Page 74 of Under His Heel

“Daddy!” a shrill voice said over the speakers. “When are you coming back?” The girl on the other end sniffled loudly. Alex peered over a bit and saw the same girl as in all of Parsons’s photos. His daughter.

“I’ll be back in about four months. The trip back is a bit longer. But what’s wrong?”

Meilin sniffed loud enough to be heard over the speakers. “Uncle Kai is a big meany! And everybody at school is being stupid. I hate Denise!”

“Really? I thought Denise was your best friend,” Parsons responded, and Alex had to give the guy credit for his patience because Alex probably would have snapped at the crying brat already. Yeash. This was the kid Parsons was buying stupid gifts for?

“No. Denise said her mommy said that I was too poor to hang out with.” Here Meilin huffed theatrically. “And that our new home is too small and dirty. I want to go back to the old place. Tell Uncle Kai to take me back home!”

“Oh, hmm. That’s going to be a bit tough. The old apartment was too big for just the two of you. I think it needed a family with enough people for all the rooms.”

“So just come and stay forever, daddy! And bring mommy back!”

Predictably, Meilin started crying for real. Alex wanted to gag, listening to Parsons trying to calm her down and spin some story about how her mother was in a better place, blah blah blah. It was like one of those soap operas his mom used to watch. Alex wondered if there’d be a secret reveal that the mother wasn’t dead after all, but she’d faked her death to be with some other lover.

At some point Parsons calmed Meilin down and convinced her to send her Uncle Kai to talk instead. Kai was a lot paler than either Meilin or Parsons, though he shared Meilin’s single-lidded eyes, and his black hair was styled into a short mohawk. A tattoo was just barely visible over his shirt collar, but overall he looked pretty normal.

So that was the brother-in-law taking care of Parsons’ daughter.

“Sorry about that,” Kai said. “She’s been in a snit for a few days now. Her friend Denise’s mother pretty much forbade Denise from coming over here once she found out about the move.”

“No, I’m sorry. I wish I could send you more money.” Parsons rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand. “I’m putting in all the overtime I can, but I’m not the only one in the crew who wants to earn more. I did catch a bit of a break when one of the other crew members got herself restricted duty, so her overtime hours were offered to the rest of us.”

Huh. From how much Parsons had spent on souvenirs the previous day, Alex thought Parsons must have been doing decently well.

“Have you made a choice about the school? Because I can’t keep stalling the principal. She’s threatening to just terminate Meilin’s enrollment.” Kai scratched his chin. “Gotta be honest, I don’t think the school is worth it. She can go to the public school instead. Save up your credits for her university fund.”

Parsons looked over at Alex briefly. “No, I was reading about what a difference the school makes for a child’s education. Just tell the principal I’ll have the money together before the next school year starts.”

Kai made a noncommittal noise and segued into an anecdote about Meilin. She came back later and Parsons talked to her some more, until it was time for Meilin to go to bed.

All in all they must have chatted for almost an hour. Alex started growing bored when they mentioned names he didn’t recognize, and he turned the subtitles on for the movie so he could watch it without disturbing Parsons. Not as exciting as watching the movie with full sound, but he kind of zoned out anyway.

He nearly punched Parsons when he touched his shoulder.

“Woah! Sorry about that,” Parsons said, retreating again. “I’m done with the call. I didn’t expect it to go on for so long.”

Alex shrugged and yawned. “Whatever.”

“Uh, so, yeah. That was Meilin. Normally she’s a bit more upbeat but I guess all the change all at once was a bit much for her.” Parsons stretched his legs out on top of the coffee table. “I don’t blame her. It’s been hard without Xiaoyu.”

“So, like, are you fucking that Kai dude?” Alex tapped his thigh and tried to imagine it. “He was okay looking.”

That was definitely not the right thing to say, judging by Parsons’ horrified expression. “What? No! He’s my brother-in-law. That’s—no. That’s disgusting.”

“Why?”

“Because! I married Xiaoyu. I wouldn’t do anything with her brother! And what kind of message would that send to Meilin?” Parsons visibly shuddered.

“I dunno. Nick and I sometimes fucked the same chick.” Alex smiled. “There was once when he found identical twin sisters. That was kind of funny. They didn’t have the same hairstyle so it was easy to tell them apart, but we kind of traded off in the middle so we both had both sisters.”

It was a pretty nice memory, actually, only Parsons’ reaction was kind of souring it.

“Did you—did you sleep with your brother?” Parsons asked in a hoarse whisper.

“Huh? No. Nick’s not into dudes. But it’s not like we had a lot of privacy. I didn’t mind watching him or him watching me.” That was apparently another abnormal thing, judging from the way Parsons stared, and Alex suddenly really wanted Parsons gone. Tracht wouldn’t have reacted like that, he thought with annoyance.

“Look, whatever. I’m gonna go sleep. You can just hang around until Tracht gets back and get your damned payment so you can send your precious Meilin to her stupid expensive school.” Alex stormed over to the bed and pulled the covers over himself.

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