Evanescent

40 | E X P O S E D

"Dad, you can't do that. It's illegal to take someone's phone. It's called stealing!"

Vicky's voice was clear from the place she was at downstairs while Rosa sat cross-legged on her bed, drawing small planets on a random scrap of paper.

"You would know, wouldn't you," he hissed.

Rosa grew curious about what the conflict was so she slowly crept to do the door and cracked it opened before sitting at the top of the stairs with her knees pulled up to her chest, watching as Victor paced back and forth. The bedazzled phone in his hand looked severely out of place and so did the nervous look on Vicky's face.

"Vicky," he growled out. "Delete this stuff. This is disgusting what you're doing. You're so selfish. You never think about anyone else before you do things," his voice raised after every word and it seemed to shake the very ground they were standing on.

Rosa flinched when he threw the phone down, effectively shattering it and then she quickly pressed her palms over her ears when Vicky's shrill screaming was triggered. "Dad! That's my phone."

"Exactly. A phone! A piece of crap. And that is nothing compared to the lives you've affected with this- this crap! Does she know that you do that when she sleeps?" The room fell quiet and Rosa felt cold chills run down her spine and she swallowed down the lump forming in her throat.

There had been so many times she was woken up presumably for no reason, feeling uneasy and full of anxiety. Not once had she ever thought a person had truly been watching her while she slept.

"Why?"

"Why what?" Vicky scowled, the phone seemed quickly worth nothing to her. Probably because she knew she could easily get a new one.

Victor let out an exhausted sigh and shook his head. He looked physically sick and Rosa felt it. "Go put shoes on," he muttered. "And hurry, or else there's no way you're getting a phone for another two years."

Vicky grumbled quietly to herself, not understanding the weight of all the things she had done to not only Rosa, but Noah and his reputation. She couldn't seem to grasp why this would hurt anyone so bad, especially her own father. She hadn't involved him in any way - so why had he reacted with such anger?

She ran up the stairs to get some shoes, her eyes glaring down at Rosa as she passed by and Rosa just curled up nearer to the side of the wall, her eyes starting to water.

Rosa remained there in the same spot even when the two left and Katania walked into the house only about twenty minutes later. She noticed her sitting there and put a hand on her hip.

"Why are you just sitting around, sweetheart?" she frowned. "There's better things to be doing. Where's Victor and Vicky?" She asked as she set her red heels aside and she began making her way up the stairs.

Rosa continued to just sit there, curling up even tighter as Katania neared her. "You look very nice today, Kat," she whispered before shrugging slowly. "Maybe to buy a new phone for Vicky. He shattered her sparkly one."