Dollhouse

twelve

"Call me whenever you get free. I'm taking you home with me," he rasps. "Or you can drop by. Whatever's easier."

Fuck.

He does not know what hearing the word home from his mouth does to me. I gasp in shock when the man dares to steal the rest of my licorice from my hand and stuff it into his mouth. I was about to bite that!

"Hey, that was mine!" I exclaim.

"Sharing is caring, minx," he smirks. I gap between him.

"Gilipollas," I reply. "That was my last one!"

"See you later, love," he waves at me with his back turned, walking away.

I groan in annoyance. This man will be the death of me. Then a shadow walks by and plops itself down beside me. I'm offered pieces of fruit on a plate. Strawberries, blueberries, kiwi, and dragon fruit. My favorites. I smile as I look at him.

"Thank you, Dad," I say.

"You're welcome, cariño," he replies.

I take the plate from him and eat the fruits.

"I'm glad you've found someone to love," he says. I take another fruit into my mouth, avoiding his gaze.

"What gives you the indication that I love him?" I ask.

He chuckles beside me.

"It's been clear as day since you were fourteen, Genesis. That's why I sent you to him all those nights ago."

"So what? You've been a hard-cord Menesis shipper all these years?" I say, finally looking at him.

"You could say so. It's easy to miss when your daughter has it etched into her bed frame," he smiles.

I smile small.

"Please don't ruin it."

"I wouldn't dare. I like to think I gave you something to fight for."

"Does my sister have that same privilege?" I ask, bringing up Valentina for the first time since the day of my episode.

"Your sister contacted me when she was seventeen to ask to be emancipated," he says. "She's been free to make her own choices for years. She stayed on the island. That's her choice. If I were to take a guess, I'd say it was for love."

"I want to see her," I confess. "Tell me how I can get there."

"It was my wish to provide to you what I couldn't to your sister. Everything you need to know is on my laptop."

With that, he gets up and leaves me by myself. I stare off after him. I mean, how could I argue with that? He had given me everything I asked for. Private schooling. Acrobatics training. He introduced me to the man I love. Years too early, but he had. When he is ready, he'll hand me Ferreira Cosmetics.

***

When I get home, I do as he said. I check his laptop and I'm disappointed at once. My father has a whole folder dedicated to Paradise Islands. It contains information on the two private islands off of Samoa: Tuinanau and Matagofie. Samoan for Lust and Beauty. I look at the article snippets in the folder. Articles about Christopher St. John, his son Alexander, and... Valentina's supposed suicide. I read every single word in these articles, trying to perceive any clues. Many of the articles about Christopher are one's talking about his life as a philanthropist. A deceiving lie for the public, no doubt. The last article I read about him talks about his retirement in Samoa. The articles about Alexander talk about the same charitable work he's done with his father and his time as a Naval pilot in Australia.