Page 55 of Daughter of a Monster

“Yes.” He folds his arms across his chest, mimicking my stance. I expect him to apologize or perhaps give some explanation for what happened the other day but he doesn’t.

“It appears your mother has got hold of the phone number for one of my clubs. She’s been driving them insane with her phone calls demanding to talk to you, even though this particular club is situated in another country and the staff have no idea who you are.”

“Oh.” That wasn’t at all what I had expected.

“Follow me and I’ll show you my office where you can return her call. That way she might stop harassing my staff.”

He turns and walks away without waiting to see if I’m following. He doesn’t look back as he strides the passageways that lead to his office, then he simply points to the phone.

“There. Dial one to get an outside line.”

He doesn’t allow me any privacy, instead tidying a pile of paperwork on his desk. Turning my back to him, I dial my mother’s number.

She answers. “Hello?” And with just that one word I can hear the desperation.

“It’s me.”

“Oh, Berkley.” Her relief is palpable, even over the phone. “Where are you? Are you okay? Did you get my messages?”

“I’m fine.” I flick a glance over at Jericho. He’s pretending not to listen as he shuffles papers on his desk, but I know he is. I lower my voice. “There’s just no cell reception here.”

“So you didn’t get my messages?”

“No. I mean, yes. I did.” There’s a pause as my mother takes in this information. I know she wants to call out my contradiction, ask why I didn’t call if I got her messages. “I tried to leave you a voicemail. Did you get it?”

“No. I didn’t.” Her voice is clipped and sharp. But then she lets out a big sigh. “I’ve been so worried about you, Everly.”

“Please don’t call me that.” She sighs again. “I’m sorry I haven’t called much but I’m fine. Honestly.”

“Much? You haven’t called at all.” She swallows and I can hear the movement of her throat down the line. “You know about your father then?”

“Yeah, I know.”

Jericho pushes a chair over the wooden beams of the floor and I sink down into it, grateful for somewhere to fall. My mother keeps talking.

“I’ve been so worried about you. When I didn’t hear from you and then the reports came about your father disappearing …” She lets her voice fade away to nothing and I squeeze my eyes closed, hard enough that it hurts.

I’m so selfish. Of course my mother was worried. When my father went missing she would have been terrified, and here I’ve been hiding away in a fucking castle and ignoring what’s happening to my family.

“I’m fine, honestly,” I say the words quietly, like a whisper, because it hurts as they come out. “I’ve been busy teaching.” I swallow the knot of guilt in my throat. “Are you okay?”

I look over at Jericho, who’s rearranging the pens and pencils on his desk intently. He’s still acting as though he’s not listening but he may as well pick up one of the newspapers and peer through cut holes.

“It’s like he’s disappeared from the face of the planet,” she says, her voice shaking. “No one has a clue. I think he’s done it to avoid going back to jail. There’s no way they would have let him stay free.”

“There’s no way he should’ve ever been let out in the first place.”

“I think you should come home. We can protect you here. There are police stationed outside. They accompany me even if I just pop to the store. It’s the safest place for us.”

I can imagine all the gossip floating around. The whispered words behind my back. The way everything will be brought to the fore again and I will become nothing buthischild. The daughter of a monster.

“I can’t.” I lower my voice. “I’ve given my word that I’ll stay here. I’m safe. The police know I’m here. He can’t get to me.” I pray desperately that I’m right. That Jericho has nothing to do with my father. That everything that’s happened so far, all the thoughts Gideon has planted in my mind, are nothing more than paranoia.

But that’s the problem with paranoia. Sometimes it’s real.

“I just want you to be safe.”

“I am.”

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