Hollow: A Fallen Angel Novel

CHAPTER IV

"Absolutely not!" He roared.

I hadn't seen Mr. McFarlane like this before, his face was washed red with fury. The hostility oozed off him and seemed to permeate the air in a suffocating volatility. It really felt like he might snap at any minute and send the dishes flying across the room.

"I will not have my new daughter running around the night like some tramp."

"Rodney please," Sharon tried to calm him with her soft voice, "she has to make friends."

"I don't care about friends," a bit of chicken flew out his mouth. This was some family dinner. He twisted off the top of the brandy pourer and topped up his glass. "We paid enough damn money to get her over here. It's a bloody insult she hasn't got the courtesy to stay in for one night."

I felt so small at the table, like a little girl again shuddering from her parent's fights. But this time it was over me. They made me feel invisible like I was no one from nowhere.

"Come on, Rodney," Sharon persisted, "the Feldman's boy, Jakob, will look after her. And she is here with us now. Look we're all here together, one big happy family like we wanted."

"Like you wanted," he scoffed under his breath as he sipped his drink.

He turned his hawk eyes on me, they seemed to have lost their edge. "Well, it is pretty obvious I have lost my say in this house. If I can't stop you, at least don't come home pregnant or do anything stupid."

"I won't," my voice was barely a whisper.

"We don't need the neighbours gossiping, do we Sharon?" He said it rhetorically and slid his chair back. He was done eating and I had barely touched my plate. The food was cold and I had lost my appetite.

I watched him get up and leave with his drink and I looked back at Sharon with hopeful eyes. She looked so sad with her broken eyes.

"Must have been a bad day," she said with a forced smile.

It was terrible to see her like that. His remarks told me more than he probably wanted to reveal. It was clear now that he never wanted me... as if those clues weren't obvious. So now I knew that I was here at Sharon's request. But I still didn't get it, was I here because she wanted someone to love, or someone to be loved by? Did she want a daughter or someone to mould? She was sweet, and I could see the crushed love in her wet eyes, but I still felt like so much was expected of me around her. I just wanted to be me.

"I'm sorry," I said in a hushed tone, "if I knew I wouldn't have brought it up."

"No, no, it's fine," she said brushing her eyes with the back of her hand, "now eat up and finish your food."

"I'm not very hungry," I didn't lie. I had no appetite and my mouth was as dry as sand.

"Neither am I," she whispered and winked her eye but she couldn't hide the fact that her plate was clean.

"Jakob's going to come pick me up around seven, is that okay?"

"Of course it is," she smiled and checked her watch, "you best get upstairs and get ready, he'll be here in half an hour."

The timing caught me off guard and I rushed upstairs. I still couldn't believe I was going to a party. What was I suppose to expect? Tapped kegs and beer-pong? We never got out of the orphanage so you can't blame me for my ignorance, all I ever saw of a party was what TV showed me, and it kind of made me excited and nervous at the same time.

Sharon had packed all my new clothes into my wardrobe, it was starting to fill out to a respectable size but it really didn't feel like mine. I flipped through the hangers to find something... but in all honesty, I knew what I was looking for. My new jet black skinny jeans and salmon sweater. It was way too cold for dresses and I really didn't want to show off my boney knees. Plus this sweater was warm and fluffy and made me feel cute.