. That you don’t hang out with weird, rowdy crowds. That you’re a straight A student, a genius really. And as I knew they would, they checked it all out with your school and found everything I said about you to be true. Hell, I even gave them that picture of you when you danced for Juilliard last year.”
Why would he do that? Why would he tell them all that and give them a picture of me when I felt so