My dad stands next to Mr Ryland’s desk, his dark grey suit looking out of place amongst the Principal’s chaotic mess.
“Please sit, Miss West.” Principal Ryland’s voice is stern, but it has nothing on the one my dad directed at me earlier from his car. I shake my head in refusal.
“Sit down, Alexis.” And there it is. Deep and fierce, his tone even makes my principal flinch.
Squaring my shoulders and lifting my chin, I glare at my dad, allowing him to see the hate I have for him. Mr Ryland looks taken aback by my reaction but keeps his mouth shut.
“Alexis, I won’t ask you again. SIT!”
The venom in his growl makes me obey unwillingly, and I sit, my chest visibly heaving in frustration and anger. My dad steps forward holding a small cup of water out for me.
“Have a drink of water and take a moment to calm down.”
I frown but take the water and drink it trying to look compliant. If this is about the vandalism, then I need to be on my best behaviour.
“Ms West, your father has updated me on your…” he hesitates, looking sympathetic, “Condition.”
My brows shoot up, “Condition?”
“Yes. I’m sorry to hear that you’ve been having such a tough time coping with things, but I agree with your dad, school is not as important as your wellbeing, and it’s time for you to accept the help your family is offering.”
“Help? What help?” I snap, directing my question to the Principal but glaring at my dad, my anger evident. This has nothing to do with the vandalism and everything to do with my dad’s need to control me.
“Ms West, I ask that you remain calm while on the school grounds. I don’t want to call security, but I will if you don’t cooperate.”
That gets my attention. Shooting up from the chair, my body vibrates with alarm, and my eyes widen as I recognise what this situation actually is—an ambush. As I think this, the room starts to sway, and I frown, a feeling of lightness settling into my head.
I look to the empty cup I left abandoned on the chair and back to my dad. A look of smug satisfaction is on his face, and it’s then that I know I’m truly fucked.
I need to get to Ayden. I need someone to help me.
“What help?” The slur in my voice is mild, but I notice it, and so does my dad. I hate that he gets to hear it. I can’t tell where this conversation is going, but I know nothing good will come of it, especially since I’m pretty sure my dad gave me a spiked cup of water. Surely Principal Ryland will notice and help me?
“Go home with your father, Ms West. Take the time you need to deal with your condition. When you are well again, we will welcome you back with open arms.”
“My condition? What condition?” With a raised voice that has a more evident slur this time, I move to put more distance between my so-called dad and me, stepping behind the chair I’d been sitting in. My legs feel heavy and weak like they might give out at any second.
“There is nothing to be ashamed of, Ms West. Many people suffer from mental health issues.”
“What!” I screech, and Principal Ryland flinches. My dad, however, remains calm, which is almost scarier than him ranting and raving.
“Please, Mr Ryland,” I beg weakly, “I can’t go home with him. I’m not safe with him.”
Principal Ryland sighs, turning to my dad, “you were right.” My dad gives Mr Ryland a fake sombre nod. What the hell is he talking about? What was my dad right about?
“Alexis, your father filled me in on your situation, and he was afraid you would say that. Self-harming for attention is not healthy. You need to accept that you have a problem and go with your father.”
“Self-harming?” I choke out, tears stinging my eyes.
Principal Ryland looks at me knowingly, “Your arm, Alexis. You have caused harm to your arm by bruising yourself. That’s not normal. You need to accept help.”
“No! He did that.” I point to my dad as I try to back towards the door, needing to flee, but my legs nearly give out.
“I’m sorry, Mr Ryland, I had hoped we could avoid doing this the hard way, but it can no longer be avoided.” My dad uses his professional business tone with my Principal, still the epitome of calm and put together, while I am anything but.
“Yes, Mr West, I understand. Do what you need to do.” Mr Ryland gestures to what exactly, I don’t know, before moving around his desk, passing by me to leave the room.
Fuck this, I’m not sticking around to find out what my dad is going to do next. Turning on my heel the room spins and my legs give out sending me tumbling to the floor. I try to call out for help, but my words come out gibberish. Looking up, I see that a security guard is now in the room blocking the door, my only escape.
“Don’t make a scene, Alexis. It’s for your own good.” My dad’s words are the last thing I hear before my world plunges into darkness.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Pop’s, the little bitch is waking up.”
Mike’s revolting voice drags me abruptly out of the haze that has engulfed my body.
“Here, drink this.” Standing before me, holding out a glass of water, is the man I used to consider as my dad.
“Fuck you!” I spit, scattering as far back into the corner of the couch as I can.
“Suit yourself.” Sounding as if he couldn't care less, my dad puts the glass of water on the coffee table.
Being in the familiar living room should relax me since this is the home I grew up in, but with the two monsters lurking before me, this place is nothing like home. Looking around quickly, I see that yesterday’s trashed mess is now clean. The only sign of Mike’s attack on my mum is the holes that remain in the walls.
My eyes fall on Mike. His sick smirk sends chills down my spine as he leans against the wall across the room with cruelty in his eyes.
I gag.
“You feel sick?” Dad looks almost concerned.
I nod, hoping I still have some hope of reaching the loving dad who once doted on his daughter. If I can do that, then I might be able to escape to the safety of my room. Instinctively, I reach for the chain that hangs around my neck, holding the key to my bedroom. Only I don’t find it. It’s gone.
Mike snickers, noticing my reaction but stops the moment my dad glares at him.
“Alexis, I wish you hadn’t put me in this position. If you had of just stayed with me last night, or come with me this morning, then we could have avoided all of this.”
Tears threaten again, and I try hard to hold them back, not wanting them to see the effect they have on me.
