Page 19 of Wanted

“Daddy, help me! Please!” I scream with everything I have in utter desperation.

He’s the only person I have.

The only one that loves me.

If I don’t have him, I have no one.

I have nothing.

My mother slides up from behind my father to grab his arm. My father’s expression tenses and he tries to pull away from her.

But then my mother stretches up and speaks into his ear.

I have no idea what my mother is saying, but after a few moments my father’s chin dips in defeat.

My mother smiles, her gaze glancing toward me as her lips continue to move, then she tugs on his arm.

Stiffening, my father resists the tug, and my heart flutters with hope.

Whatever my mother is saying, my father knows the truth.

He would never abandon me.

I’m his only child. His only daughter.

I’m his beautiful girl.

My father lifts his head and looks at me again.

On his face is that strange emotion I can’t figure out… It’s like he did something bad and he’s sorry and wishes he could take it back.

But a look like that has no place being on my father’s face. It’s so strange and foreign, it makes me feel sick.

When my mother tugs on my father’s arm again, this time with more insistence, my father finally turns with her, giving me his back.

And something inside me snaps.

“No!” I shriek, my heart shattering into a billion pieces. “Daddy! Daddy!”

Ignoring my cries, my father follows my mother, disappearing through the doorway.

But I can’t stop shrieking his name, hoping he’ll change his mind and come back.

Even when Sister Agatha finally manages to drag me behind the curtain, I scream for him. “Daddy!”

“Would you shut up!” Sister Agatha bellows, and uses my arm to pull me into her so she can slap me across the face.

My head jerks painfully on my neck and my teeth cut into my cheek, reopening the bites wounds I created earlier.

Blood fills my mouth, but I don’t need it. I don’t need the tangy, coppery taste to ease my pain. I’m so distraught, so hysterical, I’m numb to everything.

Except the throbbing, aching hole in my chest.

Everything has been taken from me. What little I had.

God’s love.

Daddy’s protection.

---