Page 102 of Contention

“You can’t have everything, Nick!” Kara yells, incredulous. Is she actually hearing this? “You can’t sit here and tell me you want me all to yourself when you won’t even share anything about you with me! I honestly can’t decide if I like you or hate you,most of the time.”

“I already told you to come stay with me this weekend,” he snaps. “Want to make more demands of me?”

Her phone rings and with a snarl she answers it, pulling it from her tote, strangely wanting to run away from this conversation. “What?” Kara practically growls into the phone, praying it isn’t Derrick calling to discuss what went wrong with the case.

“Kara,” her father says very casually. “Is that any way to answer the phone?”

The blood melts from Kara’s face.

Chapter 25

The world narrows down to his voice. Kara feels like time has suddenly gone still, frozen. She’s not an independent young woman anymore; she’s a lost girl in danger of pissing off her father. The man who controlled the majority of her life.

Her mind twists, realigns. She must remember how she is required to act. She must become that tired, bitter being that tries to never set him off. Kara must remember how to be that person, to quell the short-tempered aspects of herself.

She must remember tonotact like him.

Charlie was never quite fond of how Kara’s personality shaped as she aged. He’d never quite liked seeing his own anger reflected back at him. It was exhausting, Kara knew that damn well.

“I thought…” she quickly refrains from saying that she thought he had been someone else. That wouldn’t have gone well. His fragile ego would have been unnecessarily threatened. “I didn’t mean to say that. It was a mistake. I’m s-s…”

She has to force the word ‘sorry’ out. It feels unnatural and sickly on her tongue. She feels nauseous. Her heart is racing.

Her hands shake like leaves.

Charlie makes a dismissive noise on his end of the phone. Then, he says very casually, “You’re very hard to get a hold of, do you know that?”

Danger ahead.

“Well, ah. Work. It’s been so busy. I’m at a real firm now, you know. I never- I don’t suppose I told you, did I?” She examines every word that leaves her lips, makes sure they are utterly unoffensive to him.

“I’d heard.” Simple, cool words.

Before Kara can figure out what he wants to hear, her father speaks again.

“Do you miss me?” He has a sly, entitled way of asking, like he expects only one answer and if he doesn’t get it, he’ll lose his fucking mind.

“Oh, of course I miss you,” she gushes to him like her life depends on it. For a moment, she almost believes herself.

If she says it enough, she can make it real.

There’s movement in the corner of Kara’s vision. Suddenly, she remembers that she isn’t alone; Nick is still here with her. The backstabbing bastard. Nick is giving her a strange look. He’s looking at her like she’s acting extremely odd. He’s never seen this side of her. No one likely has. No one Kara now knows, anyway.

“That’s good to hear. You know, I almost thought you were, oh, avoiding my calls. You wouldn’t possibly do such a wretched thing, would you?”

Quickly, afraid of making him assume her lack of affection for him, Kara replies earnestly, “I didn’t mean to. Not answer.”

He chuckles. “Of course, you didn’t. What sort of worthless daughter would screen her own father’s calls?”

A sick little, nervous laugh crawls out of Kara’s throat.Worthless daughter. Me. I’m her.“Why? Why have you called?”

“Do I really need a reason?” He asks, sounding hurt by her careful insinuation.

Yes, actually. You always have a reason. It’s never good.

A whisper of bitterness, anger, drifts just under Kara’s skin. A hint of her dark emotions from before her father had called her.

“I mean, it’s been years.” A sliver of ugliness faintly creeps into her tone. “I really can’t help but wonder.”

---