Page 8 of Encounter

I waited. Staring at the ceiling, I heard the muffled conversation taking place downstairs. No matter the soft sunlight coming into the room through the half-open blinds, it felt cold and dark when I looked outside. My heart fluttered the second I thought about stepping foot out there ever again.No, I couldn’t. It was too dangerous, too different now, for me to be able to simply go back to the life I had.

Not like it was great out there before, either. Only now—

The door slowly opened, pulling my attention toward it. Straightening my back in an attempt to get myself together, I looked at Dad.

Standing there with his hands held together, he gave me that dead serious, completely unreadable expression. As he made his way toward the chair, I studied his hair, flawlessly combed back, and the short beard with a few grays like it was my first time seeing my own father. In a way it was—the first time seeing him truly for who he was. Only when he sat did I notice the glasses he was holding.

“To replace your old ones,” he noted, voice plain and as monotone as always, passing the glasses to me.

Instead of accepting the new, expensive pair, I stared at Dad, baffled by his calm demeanor. “I don’t want any glasses, I... I want to know what happened.” Clenching my hands together to hide the slight tremors, my words were charged with emotion. “Why I gotkidnapped, Dad!” For the first time in a long while, I raised my voice at him.

Instead of an empathetic response, the one a father should have to seeing their child with tears rolling down their cheeks, he sighed and aimed his impersonal gaze somewhere behind me.

“That situation happened because of my error, I admit. I hadn’t calculated the consequence of a risky decision I made and—”

Feeling like I was talking to a robot, to some soulless, emotionless figurine, I couldn’t help but unleash the carefully suppressed stream of anger boiling inside me. “What does that mean? Who— Who is this Ramirez person they told me about? What kind of things are you doing at work?!”

“Enough with the snapping!” He shut me down sharply, forcing me to face away, as I bit my quivering bottom lip out of frustration. “The fact that you’re unwell doesn’t mean you can behave like this. You’re a man now, for god’s sake. Act like it. You donotneed to know the details. It was a mistake. It won’t happen again.”

Again—he was pushing me away. His tone was belittling, dismissive. For a split second, I wished that man had killed me, so I wouldn’t have to listen to this crap.

Slowly, I turned my eyes to him again, grabbing the glasses out of his hand as a feeble attempt to somehow hide behind them.

“Is that all you’re going to tell me?”

The sigh he let out make it seem like he was annoyed by even having to talk to me. “He and I were bidding for the same high-profile project, and when he lost, he retaliated. I knew Ramirez was a bit of a notorious name—often on the wrong side of the law—but I couldn’t have predicted he would do something like this. That isallyou need to know,” he repeated, pushing the words through his teeth. “The scum hired to hurt you were dealt with. We just need to give mister Ramirez some time to calm down. I will deal with it.” Dad sounded almost as if he was annoyed by the inconvenience of it all. Like the entire situation was only some boyish playground bicker between the two of them.

He must have judged I wasn’t going to participate in anymeaningfulconversation by my expression, so he stood from the chair.

“That is why you’re going to be under the protection of Mr. Lahad for a few days. He—” pausing with a sigh, he looked over his shoulder as if to check no one was listening. “I’m not exactlyhappyabout it, trust me,” he said, a sense of distaste flashing over his face, “but if that fool Ramirez tries anything else, that man will protect you, no doubt about that.”

It took me a few seconds to connect the dots as to who Mr. Lahad was. “Y-You’re gonna leave me withhim?” My breath stuttered and stomach twisted.

The flashes of how quickly he took care of those people made my veins run with ice. It all came back—the smell of blood, echoes of his boots, the sounds of a knife ripping through flesh.

With a strict frown, Dad stopped in the door. “Try and see this situation objectively, Galen. You think I’mhappyabout leaving you alone with someone like that? No. But he was the only one capable of doing the job, and came with glowing recommendation... Which means he might as well guard you here until I can besurethis entire fiasco is resolved.”

The realization that to Dad, it was all flawlessly calculated and perfectly reasonable nauseated me. I wanted to stop him as he began walking away without so much as caring for my response. Instead, the anger within me grew, turning into spite, into hatred that had always been there, making me feel guilty. In the end, I didn’t say anything.What could my protest change? He decided it all already.

Like always, I stayed quiet and let Dad leave.

Rubbing my eyes, I slid down the bed and buried myself in the pillows again. A desperate sigh escaped me. All I wanted to do was sleep. Forget it all ever happened.

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