“The bruise covering Ollie’s face right now isn’t very small,” I retaliated. “And not the police, then, but someone else. There are helplines for this kind of thing, you know,” I reminded her, trying to calm my temper. Of course it wasn’t as simple as I was making out. I wasn’t the one who knew anything about him, or the one who was being abused by him. “I just want to help,” I finally breathed, sighing heavily.
“I know, honey,” she admitted, coming over and wrapping her arms around me in a tight hug. “It’s just more complicated than being able to tell the police and that sorting everything out. I’ll look into it, though. He won’t do anything stupid in the short term, I know that now. If he took Lily he’d be shooting himself in the foot because they’d catch him eventually. I’ll ring a hotline, or something, or look on the internet about how to approach this.”
“I’m sorry for snapping,” I apologised meekly, returning her embrace. “It’ll turn out okay. I’m sorry I didn’t realise earlier.”
"This isn't your fault at all. Don't even think that at all."
"Okay," I conceded, my entire body beginning to sag with fatigue. "And they won’t hurt Ollie again as long as I don’t take Lily there.”
“That’s good. I really had no idea that they’d do that, otherwise I never would have told you to go.”
“I know, mum,” I murmured, my anger almost completely dissipated and replaced with a deep set worry. As much as I knew my mum was right and that she needed to do this sensibly, part of me still wanted to just grab the phone and ring the police, where I knew that there’d at least be some quick results.
I didn’t like seeing my mum get hurt and I didn’t like feeling so helpless. Now I just had to hope that this would all sort itself out sooner rather than later.
Chapter Eighteen
Annoyingly similar features and a scowling face wasn't what I was expecting when I exited the school grounds. "What are you doing here?"
My father showed no sign that he'd even heard me speak. "I want you to tell me everything you know about this bastard that's hurt your mother." Clenched fists and a curled lip made my dad's anger less than subtle and I resisted the urge to back away from him. This was another kind of anger altogether from what I’d seen at the restaurant and it didn’t look pretty.
"How did you find out about that?" I chose to question instead. I suspected he wasn't stupid enough to do anything right outside a school where people were still filtering out. "And how did you get back to England so quick? I only found out yesterday."
"My mum told me," he snapped, as if I was stupid. "Now are you going to tell me, or what?"
Frowning, I wondered what exactly my dad had planned. He was hardly a spring chicken anymore and Nick was both young and ripped. "I really don't know that much," I admitted. "My mum didn't exactly want to talk about it."
My dad let out an aggravated sigh. "Just tell me everything and I'll get out of your way Maddie. I'm not trying to annoy you."
I supposed there was no harm in it. Nick most certainly deserved whatever was coming to him and I couldn't say that I cared whether or not my dad got into trouble. If it meant my mum was safe, this was win-win.
"He's called Nick." Though he most likely knew that. "He's pretty young, like maybe 25?" My age estimating wasn't brilliant. "He's got loads of tattoos. In fact, he looks like a stereotypical prick," I barked out a breath of humourless laughter. "Wearing sunglasses in the middle of winter and stuff."
"Do you know anything else? Hair colour?"
"Actually, I don't," I admitted. "I think he's pretty close to having a shaved head. Him and a crony beat up my friend, though, so I could ask him what the other guy looked like if that helps."
"Wow," My dad let out a low whistle. "What is she doing with a wanker like that? How did she even meet him?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. I don't know anything about their relationship. They're not together now, you know?" I checked. "This is just because of Lily."
"I know," he stated, voice grim. Then it changed to slight surprise, an expression that looked utterly foreign on his aged face. "I take it by friend, you meant teacher," he commented as Ollie approached, arms laden with books.
"Maybe," I muttered, not particularly wanting to meet either men's eyes.
"What's up?" Ollie inquired after my dad had gestured for him to come over.
"He wants to know about Nick," I explained.
Ollie looked sceptical. "Is he going to do something stupid?"
"Probably," I responded immediately. "Did I tell you he hit my mum too?" I figured that would be enough to make him go along with whatever my dad was after.
An angry wrinkle formed in Ollie's forehead. "You're kidding? What a piece of shit."
"Exactly," my dad interjected his way back into the conversation. "Which is why I want to know everything so I can go and teach him not to be."
Ollie still looked like he'd rather not be involved in this. "There's the police," he reminded us. "And hotlines. This doesn't need to get nasty."
"Ineffective," my father dismissed. "And Ruth isn't the type of woman to use them, anyway. I'm sure you've talked to her about it, Maddie."
"He's kind of right," I had to admit. "She promised she'd look into the hotlines, but I'm not convinced. She just doesn't want Lily to get hurt."
"Okay, fine," Ollie reluctantly agreed. "But can we talk somewhere that isn't here, because it looks kind of weird. And also my arms are starting to hurt."
