by Saba Kapur
“No,” Jack replied roughly. “You didn’t.”
“Oh silly me,” Frank said, handing the check to AJ. “That check’s not gonna cut it.”
“What?” Jack exclaimed. “No bank just hands you five million dollars on such short notice! It doesn’t work like that!”
“It’s okay, Jack.” Dad said in a surprisingly calm voice. “I’ll give you whatever you want, Frank. Just please let my daughter go.”
“Well that doesn’t seem fair,” Frank replied. “First, you show up late—”
“We’re early!” Jack cried.
“Then you don’t even have what I asked for. And now you want me to give you the one thing I have over you, right now? Yeah, no thanks. I think I’ll keep her tied for a bit longer.”
“Come on, Frank!” Dad said, his desperation beginning to show. “What happened to you? We used to be best friends. Brothers. And now this is what it’s come to?”
“Really breaks your heart, doesn’t it?” Frank sneered, stepping closer to Dad. “Poor Harry and his poor little girl. Well guess what? You got yourself into this mess the moment you chose your fame over your best friend. Your so-called brother.”
Frank spat the word “brother” out like venom. All his cheeriness had disappeared from his face, and in its place was only hatred. It was at that point that I realized Frank was beyond the hope of reason. We just needed to figure out a way to get around him and run.
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about!” Dad cried, throwing his hands in the air in frustration. “You keep yelling about how I betrayed you, when all I did was support you!”
“Support me?” Frank said with a scoff. “So you were supporting me when you convinced Marty to give you a once in a lifetime role that made your career? A role that was given to me first!”
“What role?” Dad cried out in exasperation. “I don’t understand!”
“Piece of My Heart!” Frank shot back, his loud voice echoing off the set walls. “That role was mine and you took it from me! You left me with nothing!”
Dad’s face filled with confusion. “You were offered the lead in Piece of My Heart?”
“Oh come on!” Frank exclaimed, glaring at Dad. “Don’t act so surprised. You’re not that good of an actor.”
“Frank, I swear,” Dad said firmly. “I didn’t know!”
“So you’re telling me,” Frank began. “That you didn’t know I was offered the part? And that you didn’t know Marty came to me, told me they decided to go with you instead. That they held another audition for you upon your request for a second chance, and they gave it to you instead of me.”
“Yes!” Dad cried. “That’s exactly right. I didn’t know any of that! And they never held another audition for me!”
Frank shook his head in disbelief. “You’re lying.”
“Frank,” Dad said, steadying his voice. “I swear to you. I didn’t know you got offered the role. You never even told me!”
“You never gave me a chance!” Frank snapped. “Nobody did. They just handed you the role like you got handed everything else.”
“That’s not fair!” Dad said angrily.
“Oh give it a rest!” Frank replied, his irritation growing. “We both know that if you hadn’t gotten that role then you would have made it big anyway! Your father was huge in the theatre! He probably helped you get that second audition.”
“Frank, be reasonable,” Dad said. “If what you’re saying is true, then why did I need to steal your role? Why did I need another audition?”
Everyone fell silent as we thought about how logical his argument was. I made eye contact with Jack, who just stared back at me. He was as lost as I was.
“I don’t need to know your reasons,” Frank finally said. “All that matters is that you stole my life from me! I was completely invisible to everyone after that! Every audition, every opportunity! It was just taken away!”
Dad opened his mouth to say something but Jack got there first. “If I may,” he said, holding up his palms so that the argument would stop. “I think you should talk to this Marty guy. Clearly he seems to be the cause of this misunderstanding.”
“We can’t,” Dad replied with a sigh, looking at his hands. “He had a heart attack about twelve years ago and died.”
“Karma, I’d like to think,” Frank said, a hint of a smile across his lips.
Fantastic. The one man who seemed to really be at fault here was conveniently not alive to deal with the mess he created. Just swell.
“Well,” Jack said, awkwardly. “Okay then.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered anyway,” Frank scoffed. “Marty always played favorites with Harry.”
