Dad stared at me, his blue eyes narrowed with anger. “He told you that, right?”
“He looks like Richard Hampton, like my grandfather, your father,” I whispered.
Dad made a strange noise, a mixture of disbelief and derision. “People in this world claim to be the sons or daughters of rich men all the time. Sometimes, they just happen to looklike someone in the family, but Isaac McCormack has nothing, nothing in common with your grandfather. You didn’t even know him.” I had rarely seen Dad so angry, the man who always maintained his composure.
This time, though, I didn’t believe him. “He said you planted drugs on him. He said you paid his bail after two and a half years. All so I would never find out you raped his mother.”
Dad rose, his face now ashen. “Willa, child, do you hear yourself… What happened to you out there?” He looked genuinely horrified, so genuinely horrified that I doubted everything. And that was what made me angry and terribly helpless. But he had lied about Isaac earlier. Maybe he was lying the entire time.
My heart was pounding hard against my ribs. “What happened to me?” I heard myself replying, sounding far away. Instinctively, I stood and ripped the wool poncho and long-sleeved shirt over my head, then pulled off my pants.
Dad’s eyes went as wide as barn doors and his face, if that was possible, even paler.
“Hedid this!” I said fiercely but with a hint of tears in my voice that I hated. I hated my weakness. I hated myself. I hated feeling so vulnerable. “He beat me with his belt and stubbed out his cigarettes on me when he felt like it. He broke my bones and…he did much worse things…”Things I can never tell anyone! Things that will separate me from the rest of humanity forever.My voice failed me, but I pulled myself together, I had to keep talking. “And you state he’s not your son! Why else would he do something like that if not for revenge? Who would do something like this?” Now my shoulders were shaking and my whole body was trembling.
“Good God, Willa Rae…” Dad came toward me but I backed away.
“No! Don’t touch me!” Without meaning to, I suddenly found myself with my back against the wall and a storm of fear whipped through my veins.
Dad stopped with his arms dangling and I picked up my shirt and pressed it to my chest.
“Isaac McCormack has threatened me several times,” he said, now sad and shocked. “Even back in Baton Rouge. He’s paranoid and sick. He’s obsessed with me being his father. And I didn’t plant drugs on him, I merely hinted to the police that this young man might have a serious drug problem. He harassed and assaulted me in the middle of the street, which was completely absurd. So, I reported him and expressed my suspicions. He was then followed and his motel room was later searched. They found a lot of cocaine. And his bail…I actually paid it, yes. Because I felt sorry for him. I didn’t want him to get into trouble because of me.”
Dad’s words swirled through my mind, driving me absolutely insane. I didn’t know what to believe anymore, but in all the confusion, I remembered something I had completely forgotten. “You also said Mom was sick,” I said, my voice breaking. “You said she needed her pills because, otherwise, she would imagine things that weren’t true. But I bet that was a lie. And you’ve been telling me I had allergies for years.” He stared at me. “But that’s not true either…you simply wanted to keep me down…to keep me with you so I wouldn’t go out with my friends…you wanted me to be afraid…you deliberately stoked my fears…to bind me to you.”
“I wanted to protect you from the world. It’s a cruel place.”
Dazed by his honesty, I shook my head. “As cruel as you?”
“I’m not cruel. I only protect those I love.”
“And you punish the others? Who are you? God?”
He smiled sadly. “Willa, what you said about your allergy wasn’t true. But you were such a sensitive child, you saw ghostsand did crazy things. Talked to yourself and other stuff. I didn’t want your friends to mock you or for you to fall apart in the face of reality. I wanted to protect you.”
I let my shirt fall so he had a clear view of all my scars. “You did a good job, Dad,” I stated bitterly, and with that, I left him there and walked back to my wing as erect as I could. This time, he didn’t follow me. After a while, I opened the door to my room and listened through the crack. I heard his footsteps in the hall. He was talking to someone, obviously on the phone. Then, keys jingled and he crossed the hall.
“I have to go again, love. It won’t take long,” he called upstairs and turned off the lights on the lower floor. “We’ll talk more tomorrow. Quietly and without false accusations, I hope.”
I waited until he closed the double doors, then a security signal sounded, and the mechanical locking of our door lock followed.
I swiftly slipped back into my shirt and pulled a thick sweater over it. I absolutely had to talk to Nathan. I had to hear his voice to know who was telling the truth. Dad or Isaac. However, my cell phone was still in my pants and my pants were in the dining room. Damn!You put it in your pocket because you always wanted to have it with you and then you just leave it there!
Not knowing if Dad was truly gone, I tiptoed down the stairs. But it seemed he did leave because it was dead silent.
I quickly returned to the dining room to get my pants. Dad had picked them up along with the poncho and hung them neatly over my chair. I reached into one pocket and then the other. My heart was beating faster. My cell phone was gone. Dad must have taken it.
But why? Why did Dad take my phone from me?
I stood there for a moment, staring into space, and then I came to my senses and ran into the foyer to our house phone. Ihad to talk to Nathan, the one person I trusted unconditionally. I would simply warn him in case Dad pressed redial later.
I picked up the phone, dialed the number, and was about to change my mind because I was afraid it might somehow put Nathan in danger when I noticed that the line was dead.
Stunned, I stared at the phone, then ran to the double doors and pushed down the handle even though I knew they were locked. I hastily entered the code to unlock the automatic door lock, but all I heard was a dull beep—the long-standing code was wrong.
Dad locked me in!
The truth assembled like a montage. Dad had not only made certain I couldn’t get out, he had also taken measures to ensure I couldn’t reach anyone. Sweat gathered in my palms and I felt the familiar wave of fear rolling toward me.
