FATHER ALWAYS SMILING

Chapter 39 ~~~~~

"Who hurt you to make you like this?" her soft voice cutting through the heavy rain like a serrated knife.

He could only stare, a brief memory from his childhood flashing in his mind, of his mother, alcohol, cigarettes and men. He shook it off, before laughing.

"What makes you think that?" he had no intention to ask, it just slipped out.

"'It's all because of her.' That's what you said. Did your mom hurt you too? Like mine did with me?"

Wait, what?

Nick staggered and backed away from her, what the hell was that supposed to mean? The kid was seven for fuck's sake. Why did her words strike too close to home?

He was talking about Gina, not her.

What did it matter, what did any of it matter? Those kids believed no one could touch them, he just proved them wrong, that's all. If anything, it was their fault, not his!

"Listen here you little...!"

"'If only she didn't exist, I would have been free...'" he stopped again. She was saying the words that had long died that once echoed in his heart.

"Stop that..."

"'It's their fault, not mine. I was hurt first, they thought nothing would hurt them.'"

"I SAID STOP!" he went to strike her but froze when he saw her expression and what came out of her mouth next.

Yet instead of seeing her in that bright yellow dress, he saw himself when he was younger. Battered, bloodied and bruised, clothes dishevelled and torn with eyes filled with rage.

"'They should all just disappear!'"

How? How could this kid, this brat know something like that?

What the hell was she to make her like this?!?

This little girl was a monster, she had to be, how else could she have known?

But before she or Nick could do anything else, that bitch from before grabbed him, used some kind of judo move on him to make him let go of the kid and pinned him to the ground.

"Run Amie!" hearing the woman's voice seemed to snap whatever Amalie was in out of, and she was back to being an average kid. "Run!"

Amalie did so, as fast as her little legs could carry her.

Nick shoved the bitch off him, she rolled to stand, wiping the blood from her mouth as her mismatched eyes burned with anger. She wanted to kill him.

As if she could. From the looks of things she already had one foot in the grave, so to speak. He had heard from those mouthy teachers, the ones who liked to gossip about everything and anything regardless if it was fact or not, of Kaya and why they had to more, or more specifically who they moved for.

So this was the sister with some kind of gang ties huh?

Didn't look like she belonged in a gang. With how scrawny those arms of hers were, hell even her legs. She didn't even look like she hit puberty. Well, even if her tits were small what did it matter? He'd easily break her like a twig—

Only to be taken by surprise with her swift movement and nearly being kicked in the head by this damn woman. She shifted back, and kept her distance while remaining in some kind of stance, the Arab bitch knew martial arts.