“He was our agent, Frank!” Dad exclaimed, frustration growing in his voice. “If he really liked me more than you, then he wouldn’t have even told you about the audition in the first place!”
“Ye—” Frank began, but Dad cut him off.
“And maybe he would have like you better,” Dad continued. “If you hadn’t been messing around with his wife!”
I inhaled sharply without realizing, and whispered oh snap to myself. Frank had his very own Mrs. Robinson situation! I knew there had to be a more scandalous aspect to the whole equation. Ao Jie Kai, who had been so silent I had forgotten he was there, shifted uncomfortably from one foot to another.
“What?” Frank said, his voice becoming dead quiet. “What did you say?”
“Oh come on, Frank!” Dad said, shaking his head lightly. “We were best friends! You think I didn’t know you and Monica were doing something?”
Frank’s body went stiff as he looked at Dad in surprise. “T—That’s . . . Y—You never said anything.”
“You were happy,” Dad replied with a light shrug. “I mean, I didn’t think it was a great idea, but I figured it was none of my business.”
Suddenly everything became clear. Frank must have been offered the lead role in Piece of My Heart and in his happiness, he went and told Marty’s wife first. Somehow, Marty must have found out about his wife, who I was desperately hoping was not like a sixty-year-old woman back then, and taken his revenge on Frank by blacklisting him. He probably called the producers, made up some story so they would drop Frank, and convinced them to go for my father instead. I guess it was just easier for Marty to lie to everyone than confront Frank and let him know the truth.
My theory clearly seemed to be shared by Frank, who was shaking his head as if rejecting the possibility that he could be the one to blame for his own misfortune.
“It doesn’t matter now,” Frank said, shaking his head even harder. “None of it matters anymore.”
“Fran—” Dad began, calmly extending his hand toward his ex-friend.
“No!” Frank cried, slapping Dad’s hand away. “Don’t you dare pity me!”
In what seemed like a blink of an eye, Frank reached for something tucked into the back of his jeans hidden under his jacket and pulled out a revolver, aiming it at my dad.
“Frank!” AJ exclaimed, shooting him an alarmed look. “What the hell?”
“The money isn’t going to cut it anymore,” Frank declared, his hand shaking a little as he tightened his grasp on the gun.
“Frank!” AJ hissed, coming up next to him in a panic. “Come on man, this wasn’t part of the plan!”
“Let’s be reasonable, Frank,” Jack said, his voice surprisingly steady. “No need to do anything stupid.”
“I’m done being reasonable!” Frank snapped. “Someone has to pay for what happened!”
Everyone was quiet for a few seconds, as Frank considered his options. I watched carefully, moving only my eyes. It’s one thing to watch someone point a gun at your dad in a movie. It’s a whole other thing to watch it play out in reality, where the possibility of him getting killed is a lot higher. Every part of my body was aching
with fear.
“Frank,” Dad said calmly. “If you want to shoot me, then do it. But please let Gia go.”
I gave Dad an are you serious look, but he wasn’t looking at me. His eyes were now glued to the gun that was pointed at him.
“Fine,” Frank said. “Works for me.”
“Wait, what?” I exclaimed in alarm, and everyone looked at me. “Are you insane?”
“Gia!” Jack shot me a warning glare, but I ignored him.
“No!” I cried. “That’s ridiculous! You didn’t even do anything wrong, Dad! He can’t just shoot you!”
Jack mouthed my name angrily and shook his head. I probably should have listened to him and calmed down a little, given that I was yelling at a guy who was pointing a gun at my father. But it felt like a little part of me had snapped. Although the timing was inconvenient, I was getting real sick of being stalked, scared and tormented. Especially now that I knew it was all done by a maniac who really only had himself to blame for everything that went wrong in his life. And if I’m being really honest here, Piece of My Heart was a pretty lame movie. Dad couldn’t pull off the doctor look, and the scene transitioning was nothing to brag about. If you’re going to hold a grudge, at least make it worth your while.
