Page 91 of Kiwi Gold
Lachlan said,“Go back to your flat. Out the back.”
“No.” I stood up and retied my dressing gown. “I need to hear what he says. Whatever this is—I need to be here for it.”
“No,” he said. “You don’t. It’s likely nothing to do with you. Something about work, probably.” Which I knew wasn’t true. My dad had a temper, but he controlled it, especially when it came to his work. This was about me. Lachlan went on, “And he knows, whatever he says, that I’m not the one who broke his nose.”
“Who broke his …what?”I was staring at him, now, then running through the flat and flinging the door open just as my dad was poised to knock again. Or to pound again, because he swiveled with the effort of pulling his punch, then turned back to me, his face shifting. Darkening. Hisbatteredface. A metal splint over his nose, and dark bruising under both eyes.
I said, “Baba. Yourface.What happened?” just as he said, “Why are you here? Who’s with the girls? Why are you in a dressing gown?”
When we were done saying those things, and neither of us was answering, Lachlan said, “Tell me why I should let you into my house. It had better be good. The ‘sisters’ sperm-donor’ idea is wearing pretty thin.” Not sounding anything like calm, relaxed Lachlan. Sounding hard and … and grim.
Something had happened in Riyadh. Something that had caused the bleakness in Lachlan’s eyes, and the mess of Baba’s face. But what, and how, andwhen?They’d talked about the family over there! About having a barbecue!
All that took about a second to run through my mind, while Baba was saying, “You know bloody well why I’m here. I waited until we weren’t at the airport, because I’d like to kill you and I’m not interested in being arrested for it, but I’m not waiting any longer. I haven’t crushed you the way I could have, all these years, have I?” His voice was getting louder now. “I told myself you didn’t know what Peter was, that you didn’t have a dad and he was the closest thing to it. I told myself that what he did wasn’t your responsibility, and it wasn’t Philippa’s. This is on you, though, and I’m not holding back anymore.” He looked at me, finally, and his voice was as harsh as it had ever been when he said, “Go home and take care of your children.”
I’d loved and trusted my father as long as I could remember. I’d respected him as long as that, too. I’d very nearly feared him. Now, I said, “No. They’re on the other side of this wall, and if they wake up, I’ll hear them. This affects me, too, and I want to know what it’s about.”
“This has nothing to do with you,” Baba said. “Unless he’s made you part of whatever twisted revenge plot he’s got going on here. Is that it?” he demanded of Lachlan. “Is that the reason? I’m involved with your sisters, I’mtakingyour sisters, so you’ll take my daughter?”
I said, “That’s ridiculous. That’s … that’sinsulting.How …” I wanted to say,How dare you?It sounded over the top, though. And then I must have decided I didn’t care, because I said, “Howdareyou?”
“How dare I?” Baba repeated. “HowdareI? I’m your father, and because you apparently haven’t learned a bloody thing since you were eighteen years old, I’m going to tell you that this arsehole is making a fool of you. Again. And this time, I don’t want to have to pick up the pieces.”
Lachlan said, “Oh, for f— for pity’s sake. This is stupid. Come in. We can’t stand around shouting in the street all night.”
I barely heard him. I asked my dad, “What if I say I love him? What will you do then?”
Lachlan said, “Wait.”
My dad said, “You can’t bloody love him! You barely know him!” Roaring for real, now.
I said, “I do know him. I know all about him. It’s what Oriana said. My assistant.”
“I don’t want to hear what your assistant said,” my father said. “Why are we talking about your assistant?”
“Because she said that you don’t really know people,” I tried to explain. “That you only know how they’re trying to make themselves out to be. You don’t know how they are with their parents and their families and their mates, and you don’t know how hard they work, but Idoknow that. I don’t just know how Lachlan is with me, I know how he is with his sisters, and with his mum, and with the girls, and even with Oriana. He’s kind, and he’s patient, and he’s … he’sthere.Even when he doesn’t want to be.”
“And you can judge this how?” my father asked. “Because you’ve been out with him a few times? Because he’s taught you what men want? You’re here in your mother’s dressing gown, the one she gave you when she was dying, with your hair loose, in a man’s flat in the middle of the night, and your children left alone? Do you think she’d be proud of you for having sex, not just when you’re not married, but with a man you barely know? Is that how she raised you? Is that what she taught you?”
Somehow, my arms were crossing. “I wasn’t going to have sex. Not that it’s your business. I’m sorry, Baba, but it’s not. It’s mine.”
“You weren’t going to have sex,” he said. “That’s why you’re half dressed. You weren’t asking him to go on and take off the other half.”
“He’d get a surprise if he did,” I said. “As I’m on my period, and it’s not pretty.”
40
NOT LIKE A HEN
Lachlan
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. My career was headed straight down the dunny, and I laughed.
But—wait. She’d said, what if shelovedme.
I wanted to find out what she’d meant. I wanted to hold her, but I also wanted to … I didn’t even know. I had too much emotion, which wasn’t one bit like me, and worse—I couldn’t sort out what any of it meant. I gave it up and said again, “Come inside. This is stupid.”
Drake said, “I’ll come inside, but Laila needs to go home and see to her children.”
