Page 35 of In the Air Tonight

“Good. We’ll leave tomorrow.”

“I’m sorry your time here isn’t what we hoped it would be.”

He caresses my back. “You have no reason to apologize. All I need to be happy is you.”

“Same.” I rest my head on his chest and fall asleep to the sound of his heartbeat. I wake sometime later to a disturbance downstairs. Someone is pounding on the front door. I hear my dad running down the stairs.

“What’s happening?” Kane asks.

“Someone’s at the door.”

The clock on the bedside table reads three ten a.m.

I get out of bed and go to the door.

Someone is shouting at my father. “What’re youdoing? This willruin his life! Don’t you care at all that your daughter islying? My son doesn’t need to rape anyone. He could have any girl he wants!”

“You need to get out of here before I call the police,” my dad says in a cold tone I’ve never heard from him before.

“Please.” Mr. Elliott sounds as if he’s crying now. “Father to father. Can’t we work this out? Is it money you want? I can give you money.”

“Get out of here,” my dad says.

When Kane approaches me from behind and puts his hands on my shoulders, I startle.

“Easy, honey. Just me.”

I relax against him as my heart pounds like a jackhammer.

“I won’t let her ruin his life! I’ll ruin hers before she ruins his. She’s a liar! Everyone who knows her says that. We could end this right here, father to father.”

“I’m calling the police,” Kane says.

I want to tell him not to, that it’ll only make everything worse, but I’m afraid Mr. Elliott might hurt my dad.

In a matter of minutes, cars with blue-and-red flashing lights line our street.

Mr. Elliott screams obscenities as he’s taken into custody. “She’s a fucking liar! My son didn’t touch her!”

I realize I’m crying when Kane turns me into his embrace. “It’s okay, honey. He’s gone now.”

“It’s never going to be okay again.”

“Yes, it is. We’ll make sure of it.”

“How?”

My dad comes up the stairs, his face the picture of rage. “I’m sorry you had to hear that. He doesn’t want to believe his precious little boy is capable of such an atrocity.”

“I want to get her out of here,” Kane says. “Right now.”

“Where will you go?” Dad asks.

“Somewhere far, far from here.”

Dad is visibly undone.

My mother probably slept through the whole thing in a wine-fueled daze. I’m envious of her ability to punch out of life that way. If I hadn’t had such an up-close view of where it would lead, I might’ve started drinking this summer, too.

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