Plus, the way Frank’s hand was shaking as he held that gun, it was clear he didn’t really want to shoot any of us. He was good at making threats, but not great at acting on them. He had been stalking me for over two months, with multiple opportunities to make a move, and he still hadn’t done any major damage. If he wanted to hurt me, he would have by now. It was definitely a crazy risk to take, but the way I saw it, I didn’t have too many options.
“Gia, it’s fine,” Dad said.
“How is it fine?” I practically yelled. I turned my attention to Frank, who was still aiming the gun in my dad’s direction. “None of this is fine! Even you know he didn’t do anything!”
I didn’t care about the dangers at that point. Frank’s hand was beginning to shake again violently, which meant my words were hitting home. It even began to lower ever so slightly. There was still hope.
“Gi—”
“Shut up, Jack!” I said while I glowered at Frank, “You don’t get to stalk me for months, ruin my life, kidnap me, tie me to a chair, destroy my dress, steal my phone and now shoot my dad all because you couldn’t keep it in your pants a million years ago!”
“GIA.” Jack’s voice had risen in volume.
“You really think that killing my dad is going to make it all better?” I demanded angrily. “At the end of the day, you’ll still know the truth. You’ll know you only have yourself to blame for your life!”
“That’s enough, Gia,” Dad said quietly, but there wasn’t enough strength in it to stop me from finishing.
“He’s had a full career. Everyone will mourn him. The whole world will cry! Everyone respects him! That’s something you’ll never have, even if you try to take it from someone at gunpoint. At the end of the day you’ll always be what you are inside.”
“GIA!”
“Nothing! A completely worthless nobody!”
My words echoed across the set walls, as I snapped my mouth shut. I may have overdone it slightly, and made him more angry than before. Which isn’t great because if he shot my dad it would be my fault. If he shot me, it would suck an equal amount. If he shot Jack then Jack would probably shoot me in revenge. So either way the plan wasn’t looking so great anymore.
“It seems,” Frank finally said, eyes locked on me. “That bringing the blonde one here was a bit of a waste. He couldn’t shut you up after all. Should’ve tried the cop.”
Frank’s gun slowly rose once more so that it was staring at my dad’s chest, eager for someone to pull on the trigger. I stopped breathing, not daring to look at Jack. My heart had constricted so much, I was scared it had shrivelled up completely and evaporated. I had officially sealed my father’s death, and there was no emotion to describe the pain that brought with it.
“Shut her up,” Frank snapped at Ao Jie Kai, his eyes still on me.
AJ reluctantly walked over to me, mumbling something to himself. If there was anyone who felt unhappiest about this whole thing, it was probably Ao Jie Kai. But he had gotten himself into the mess, so my sympathy levels were pretty low.
“There’s no need for you to keep Gia,” Dad said, as I watched AJ approach me almost sheepishly. “You’re already getting your revenge.”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” Frank replied, his eyes narrowed with fury.
“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Jack said, launching at Frank and knocking the gun out of his hands.
Frank watched his gun hit the floor in surprise, but Jack wasn’t done yet. He grabbed Frank by neck of his jacket and dragged him backward.
“What the hell . . .” AJ said, turning to face Jack, who was struggling with Frank.
I did some quick thinking and slipped my hands out of the rope as fast as I could. I clasped one hand on each side of the chair seat and lifted myself up as though I was awkwardly bowing. With my ankles still tied to the legs of the chair, I clumsily launched at Ao Jie Kai, ramming my chair into him as hard as I could. I gave out a small yelp as he crumpled to the floor in surprise, clutching his arm in pain. I watched him roll around in pain for a few seconds, slightly apologetic for coming at him full force with a chair. But then Dad came rushing up to help and I realized I didn’t feel so bad any more.
“Untie your legs!” Dad instructed, and I obediently placed the back legs of the chair back on the ground. “I’ll deal with this.”
Dad punched AJ in the face, and blood immediately began spurting out of his nose.
“Dad!” I cried in disgust, but I didn’t blink once. “You’ve got blood on your Givenchy suit!”
Once Brendan had gotten into a fight with some guy he met at a party, and kicked the crap out him. But in that moment, I was glad Brendan had never gone head to head with my dad. My father had a mean punch.
