Page 38 of Close Protection

My mind involuntarily takes me back to the feel of his strong, warm arms wrapped around me when we kissed, noting that those same strong warm arms carried a very unconscious me out of the car, through the house, up the stairs and to my bed, all without waking me.

Forget about how cleverly he got us out of the shopping centre, that was the really impressive feat.

‘Daphne, I’m so sorry.’ Daddy sighs, bursting my thought bubble.

‘What are you talking about?’

‘I told you to go. I told you to go shopping, and now look. You nearly got attacked – kidnapped even. If anything happened to you, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself—’

‘But it didn’t,’ I interrupt, moving down my bed to place my hand over his. He looks at me in shock, probably because this is the first time I’ve got remotely close to him in weeks. ‘Other than my favourite dress and a few new pieces still being at the mall, nothing happened, Daddy. Milosh got us out and away from there before anything could.’

‘Yes, but it could’ve, Daph. That’s the point. I wasn’t thinking properly when I suggested you go. Milosh warned against it, but did I listen? No.’

‘Stop trying to blame yourself,’ I demand. ‘Realistically, I was gonna go shopping whether you endorsed it or not, so it’s really not your fault at all. And if you think about it, you’re the one who hired Milosh. So technically you saved me with your forward thinking.’ I shrug.

I watch him as he looks down at his hands, shaking his head.

‘Daddy.’ I pause, considering whether I really want toask this question. We’ve just got to an okay place, do I really want to cause another argument due to how cagey my father is whenever I ask him a question?

‘Yes, darling?’ he prompts when I don’t continue.

Just rip off the Band-Aid, Daphne.‘Why is this happening?’ I ask, looking at him cautiously for a response. When I don’t get one, all my unfiltered thoughts start seeping out. ‘I mean, it just doesn’t make sense. These people break into the offices and labs of you and your co-workers, but to my knowledge only break into our house. Then they rifle through your study but end up trying to strangle me. Then I innocently go shopping, and someone tries to kidnap me. What do they want with me? I don’t even know who they are.’

My father looks at me blankly for a moment, so blankly that I start to think he wasn’t even listening, until life starts flooding back into his face. Holding so much emotional intensity it almost startles me.

He starts to shake his head slowly, once again refusing eye contact. ‘Daphne, I—’

‘Please,’ I interrupt him, ‘please just tell me the truth. And please don’t get angry at me for asking these questions. I have the right to know what’s going on, especially seeing as I seem to be the one who’s been the most affected.’

‘No, you’re right, you deserve the truth.’ After a shortexhale, as if to brace himself for the story he’s about to tell, he begins. ‘These people are after our money.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘At work, people had been getting these notes, rather threatening notes, demanding money or someone they love will get hurt, but none of us listened. When you’re in a certain tax bracket you get used to the empty threats that always seem to come across your desk. But these threats were anything but empty. There’s an organization called Daveeno that has a weird Robin Hood complex where they want to steal from the rich but give only to themselves. These are the people who ransacked my work office and broke into our house. When I didn’t give them what they wanted they chose to take things into their own hands and scare me into submission. But no more. I’ve been talking to the police and they’ve been building a case against them for a while now. We just have to sit tight and wait for the police to do their job, but in the meantime Henry and I have hired some more men to protect the house. I’m sorry, but as of right now you can’t leave the house. You’re able to go to the charity gala in a few weeks, because it will have heavy security anyway. But other than that, nothing. Just until this is resolved.’

‘Okay, thank you for sharing that with me. I really doappreciate it.’ He offers me a small smile before lifting himself off my bed, preparing to leave.

‘Really, Daddy.’ I get up off my bed and walk round it so I’m standing right in front of him. ‘Thank you for your honesty.’ I wrap my arms around his waist and we share our first hug in weeks.

I like that we’re okay now.

I hate arguing with my father, but if he’s actually embracing the whole honesty thing I know that we can work through all of this.

I let go of him and he walks towards the door in silence, pausing as his hand goes to turn the knob. ‘Daphne, everything I do, have done and will do, is for you. I love you, darling, and no matter what happens that will never change.’ He leaves swiftly without giving me a chance to respond, the door closing with a soft thud behind him.

I walk into my dressing room and pull open the drawer containing my mother’s things. ‘Gosh, I wish you were here,’ I whisper as I reach down to retrieve her necklace. ‘You’d know what to do.’

I drape the necklace around my neck, securing the clasp, before I go and pick out a swimming costume.

After today, and the news that my father just told me, I need to be anywhere but in my own head, and swimming has always seemed to help with that. You would think thatI’d hate swimming given what happened to my mother, but the first and probably best thing my father did after she drowned was force me into swimming lessons to strengthen my technique and ability.

I hated it at first, not understanding why I had to do it, but I truly believe if he hadn’t done that I would’ve grown up with a fear of water.

But I love it. It’s so freeing and relaxing and oddly helps me feel closer to my mother.

I know she wouldn’t have wanted me to grow up fearing the thing she loved the most, so I choose to enjoy it. For her.

I pull on a white swimming costume, shrugging on my pink silk robe over the top to hide the necklace, and make my way to the basement. My father rarely uses the pool so I know he won’t be there to see the locket.

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