FATHER ALWAYS SMILING

Chapter 51 ~~~~~

Again, she couldn't understand what he meant, it might have been the drugs making her a little confused. "I wish he'd disappear forever." She tells him the added. "What I did to your kid was shit, but maybe that's because I'm just like him deep down..."

"Hardly," he turns to face her. "You're your own person with your own autonomy, your actions are your own and will only ever be as such. I would never place blame on anyone else if I were in your situation. Though subjecting your hate on the one who caused you to become as such, that is something we share in common."

She scoffed at his poor attempt to be relatable. "What, you hate your dad too?"

His smile, along with his eyes became drastically cold. "I utterly despise him." Then in a blink, that coldness vanished as though it was never there at the start. "But that's neither here nor there, we're talking about you. And as such," he produced an envelope from the inner pocket of his three-piece suite. "This is a check, one for your mother. Though had things not gone the way they had I'm sure you would have given it to her anyhow."

She looked at him with disbelief. "You're still gonna pay me?"

"Yes, I shouldn't, but yes."

That just made her even more confused. "Why?"

He placed the envelope into the flowers. "You're not the first troubled teen to be in my house Miss Terach. Though, you will not return, as I am sure you have far more pressing matters to deal with in your personal life now." He turned to leave, only to stop, walk back over to her and handed her a card.

She took it puzzled and saw that it was a number of a cosmetic surgeon. Still confused she was about to speak but he spoke in a whisper before she had the chance.

"You should count yourself lucky that you weren't killed, I imagine the person who shot you had their reasons, your lucky to be alive. Try not to push it in the future. You might not be so lucky if something like this were to happen again." She looked up at him. About to ask him what he meant, but his smiling cold expression said it all.

This was no accident, it was to teach her a very heavy lesson, one that if she were to try again, she wouldn't be breathing. Her spine straightened as her nerves became heightened, just like when she and Josh were in the forest. Though she couldn't remember much what she did recall was that this unknown person did something to her phone and took the note off of her before disappearing altogether.

This man was one not to mess with.

"Yeah..." she said. "I hear you loud and clear..."

Alastor smiled warmly at her. "Good, no more stealing from others now. Best to be on the straight and narrow, just like your friend."

He then left, probably to go see that Ortiz girl.

Leaving her alone with her thoughts, the way he acted, like he was telling her that even if she told the police everything, she didn't have anything that would be considered concrete, and really, the note alone was vague enough to not do anything.

Not that it mattered now, given the police's attention was on her mother. And even if they asked her, she doubted it'd go anywhere. So she'd stay away, far, far away from the man named Alastor Hilmarsson, pretend he didn't exist, as he would probably do the same.

Jessica peaked into the room. "Hey,"

"What?" Emma responded as her sister entered the room and went to sit close to her on the bed but didn't push her away. "What are you doing?"

"Want to watch me play a game?"

Perhaps it was the drugs that were making her mellow out after everything that happened, but she moved a bit on the bed so her sister could be beside her. "Sure..."

Her sister moved closer, but before Jessica started she said. "Hey, you know I didn't mean what I said before, right? When that guy dropped your stuff off?"

"That's bull Jess,"

She scowled at Emma. "You think what you want." And went to play her game on her phone, Emma watching briefly before her gaze went to the envelope at Alastor's words rang in her head.

"You're your own person with your own autonomy, your actions are your own and will ever be as such..."

He had a point, and while she did choose the more fucked up option, weirdly, she was glad about it, because now, the truth about her Dad would be out in the open, his coveted journal was hidden in a place he'd never find, and with the police talking to their mom, she'd show them the evidence and maybe, just maybe, get rid of that monster that loomed over them.

Perhaps something good would come out of all this at least a tiny bit... maybe.