“Untie yourself!” Dad barked, flexing his hand.
There was blood on Dad’s knuckles, and I watched as he wiggled his fingers with a wince. He had probably broken his hand, or cracked something at the very least. Ao Jie Kai was in a slightly worse off situation, as was his nose, which was most definitely a goner.
I snapped myself into attention and began clawing at the ropes on my ankles. In the distance I could hear Jack and Frank struggling with each other, but I forced myself to work on freeing my ankles from the ropes. I wasn’t much help if I was still tied up. I wasn’t much help period, but the freedom to walk would definitely come in handy.
“I’m going to go help,” Dad told me hurriedly. “Are you okay here?”
“I’m fine.”
“Are you su—”
“Yes! Go!”
I watched as he rushed over to Jack, who was wrestling with Frank on the ground, trying to keep the gun out of reach. If Frank got his hands on that gun, he would be far from willing to let us go without a scratch. I wrenched my left leg free from the rope, ignoring the pain my foot was in. The heels didn’t exactly help the raw skin around my ankles, identical to that on my wrists. One ankle was free, just one more to go. And now thanks to Dad, AJ didn’t seem to be much of a threat anymore. He was struggling to just stay conscious.
“Finally!” I whispered in relief, as I tugged the remaining rope off my ankle and threw it on the ground.
I jumped up from the chair, my gown falling to floor length again. Beautiful as it was, it wasn’t really appropriate attire for kicking ass. I pushed the chair away; ready to help in any way I could when I felt something yank my gown so hard that I almost fell over. I looked down to see Ao Jie Kai, writhing in pain but attempting to hold me back with a surprisingly strong hold.
“Get. Off. My. Dress!” I cried, enunciating each word with a tug.
AJ was bad
ly hurt, and slowly running out of energy. He would probably give up in a minute, but that was a minute I didn’t have. I sank to the floor, yanking on the dress in frustration.
“Seriously?” I looked at him with exasperation. “You and I both know you don’t even want to be here! So just let go so we can all move on with our lives!”
After a few more pain-filled groans, AJ’s bloodied hand unclenched and moved to his nose, which was looking worse by the second. If he thought a broken bone and a prison cell were going to get him out of the dry cleaning bill I’d be mailing him, he had another thing coming. I was in the process of scrambling to my feet when the sound of a loud bang stopped me. I hit the ground instinctively, clenching my eyelids shut as I lay my cheek onto the cold set floor.
My heart was beating so fast; I was scared it would burst through my chest. I was no expert, but my dad had been in enough action movies for me to immediately recognize the source of the noise. A gunshot. After a few long seconds of heavy silence, I sat up breathlessly. Jack and my father rose slowly from the ground, backing away from Frank who had the gun pointed at the ceiling. Thankfully the bullet had hit the roof and nothing or no one else. Jack was bleeding a little near his right eye, Frank’s cheek looked a little too red and Dad’s shirt was ripped. They looked like they were part of some well-dressed fight club, breathing heavily with bowties and clenched fists.
In what felt like a millisecond after, the sound of chaos filled the set. I turned to look behind me, as police officers and men in black uniforms came swarming in from doors I didn’t even know existed.
“FREEZE,” one yelled.
“PUT YOUR WEAPON ON THE GROUND,” another instructed, rushing closer to us.
I turned once again, just in time to see another team of men making their way through the door I had first spotted as my best escape route. They were all yelling out instructions to Frank, who was looking around the set with a panicked look on his face. None of the agents were nearly close enough to wrestle the gun out of Frank’s hand like Jack had done before, but they were getting there.
“SIR, I SAID DROP YOUR WEAPON.”
I had time to only blink once when I head another gunshot, then another and another. I clapped my hand over my eyes and let out a scream. The ringing in my ears was so harsh I wanted to cry. It was finally the sound of something clattering to the floor that forced me to face Frank again, the yelling around me growing louder. I removed my hands from my eyes cautiously and saw Frank was on his knees, his fingers laced together behind his head. He didn’t look injured at all. My eyes trailed to the gun lying next to him, and the body lying a few feet away from it.