Page 110 of Even Robots Die
A plan.
I know all about his plans. Usually it’s just another scammer who knows exactly what he is doing, and Dad always believes them. He always pours more than what we have in the bank account into whatever new project he has found that he thinks will make him rich.
Unsurprisingly, it never does.
I’m not surprised either that it’s the reason why he hasn’t answered his holo in days or taken care of any of us.
I should have seen it coming.
True, it’s the first time he’s left for so long, but he has a habit of disappearing quite often.
Him being taken by the birds shouldn’t have been my first thought. Him being forced to do something against his will shouldn’t have been it, either.
Maybe I’m delusional, but I thought we were his priority.
I was obviously wrong.
I feel Brice getting closer to me and his index finger grazes the side of my hand. It grounds me. I look at Brice for a second, and with a nod of his head, I’m reminded of what he told me earlier today. I’m not their mother. I’m not their savior.
I take a deep breath.
“They don’t have me.” I take a pause for emphasis but also to steel myself—I hate confrontation. “I’ve been away for weeks, working my ass off to pay the bills that you’re, once again, accumulating. I can’t deal with their day-to-day life. Sure, I can answer the holo when Elodie’s school calls because once again, she’s done whatever she wanted and it’s against the school’s rules. Even if it’s completely useless, because she won’t listen to me once I get to reprimand her. Yes, I can pay the bills for Amélie’s pets when they’re sick or something like that because it wasn’t in the budget. I’ve done it and I’ll probably keep doing it.”
From the side eye Brice gives me, he doesn’t agree with that last bit, but this is my problem. Maybe I should do with my sisters what I’m about to do with Dad, but Rome wasn’t built in a day. Baby steps.
“You don’t understand,” Dad says, “I need the money. I owe a big sum to theTerrier,and I only have a few days left.”
TheTerrier.
The underground cartel led by the foxes here in Paris.
What is Dad trying to do by fucking one of them, anyway.
“How much?”
It surprises me that the question isn’t coming from me but from Brice. I have a feeling he’s asking more for me than anything else.
“Two hundred and forty-five thousand,” Dad says, and he at least has the wits to look sorry.
How did he spend that much money? How did I not see that one coming?
“When do you need it?” I ask him, switching to crisis management mode.
“Next week.”
“And you’re trying to gather the money by fucking some random chick?” I ask him in disbelief.
“Don’t talk about her like that. She’s the love of my life. It’s never been like this before,” he says with what I believe it to be puppy eyes.
It makes me want to puke.
“Like mom, and then Carmen, and Mary?” I ask, my tone rising. “How long have you been with her? Does she know about us? About the kids that you completely forgot during your sexcapade? Does she even care?”
“Of course she cares. She’s already so proud of what you make and of the girls’ results in school,” he says with a smile that makes him look like an idiot.
Because that’s what he is. An idiot. He fell for a woman who looks way younger than he is and I have a feeling she’s just here to make sure theTerriergets back the money Dad owes.
I can’t prove it, so I won’t say a single word in this room knowing there is a high chance that she’s eavesdropping.