I chuckled and my dad nodded. "We'll drive to a café." He decided. "Do you remember the place we've been to a couple of times with your gran on Plant Street?" He checked with me. "We can go there, since it's on the outskirts. You should go with him so he has directions."
I glanced at Ollie. I wasn't really supposed to get in my teacher's car with him, but everyone had left the school by now anyway. "Sure," Ollie answered for me. "Let's go, then."
Ollie looked particularly wary and I double checked there was no one to see us several times before we exited the car park rather hastily. "This isn't a good idea," he informed me bluntly. "What do you think he's going to do?"
Sighing, I ran a hand through my hair. "I don't know," I admitted. "And I don't really care. I don't think he's going to kill him or anything, if that's what you're thinking, but if he can get rid of this guy then I don't really care how. My mum doesn't deserve anything like this."
Ollie gave a brisk nod. "Okay. You've won me over."
I chuckled. "I'm still not sure how he just ditched work this fast to fly back over here, though," I frowned. "Unless my gran knew ages ago and it's just coincidental timing."
"I don't know, but I still don't like him."
"Me neither. That's why I don't really care whether he's going to do something that gets him in trouble or not. As long as it's good for my mum, I'm not concerned about anything else."
"Has he really been that bad? I mean, I'm just basing my opinion on that time in the restaurant. He's still your dad."
"I barely know him. Maybe he isn't that bad, but how would I know? I've spoken to him less than ten times my entire life."
"I guess," Ollie conceded. "I just can't really imagine that. I've been around a large family my entire life. Even though my parents are kind of suffocating, I still love them."
"I don't hate him and it’s not that I dislike him because he's apparently violent. I don't like that he's not made the effort to see me. That's the only thing. I'm not judging whatever bad qualities he has. I'm not wishing he was perfect. I just wish I actually knew him. That's the only reason I don't care."
"I know what you mean," Ollie assured me, pulling up where I'd pointed. "Let's get this over and done with then, I guess."
My father seemed to have a permanent scowl on his face and I wondered why he was so bothered. This was even worse than when he'd found out about Lily. Of course it was completely unacceptable what Nick had done, but my dad had definitely taken this personally.
After ordering drink
s, the three of us sat around a table in the corner of the empty café. "So, what did his friend look like?" My dad began the questioning.
Ollie gave as much information as he could, including what their voices were like, what was actually on his tattoos, down to the brand of his sunglasses.
“Why exactly did these guys attack you?” My dad inquired.
“Mum told me to get out of the house with Lily because Nick was coming over and I couldn’t think of anywhere else to go. My friends were all busy.” I tried to keep my tone as nonchalant as possible, but there was going to be no passing off this situation as normal.
“He’s your teacher,” my father deadpanned. “How do you even know where he lives?”
“We just became friends in summer,” I dismissed my dad’s questions, actually hoping to get back onto the topic of Nick. This was the first time I’d had to attempt to justify mine and Ollie’s friendship. It was kind of weird. “And then it turned out he was my teacher. We’re allowed to stay friends.”
There was a dangerous glint in my dad’s eyes at his next sentence. “If you’ve laid your hands on my daughter-”
“Dad!” I cried in protest. “You can’t accuse him of that.” Then I grimaced. “And I don’t really think you have the right to dictate who does and doesn’t put their hands on me anyway.”
“So he has?”
“No,” I complained. “That’s not the point,” I scowled, ignoring Ollie’s flushed face as best I could. He just looked too cute when he blushed. "What are you actually going to do?" I couldn't help but inquire, effectively dragging the conversation away from Ollie and me. I had been joking earlier about him killing Nick, but my dad looked like his patience had been tested even by listening to the description of their appearances.
"Some friends and I are going to go round to his house and make him realise that he shouldn't be picking on an innocent woman," he informed me in a dark voice, a small smirk twisting around his mouth. I was starting to think he might actually be insane. Perhaps I'd made a mistake after all. "I'm not going to do anything ridiculous," he rolled his eyes at my horrified expression. "But I'm certainly going to do everything I can to get him to leave her alone."
Wiping some condensation off my cup absentmindedly, I pondered whether it was better to just leave it or not. "How do you still have friends in Sheffield when you haven't even lived here for sixteen years? It's not like you even visit often."
He appeared moderately surprised by my question. "I have friends.”
"Friends who are willing to go and threaten someone?" I pushed sceptically.
"You really know absolutely nothing about me, do you?"
"I-what?" My eyebrows furrowed. Well, that certainly wasn't what I'd been expecting. "You don't exactly come to see me. How would I have gotten to know you?"
"Only because your mother didn't want me to be around you," he confessed with a slight shrug. "I'm in Sheffield far more often than you realise, apparently."
