by Cat Mann
****
“Are you sure you’ll be alright?”
Julia responded with a head nod. The two of them, she and my father, stood close together at the back door in complete darkness.
“You’re welcome to stay the night, you know that, right?” He talked in whispers near her ear.
“I know. Rory will wonder where I am if I don’t go. I can’t keep lying.”
“Be safe. The others are still near, don’t let anyone see you.”
“I’ll stay down by the water.”
My dad wrapped his arms around Julia and brought her to his chest in a hug. Her shoulders fell and her knees sagged as she caved in toward him and cried. Julia’s hands clenched fistfuls of my dad’s shirt.
“I hate this,” she sobbed. “I hate what we are doing. I hate who we’ve become.”
“Me too,” he whispered back and laid a kiss on the top of her head.
Julia looked up over his shoulder and saw me staring at them from across the dimly lit room. Her eyes flashed, her grip immediately loosened, and she let go of him. She wiped her face dry and squeezed my father’s hand then disappeared in to the black night, pulling the hood from a black sweatshirt over her head.
My dad turned coolly around, nodded his head at me and then in the direction of the back hall towards his office.
A small pile of legal folders sat to the side of one open file containing a fat stack of documents. The tab was marked with a small x circled in black marker. My father closed the folder and placed it on top of the others with a heavy sigh.
“I was working before she came by.”
“It’s three in the morning.”
“I am aware of the hour, thank you, Ari.” He shoved his palms into his eye sockets and rubbed his eyes, then raked his fingers through his hair.
“What was Julia doing here?”
“She came by to talk.” Slowly he spun his wedding band around his finger.
“Bullshit. Tell me what’s wrong. What are you two doing?”
“How is Ava?” He changed the subject on me. “Did she speak with Dr. Phillips?”
“It’s really none of your business.”
The skin around his eyes pulled into crowfeet like wrinkles. He rubbed the scruff on his cheek and gave me a cloudy answer, “You don’t need to concern yourself with Julia, you’ve got your own issues to deal with.”
“Is she in trouble?”
“She has me in her corner. I plan to help her navigate this path.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that you have your own life and your focus should be on Ava and Max. Not Julia.” He tried to force a reassuring smile up his lips, but the look wasn’t convincing. “How is Ava dealing with the break-in that happened today? Is she okay?” He changed the subject back to Ava again and I allowed it.
“I’m not sure. I know she’s upset but I can’t help but feel as if she is keeping something from me. What happened today wasn’t a normal vandalism. This was vicious and cruel. Every photo of Ava and me was ripped in two -- right down the middle. It was a message. She has to be keeping something from me. She has to know something.”
“What could she know that you wouldn’t? Ava wouldn’t keep things from you.”
“No. 8! No 9! No 23!” I yelled in a half whisper as a spasm of panic took over me. “Whatever kind of name she wants to give these, these demons. She knows someone is out there hunting her and she isn’t telling us.”
“There were seven Kakos, Ari, no more. Ava wouldn’t a keep a secret like that -- not anymore. Not with a baby and Max to worry about. You need to put your trust in her.” He exhaled and released a puff of breath from his pressed lips and then looked down on me with pity and with sorry eyes. “Perhaps the detective was right, maybe this act was done by someone with a passion … an obsession.” He looked back at me, straight in my eyes as if he were telling me something.
“An obsession?”
“Yes.”
“Some crazed person, obsessed with Ava, walked into our home just to rip up our pictures. I don’t believe it.”
“Maybe you've stated the situation inaccurately.” He spun his ring again.
I pushed up from the chair with clenched fists and a tight jaw. Nausea churned and made my head spin again and I turned away from him and left his office.
Back in the bedroom, I stumbled in the dark on our overnight bag, which had been blocking the air-conditioner vent and when I did, a cool rush of air shot up from the opening with a hiss.
Max had spread completely out with his arms and legs taking up the majority of my side of the bed. Ava was curled up and facing him, leaving me with the other side of the mattress, the side no one ever slept on. I snuck carefully onto the bed, trying my best not wake the two people I love the very most in the universe and I curled up with Ava, spooning her. My arm draped lightly across her body where my hand rested on her belly. Ava sighed in her sleep and inched back, pressing her body into my chest. I rubbed my face into her hair and silently thanked God for bringing her to me. I prayed for her and for Max and for the three of us until I fell into a dreamless sleep.