Page 66 of Under Southern Stars
He has a whole series on “Female Nature” and “Navigating the Modern Dating Market.” The language is demeaning,objectifying. Women are assets or liabilities, their value tied to their youth, their “purity,” their willingness to be submissive. My blood starts to simmer. This is the man Sophia was married to, the father of her daughter.
In one particularly enlightening forum thread where he was “advising” other men, he’d stated, with absolute conviction, “Women can’t get orgasms from sex with a man. I know this for a fact. No woman I’ve ever been with has had one. It’s a biological impossibility, a myth perpetuated by…” He’d gone on some bizarre tangent about societal conditioning.
Jesus Christ, I think, a humorless laugh bubbling in my chest. You couldn’t have waterboarded that admission out of me.Surely couldn’t be a skill issue, eh, mate?The sheer, unadulterated arrogance mixed with profound ignorance is breathtaking. No wonder Sophia is so guarded.
The escalation comes when I find a section, a “thread” he’d done, specifically on raising daughters in the “current degenerate age.” It is not directly about Madison, not by name, but the implications are chilling. Posts about how daughters are a “father’s property until marriage,” how their primary role is to “attract a high-value man,” how a father needs to “instill obedience early” to prevent them from becoming “unmanageable shrews.”
“Daughters as liabilities if not properly controlled.” The phrase jumps out at me. Liabilities.
My hands clench into fists. I think of Madison—just last week, after her soccer game, she’d been excitedly telling me about a school project, her eyes bright with intelligence and enthusiasm. She’d high-fived me when I’d shown her how to properly fold a fitted sheet, laughing that infectious, uninhibitedlaugh of hers. That bright, funny fifteen-year-old, a liability? The idea is obscene.
The gut punch, the one that makes me physically ill, is a clip from his latest podcast appearance. His voice, smug and self-assured, fills my small apartment: “…and that’s the bottom line, fellas. Your daughters? They need to understand their place. They need to be taught to obey men, to respect male authority unquestioningly. It’s for their own good, their own protection. A daughter who doesn’t know how to submit to a strong man is a danger to herself and a disgrace to her father…”
I slam the laptop shut so hard the plastic creaks, a choked sound catching in my throat. My stomach roils. I push back from the desk, hands shaking, and have to brace myself against the wall, breathing heavily into my palms, trying to quell the sudden wave of nausea.
Madison. He’s talking about Madison. About Sophia’s daughter. About his daughter. About this incredible young woman I’m already starting to care about like she’s family. The thought of her ever hearing that, ever internalizing even a fraction of that poison…it makes me literally see red.
I feel a tremor run through me, a mixture of rage and a profound, aching sadness for what Sophia must have endured, for what Madison might be unknowingly exposed to. I actually feel my eyes prickle, the image of Madison’s trusting smile when I’d talked about rugby with her flashing in my mind.
I need to talk to someone who understands righteous fury, someone who understands protecting family. My fingers fumble for my phone, scrolling until I find Emma’s number. My middle sister, the rugby coach, the one who’d walked around with a broken arm for a week rather than miss a tryout.
She answers on the second ring, her voice booms even through the speaker. “Jack! You finally remember you have a sister! What’s up, little bro? Need bail money?”
“Em,” my voice is rougher than I intended. “Got a minute?”
“For you? Always. What’s wrong? You sound like you’ve seen a taniwha.”
I quickly, grimly, outline what I’ve found. I don’t spare the details of Troy’s rhetoric. Emma is quiet for a long moment after I finish, a silence so profound I think the call might have dropped.
Then, her voice comes back, low and dangerous, the voice she uses when one of her players is being unfairly targeted by a ref. “That absolute twat.” The word is a vicious spit. “Sophia’s ex? Madison’s father?”
“Yeah.”
“Right. Give me his address.”
“Emma, no. What are you thinking?”
“Thinking I might need to have a chat with him about respecting women. Maybe demonstrate a proper rugby tackle. To his teeth. Or perhaps a headbutt. Very effective for getting one’s point across, I find.”
Despite the sickness in my gut, a small, hysterical laugh escapes me. “As much as I appreciate the sentiment, and believe me, I really do, I don’t think international incidents involving aggravated assault are going to help Sophia or Madison right now.”
“Probably not,” she concedes, though she sounds disappointed. “But Jack, this is…this is beyond awful. That poorgirl. That poor woman. Does Sophia know he’s spewing this filth online?”
“I don’t think so. Not the extent of it, anyway. She knows he’s gone down the manosphere rabbit hole, but this is…this is next level.”
“And Madison?” Emma’s voice is sharp with concern. “Has she seen any of this?”
“God, I hope not. That’s what’s eating me up, Em. If she stumbles across this, it could destroy her. Her own father saying things like that…”
“She’s fifteen, Jack. She’s online. If he’s trying to be an influencer, she’ll find it eventually, or one of her friends will.” Emma is right, and the thought is like another punch. “You have to tell Sophia.”
“I know. But when? How? We’re supposed to be going to New Zealand in a few days. This will wreck her. And what if Troy uses it against her in some custody bullshit? ‘She’s turning Madison against me because she doesn’t like my opinions!’”
“His opinions are that his daughter is property and women are scum,” Emma says flatly. “That’s not an opinion, that’s a bloody character flaw the size of Mount Cook. Sophia needs to know so she can protect Madison. And mate, you need to protect them too.”
“I want to. Christ, Em, I want to wring his bloody neck.”
“Join the queue,” Emma says darkly. “Look, little bro. You’re a good man. You see this for what it is. You do what’s right. Tell Sophia. Help her figure out how to shield Madison. And if you need someone to…‘have a quiet word’ with Mr.AlphaTRex about the potential downsides of public misogyny, you know who to call. I’m very persuasive. And I travel well.”
