The Other Side - Tommyinnit x OC

Chapter 17

"I wouldn't have cared about these little adventures if it wasn't for the fact that I found out about it from one of my friends."

The whole world tipped sideways. I finally find my voice. 

"What?" my voice croaks. It hardly sounds like my own, gripped by pure terror and disbelief. 

"Half of the country knows about your escapades."

Both Amélie and I startle as Father steps into the room. A glance at Amélie tells me that she had no idea he was awake and listening to us. Unlike Amélie, Father wore his green pyjamas, I wonder if we woke him. 

How could they have known? My mind spins at a million miles an hour trying to work out how half the country found out before the people who live in my own house. Merlings, inchlings and phantoms besides Wilbur, Niki and Sneeg go to the Pube, but they would be in just as much trouble if they said anything. If Phil ever found the source of the rumours, their life would be at risk. 

Father's fists are clenched so hard his knuckles are white. He glares at me with eyes like daggers. Somehow he seemed even more livid than Amélie. 

"Where have you been?" he demands raising his voice enough to make Amélie flinch. But I know better than to show submission to this bitch. 

I raise my chin and brace for impact. "Out."

"What the fuck do you think gives you the right to leave in the middle of the night to god knows where?!" Phil shouts so loud that the room echoes. 

My stomach churns like a nest of wasps making my blood boil. Who the fuck do you think you are to me? I feel my fingernails start to dig crescent-shaped dints into the leather of my shoes at my sides. My breathing becomes more shallow as barely contained anger sits beneath the surface. At the same time, the softness that Tommy has brought out of me was swirling in there too; the little child who had endured this her entire life. She wanted nothing more than to collapse and sob on the floor. I was not about to let her do that. 

Phil speaks again when I say nothing. "I saw you the other night, at the party."

Rocks shoved my stomach to the floor. The precious moment I spent with Tommy flashed through my mind. How could he know about that?

"I saw you," he seethes. "You were talking with those Cornucopian scum. You looked particularly close to that Enderian prince."

He spits the word "prince" like it left a bad taste in his mouth. To him, the only legitimate rulers to have ever existed were elytrian. Oxygen rushes to my lungs when he doesn't mention Tommy and me. I hope that he is oblivious. 

Phil was shaking with anger. His fists shaking at his sides made the sleeves of his green pyjamas shake too. Longish blond strands of hair fell over his face creating skinny shadows. The darkness of it made him look all the more menacing. 

What happened to Phil? The man who was my father when I was a child didn't seem to exist anymore. Did he disappear in his mourning of Juliana? My father considered me, even if it wasn't much, it meant everything to me. This man saw me as his enemy, the thing that would ruin him, just like Juliana used to say. 

Fine, if he wants me to be his enemy, that can be easily arranged. 

I harden my armour for the blows that would follow. 

"Why the fuck does that matter?" 

Amélie scoffs, but it sounds apprehensive. "Because the whole country thinks that we're fraternising with the enemy and giving them water!"

"You could ruin our family's entire reputation!" Phil shouts at me, running a hand through his hair like he can't understand my stupidity. "You could ruin your sister's marriage!"