Page 50 of Monster's Edge
When we ran from my dad’s place hours ago, we each brought a backpack. Georgetta made it clear that we weren’t bringing anything with us that could be tracked. She’s made good on that promise. She hasn’t used a phone since we arrived. She hasn’t even used the motel’s phone.
Now I open the backpack and peer inside. There’s a water bottle in there, a change of clothes, and a couple of snacks. Glancing back up at her, I cock my head. I’m confused.
“Why did you do this, Georgetta?”
“Your dad’s kind of a dick, Rose. I’m not sure if you know that.”
“I’ve been figuring that out,” I admit sadly. It took me far too long. It’s embarrassing, honestly. When you grow up with a strict father, especially a powerful one, it’s easy to believe the lies he feeds you. That’s my excuse, anyway. It was easy for me to believe for far too long that my dad had my best interests at heart.
Now it feels like things are escalating wildly.
“He killed Lucas,” she tells me. It’s something she mentioned earlier. It’s also something I didn’t really understand before. Lucas is the man –wasthe man – Georgetta loves. The two of them were inseparable for years. Together, they did everything. They worked together, they laughed together.
“Why did my dad kill Lucas?” I believe her. It’s not even a question of whether I believe her. My dad is the kind of person who kills people. I’ve seen him do it. I just never thought I’d be caught in the crosshairs. There’s always been a part of me that believed I was safe from my dad’s world.
Today changed all of that.
“Your dad kill Lucas because the two of us were engaged,” she says simply.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“We wanted to move away,” she tells me. “We wanted to leave.”
“Like, leave my dad’s employment? That’s not a big deal,” I shrug. “Why would he care if you wanted to leave?” It doesn’t make any sense to me. People areallowedto quit their jobs, right? Like, they’re allowed to.
Only, the way she’s looking at me lets me know that I’m missing something big. Like, really big.
“Rose, I never wanted to be the one to tell you this.”
My heart feels like it’s going to explode. Georgetta is looking at me like she pities me. No, she’s looking at me like I’m pathetic and weak. I know why. Despite the fact that I dress up and go to Daddy’s parties, the reality is that I am a little stupid. I am completely naïve. I make an appearance at these things, but until Ian Salucci captured me, fucked me, and dumped me back at the party, I had never so much as had a real and proper bad day.
My father has always guarded me.
He’s always kept me carefully under his watch.
That all changes today.
“He took you,” I say flatly, realizing the situation. How could I not have known? He took her. That has to be it. She was young as hell when she started nannying for me. Fuck. I must have been seven or eight and she was...was she really just 18? Was she even that old?
“He took me,” she says. “A sale.”
“Did he...?” I realize as I speak that I don’t actually want to know if my dad hurt her. Not like that. There are some things a daughter doesn’t want to know about her father.
Luckily for me, Georgetta spares me the details and the mental image.
“Your dad and I came to an agreement,” she tells me.
“You being the nanny, you mean.”
“Yes. I wasn’t your father’s...well, I wasn’t exactly his type.”
“What does that even mean?”
“Let’s just say he likes women who look more like Patricia and less like me,” Georgetta tells me, but then she drops me. I’m not sure if this is a weight thing or something else. Georgetta is curvy and pretty, but then again, so am I. Looking down at myself, I wonder if this plays a role in my dad’s sale of me to Mr. Ricci. Surely my father didn’t just wake up one day and decide to sell me.
Right?
Like, there must have been a reason he decided that today of all days was the perfect day to get rid of me. He must have decided that Mr. Ricci, out of everyone he knows, was the person to sell me to.