My eyes widened at this new discovery. Of course I'd understood my mum's desire to keep Lily away from this violent guy she was seeing now, but my dad didn't quite fit into a category that bad - as far as I knew. "Why not?" He also didn't seem like the kind of person who would just do whatever was asked of him. "And how do you afford to travel to and from Dubai that often? If you're actually a millionaire then I'm seriously missing out on some funds."
"If I tell you, you'd better not let your mother know about this," he warned. "She didn't want me to tell you, but I guess you're old enough, anyway."
"Go on," I prompted impatiently, dying to know the truth now. I tried to ignore the bitter thoughts towards my mother that were seeping in for apparently having lied to me.
"I don't live in Dubai," he admitted, a wary expression having taken over his face. "I live in Nottingham."
I gaped unattractively and Ollie looked like he was torn between either joining me or laughing at my reaction. "You've been living a forty five minute drive away from me this whole time?" I demanded, aghast. Well, now he really had no excuse for not seeing me.
"Your mother didn't want me near you," he repeated his earlier reasoning defensively. "Not after I was put in prison."
My eyes were practically bulging out of my head at this point. "What did you do?" I struggled to keep my voice down. "If it was murder then I'm going to seriously regret giving you this information."
My dad rolled his eyes. "Obviously not. It was for possession of cocaine," he explained, not looking as embarrassed as I would have done at admitting that so readily.
Ollie's expression was barely being kept neutral at this point and I wasn't even attempting to do the same.
"A few months after you were born, I was put in prison for four years. I didn't want my mum to know, so your mother and I agreed that we'd tell everyone I got a job in Dubai that was too good to turn down and I'd moved there. It wasn't ideal, but your mother thought it saved her some embarrassment and it kept my mum under the impression that her son wasn't a criminal."
"You lied to everyone," I clarified bluntly.
"Yes,” he levelled his eyes with mine, daring me to challenge his judgment. "And so you can see why your mother didn't want me near you. I didn't think it was fair to go against her wishes and I couldn't stay around here anyway since I was supposedly living in Dubai. I've lived in Nottingham since I got out, so don't worry, I have plenty of friends willing to help me out."
I frowned. "But if you were only in Nottingham, how didn't you know about Lily for so long?"
"I was in prison again for a year," he explained. "So I didn't hear the news."
"Well," I breathed. "I certainly wasn't expecting that." I was just going to assume that he’d been back to jail for dealing or possession again, rather than something more sinister.
My emotions were so confused that I'd almost defaulted into sarcasm. I wasn’t sure whether this gave me adequate reason to hate my dad or not. It was fairly hypocritical if I did, considering the fact I wasn’t exactly against drugs.
Then there was my mother. She’d stopped me from getting to know my dad. Admittedly, my apparently angry, morally ambiguous dad.
It was all a bit too much for me to just take in right now. “I’m still not sure whether I should’ve told you or not,” he admitted, watching me carefully. My mixed emotions were probably obvious. “And I think that’s me done. I’ll see if anyone recognises the description, or anything,” he acknowledged, the scary smirk twisting its way onto his face again.
“Okay.” I replied, gulping down the last few mouthfuls of my drink and glancing at Ollie. His uncomfortable posture was enough to let me know that he wanted to get out of here as much as I did after this revelation. “Well, I might, erm, see you later then, I guess,” I fumbled, frowning. Did that mean my dad would want to see me more, now that I knew? Or did everything continue as normal? I just wanted it to go back to summer.
“See you later. Thanks for the info. I’m going to stay and have another coffee, but I’m sure your mother will be wondering where you are.”
“Right,” I agreed, whilst Ollie gave an awkward sort of nod to my father. “Thanks for telling me the truth.”
“You deserved to know.”
“Well,” Ollie dragged out the syllable when we were both strapped into his car, the engine running. “Are you okay?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t think I’ve processed everything yet.”
“I guess it’s like you said, you didn’t really know him that well. Maybe this is a chance for you to get to know him better, if you wanted to.”
“My dad’s a criminal,” I said it out loud. “What am I even supposed to say to that? And then I feel like I’m kind of being a hypocrite considering I do drugs sometimes. I mean, do you think I can really afford to judge?”
Ollie shrugged and we finally set off driving. I figured he’d been waiting to see if he needed to hug me, making me realise I probably should have pretended to be more upset to reap the benefits. “I
suppose. He did go to prison, though,” he let out a long sigh. “I guess it’d be kind of hypocritical for me to judge, too.” Then he snorted. “I slept with my student, so I’m in no position to say anything.”
I smirked. “I think I’m going to be okay,” I assured him with a small chuckle. “It’s just going to be hard to not say anything to my mum. I’m glad Nick will hopefully be out of her way now.”
“Yeah,” Ollie agreed. “It’ll probably all work out okay.”
I was almost certain he couldn’t have picked a more ominous sentence.
Her Teacher's Temptation Page 14