Hush (Black Lotus #3)(53)
“Dad! It’s me!”
He turns, no longer acknowledging me, and I chase after him.
“Dad, wait! It’s me!”
He’s only walking, but somehow the gap between us widens, and I’m losing him. I whip around a corner and nearly lose my footing. When I right myself, I catch my reflection in the mirrored glass of a building.
I’m five years old and still wearing my glittery princess dress from our last tea party. Turning back in the direction my father was heading, I run while continuing to call out to him. I weave through the crowds of people, dodging elbows, and pushing my way through.
“Daddy!”
I finally catch up to him when he’s stuck at a crosswalk.
“Dad,” I say when I walk up to him.
He looks down at me with an aged face and silver hair. “Little girl, are you lost?”
“No, Daddy. It’s me, your daughter.”
He shakes his head. “No, little girl.” He then points his finger to a blonde-haired child across the street waving at him. “That’s my daughter over there.”
I wake with a start.
The room is black.
My heavy breaths are the only sounds I hear.
I roll over, my body numb.
Declan is sound asleep, and when I slide out of bed to get a drink of water, I see that it’s five in the morning. I’m rattled by my dream as I sip from a bottle of water while I sit in the living room. I stare out the window at the full moon, and it feels strange to know that only twenty minutes away, the same moon hangs above my dad. Although I doubt I ever cross his mind like he crosses mine.
I think about the girl in my dream—the same girl I saw him call princess last night in his driveway. She was young, maybe eight or so. And the more I think about her, the more my hands tingle in acerbic bitterness. Vile thoughts run rampant, thoughts of kidnapping her, thoughts of killing her.
My legs shake erratically, bouncing up and down at a rapid pace. I can’t sit still. They’re out there—he’s out there—and I’m stuck in this hotel room. Thoughts about his new family fester.
I peer at Declan through the bedroom door, and he’s still fast asleep. Gently, I close the door after slipping on a pair of pants and a top. Grabbing the keys to the car, I quietly sneak out of the room. He’s going to be pissed when he wakes up to find that I’m gone, but if I told him what I’m about to do, he’d refuse. And I can’t just sit in that room and drive myself crazy.
Once I’m in the car, I drive back to Gig Harbor and park along the street a few houses down from my dad’s. His SUV is no longer in the driveway where he parked it last night. I’m not even sure what I’m doing here.
Time passes, the sun makes her appearance, and eventually the garage door opens. A car begins to back out and then stops halfway down the driveway. I sink down, worried I’ll be seen, but keep watching. The driver’s side window rolls down and the woman I saw last night hangs her head out and hollers, “Come on, kids!”
A few beats later the blonde girl and the brown-haired boy run out from the garage with backpacks hanging from their shoulders. They hop in the back seat, and when the car starts driving away, I sit up and follow. When we turn out of the neighborhood, I make sure to follow with one car between us.
Hate rises in my soul for these people that my father’s chosen over me. Good or bad, I don’t give a shit—I want to hurt them. I want to take them away from him, then maybe he’ll be so lonely that he’ll finally want me.
My knuckles are white as my hands choke the steering wheel so hard it just might snap. The car pulls off into a strip shopping center, and I follow, parking several spots down from them. The kids hop out of the car, cash in their hands, and run into a smoothie shop while the woman stays in the vehicle.
Without much thought, and honestly, just not caring, I get out of my car. I walk past the woman and see she’s paying no attention as she’s chatting away on her phone. She’s blonde as well and appears many years younger than my dad, and I wish I had a brick to throw through her windshield to smash her pretty little face.
The bell above the door jingles when I step inside the smoothie shop. The two kids are watching the blenders mix up their drinks.
“What can I get for you this morning?” the guy behind the register asks in a much too peppy tone for it being so early in the morning.
I pick a random drink from the menu on the wall and shove him some cash.
“Hailey,” one of the employees calls out, and the girl runs to grab her drink.
Her name’s Hailey. How f*cking precious.
When I see her walking to the door, I fake clumsiness and bump into her, sending her smoothie to splatter all over the floor.
“Oh, I am so sorry. I wasn’t paying any attention at all.”
“It’s okay,” she says. “Accidents happen.”
I grab a wad of napkins, and with her help, we do our best to clean up the sticky mess
“Let me get you another drink. What flavor did you have?” I offer.
“You don’t have to do that. I can get more money from my mom.”
“I insist.”
She tells me her drink and I place the order.
I reach out my hand and introduce myself. “I’m Erin, by the way.”
She shakes my hand enthusiastically, and giggles, saying, “My name is Hailey.”