Page 104 of Contention

“Oh, just a mad woman screeching at her boyfriend across the street,” Kara lies as brightly as she can. So brightly it almost kills her. “This has been a lovely chat, but I don’t really see how this has anything to do with me. Best of luck to you, with, you know, what youmay or may nothave done. Bye-”

“Don’t you hang up the goddamn phone,” Charlie snaps quite suddenly, like a monster reaching out of a dark hole to attack unsuspecting prey. “I’ll say when we’re done talking.” It’s the voice from her nightmares, the vicious growl that always precludes punishment and pain.

Kara feels her muscles freeze, her throat working.

“You’ll listen to me and you’ll listen good, you ungrateful little bitch,” her father says cruelly, the monster inside of him crawling out of his stupid external costume of pleasantness. Like claws, peeling off a false flesh, revealing the creature within. “After everything I’ve ever given you, done for you…the least you can do is support me in these tough times.”

“There’s nothing I can do-”

“SHUT YOUR MOUTH!” He sounds like he’s panting with fury on the other side of line and Kara can almost imagine how his eyes must be fully black right now. “You’ll fly your little ass down here. I’m only being investigated at the moment, but it will only be a matter of time before…well. You will do this. Pro-bono.”

Is he absolutely out of his mind? The world spins.

“I don’t have the skill to represent you alone in something this serious!” She yells at him, desperate, feeling like he’s dragging her into the room with him, wherever he is. “I can’t afford to do it for free either! I’m not made of money!”

He curses at her very creatively, things Kara has heard before. Each word hurts the same as always, no matter how hard she tries to convince herself that it isn’t true, he’s just trying to hurt her.

The doorknob is jiggling.

She makes a sound of despair that echoes off the bathroom tiles loudly. Her father feeds off of the weakness in her armor, only digging into her deeper, saying things to degrade and cheapen her worth as a human. It’s like she’s back in to her childhood home, the corners of her vision starting to melt and fade.

The bathroom door whips open and Nick is standing there, the irritation on his face melting away when he sees Kara sitting on the ground by the bathtub, her eyes full of tears.

She’s in the middle of pleading, “Daddy, please don’t…” not wanting to hear anymore, feeling trapped, feeling like her father is standing right next to her, screaming in her face. Like there aren’t miles between them anymore.

Nick stares down at her with an open mouth as she says ‘daddy’. Kara thinks vaguely that she’s called him ‘dad’ a few times, usually in a mocking fashion, but certainly not like this. Not pleading, not crying. His eyes narrow and he stiffens. Kara is too far gone in her own drama to really care that he seems to think he has some sort of competition on the phone. How could his mind completely pass the fact that it really is heractual fatheron the line?

Quick, before she can stop him, Nick grabs the phone from her and says rudely to the mouthpiece, tone possessive and demanding, “Who the hell is this?”

Kara gapes at him in horror. What did he just do?

There’s a pause in her father’s yelling. Then, she hears him again. “Who the hell am I? Bastard, who the hell areyou? I’m her fucking father you little shit and you’d better give the phone back to that unworthy slut before I tear you a new asshole.”

Nick’s eyes widen in shock. The look on his face might have been funny in any other situation, but at the moment he doesn’t even look like he was expecting what was just said to him.Nick, meet Charlie. My dad,Kara thinks with sick humor.

Hoisting herself to her feet, she takes the phone back from Nick’s hand, because he seems shocked by the sheer vulgarity leveled against him. Well, now he knows where she gets it from. “Dad,” she says hoarsely, “Calm down. Please, let’s talk about this.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down! Kara, who is that knob? Are you slutting around again? Just like your no-good mother. Goddamn bitch. Is that why you haven’t taken my calls?Pathetic. You’re disgusting-”

Kara’s insides are shriveling, curling up like they’re ready to die in a deep grave.

“Stop talking to me like that before I come find you and rip your stupid face off!” Kara snarls, turning red, fed up. “I’ve had it up to here with you, already! None of this shit matters! You get what you deserve and you can go rot in prison for all I care! I was free of you!I was fucking free!”

That calms his rant momentarily. Kara hears a crash somewhere on his side of the phone and figures that he’s broken something, channeling his rage into something else. When he speaks again, he’s in control of himself once more.

“You know why this matters,” he says to her carefully, slyly. “If I go to prison…well…maybe you shouldn’t have co-signed on my mortgage…the car loan…gambling debts…you get where I’m going with this, princess?”

Kara goes cold, realizing what he’s getting at.Holy shit. It can’t be possible.

Numbly, she replies, “Stop. I get it. Just. Give me a few days to set my life in order.”

“That’s my girl,” he says with sheer pleasure. As if he just won the lotto. “I knew you would come around. You always do. Such agood girl.”

Kara shudders sickly.

“I expect to see you down here soon. Don’t screen my call next time. I’ll be in touch,” he finishes lightly, as if they never fought at all.

“I’ll count the seconds down until we speak again,” Kara replies numbly, hating herself.

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