Page 49 of Off Limits

When I was in university, I worked during the summer as a teller at a bank that got held up at gunpoint.

A man in a ball cap and sunglasses—no ski mask—approached my station and slipped a piece of paper towards me. I assumed it was cash or a cheque.

If you hit the alarm, you die, the note read.

I looked up with a half smile, confused, to see the barrel of a gun pointed directly at me. I became vaguely aware that people were screaming.

When it was all over, the story didn’t even make the news. I handed over all the money in my till, so did the other tellers, and he left. Within the hour, he’d been apprehended and the money was reclaimed. No one was hurt, but it was the most frightening experience of my life, seeing the barrel of the gun right between my eyes.

But the fear I felt that day is nothing compared to the way I feel right now.

Adrenaline spikes my blood, driving me to run or fight. Instead I just grip the doorknob harder, as if it can steady me somehow.

Dani speaks first.

“Mom?”

Gone is her ebullience of only a moment ago. Her voice is strained and shocked.

On the doorstep, looking flamboyant with her wild red hair, and in a bright blue dress, Melanie looks surprised, too. “Oh, sweetheart,” she says to Dani, with just the slightest hint of disappointment. “You’re here.”

Jean-Luc

FOR A HEARTBEAT, no one moves. No one says anything. Nothing happens. Then Melanie laughs breezily and says, “Well? Can I come in?” She picks up the two suitcases at her feet and walks through the door while Danica and I just stare at her, like she’s risen from the dead.

“You two look like you’ve seen a ghost!” she quips, and it doesn’t escape my notice that Danica’s reaction is as frozen and restrained as mine. She doesn’t run into her mother’s arms the way any other child might. But she never was that way with her mother. She was always wary around Melanie.

Right now she looks how I feel: shocked and horrified.

“Melanie,” I manage, finally. “What are you doing here?”

“I got your new address from Susie! Isn’t that great? Thought I’d surprise you.”

“Where have you been?”

“Oh please,” she scoffs, rolling her eyes. “It’s always like this with you, J.L.” Still holding her bags, she walks down the hallway, raising her voice as she speaks over her shoulder. “You’re so focused on the literal, because that’s all you can understand. Space, time, here, now.” She stops in the living room and drops her bags, turning around to us with a dramatic flare. “How about asking how I am, for once?”

“Dad,” says Danica beside me, under her breath.

“I’ll handle it,” I mutter, and follow Melanie, cursing silently.

She’s begun walking around the main room, trailing her fingers over the furniture and taking in every inch of the space as if she’s touring a museum. She looks good. I hate that I notice that, but I do. Her dress is short and shows off her long legs, and her hair’s grown almost as long as Dani’s.

“Melanie, what are you doing here?”

She grins broadly and stretches out her arms to me. “I’m back, baby!”

“No.” I shake my head. “No. I filed for divorce. There’s no back. You’re in my house.”

She tilts her head patiently, as if I’m being unreasonable. “J.L., we’re not divorced yet. This is my house.”

Damn this woman. It’s been two minutes and already I want to punch a hole in the wall.

“Yes,” I bite out. “We’re not divorced because my lawyer couldn’t find you to serve the papers. You’ve been missing for two months. What the hell are you playing at?”

She casts a meaningful look at Danica lingering in the hallway and then says in a theatrical whisper, “Could we have a moment alone? To talk?”

The last thing I want to do is succumb to any of her demands, but I would also prefer to spare Danica hearing whatever it is her mother might have to say. My jaw gripping with tension, I nod towards the doorway to the basement stairs.

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