“Where’s mum?” Mike scoffs at my question, and dad sighs.
“Your mother is being taken care of. No need to worry about her.” My dad’s answer is vague, and I can only hope she is still safe in the hospital.
“Is she in hospital?” I need to speak to her and find out what happened yesterday with Mike. I guess I also need to tell her what her husband has been doing. It will break her heart, but she has to know.
“She’s in the city now. I pulled some strings and got her into the new Lady Anne’s Women’s Hospital.”
Lady Anne’s isn’t a typical hospital. It’s a psychiatric hospital. That much, I know. My mum has been in hospitals like this before due to her drug use and instability. It means she’ll be on strict supervision and maybe even be put through detox. If that’s the case, they won’t allow her phone calls because her mental stability will be at risk.
The fact that my dad said he pulled some strings to get mum into the hospital in Melbourne concerns me. Has he done to my mum what he just did to me? Did he convince her doctors that she is mentally unstable like he convinced my principal I was? I don’t want to believe it, but it feels possible, now that I can see my dad for the monster he is.
I’m not safe here. I need to get away from both my dad and Mike.
“Where is my key?”
“Oh, you mean this key?” Mike dangles the key in question from his fat sausage fingers.
; “Give it back!”
“Alexis, the key is useless now. I’ve removed your bedroom door, along with the toilet and bathroom doors upstairs. Until you can prove you are mentally stable, you will have no privacy. We can’t take the risk of you harming yourself, therefore, you will be monitored at all times.”
Did my dad just say that the doors are gone? Surely I heard wrong?
“W-what? That makes no sense, dad! I am mentally stable!”
Sighing, my dad runs his hand through his hair in frustration, “No, Alexis, you're not. First, you make up some nonsense about Mike attacking your mother when it was actually an aggravated burglary. Then you accuse me of having an affair when I was having a business dinner. Not to mention how you ran off and slept god knows where last night. Let’s not forget about the ridiculous lies you told your friends and your principal, blaming me for the harm you caused to your own arm.”
What the actual fuck!
Red hot tears fall as each accusation slices through my heart. Why is my dad saying these things? He knows I’m telling the truth, so why would he say such lies about me?
“But…”
“NO!” My dad roars, “Just stop, Alexis. Shut your mouth and do as you are told for once!”
I flinch, his harsh tone catching me off guard. I hug my arms around my body, unable to control my whimpering, making me feel like a helpless child.
“Stop crying, damn it!” He lurches for me with his hand raised.
I recoil, crying out in fear as I see the rage on my dad’s face. Mike, the arsehole, laughs, egging dad on in the background which thankfully causes my dad to hesitate and not follow through. Who the fuck are these people?
“God damn it.” My dad bellows right before the glass of water he offered me earlier is hurled across the room, shattering against the wall. In all of my seventeen years, I have never once seen such temper in my dad. I don’t take my eyes off him as he stomps across the room, speaking quietly to Mike. I try to hear past the pounding pulse in my ears, but I can’t make out what he is saying. When he’s done, he returns his attention back to me.
“Here’s what’s going to happen, Alexis. You will stay in this house until I return on Monday after I’ve tied up some loose ends in the city. Mike will watch you until then. We have taken your laptop and phone, so you can’t contact your friends or your mother. You are grounded until you can prove obedience.”
My heart momentarily stops. “What? No! Daddy, no!” I beg, knowing I can’t stay here with Mike. “Please take me with you. I’ll be good, I promise. Please don’t leave me here!”
My pleading falls of deaf ears as I watch him turn and walk away.
“Mike, keep her in check. I’ll see you Monday.” With those final words, my dad picks up a bag near the door and walks out.
I scream! I use the loudest version of my voice, begging him to take me with him, but he doesn’t respond, even when I run across the room to catch up with him. I grip his arm in desperation, but he shakes it off in disgust as if I carry a contagious disease. The move pushes me backward, causing me to fall into Mike. He wraps his filthy arms around my waist and carries me kicking and screaming up the stairs. I flail, kicking wildly, my feet hitting the walls as he climbs. He’s too strong. My struggles are useless.
“Stop, would you!” Mike hisses, but I don’t stop. Never!
Reaching my room, Mike throws me onto my bed, the force causing me to roll off the other side, and I slam into my dresser. Pain shoots through my back and ribs, making me scream.
“Fucking stay here and keep quiet bitch. I’ll be back soon to check on you.”
When I hear Mike’s retreating footsteps, I push past the pain, and I scramble to my window for an escape. Disappointment seizes my throat like a strong hand wrapping around it when I see that my window has been fitted with a lock. My god, my dad, has thought of everything. He means to keep me a prisoner. The panic that thought brings pushes me to keep trying, so I tug at the lock, trying to open it without success.
Reality, the bitch that it is, sends me to the floor in a distraught heap. My mind races. I need to find a way out of this. Maybe when Mike’s asleep tonight I can sneak downstairs and escape out the front or back door. Where will I go then? Abbey’s? Ayden’s? What if their parents don’t believe me? Desperation and angst squeeze my chest painfully, and I struggle to breathe. I don’t know how long I stay like that on the floor. The crying, the screaming, the numbness, it’s all too consuming.
It’s not until I hear Mike’s footsteps coming up the stairs that I notice the sky outside is now dark. Shit. He’s coming back. Fear kicks me in motion, and I scramble up in time to see my brother standing in the doorway.
“You stink bitch, take your clothes off.”
“W-what?”
“You heard me!”
I shake my head, “No.”
“When are you going to realise that your life will be a nightmare until you submit? Now get your fucking clothes off and get in that bathroom. You need to shower.”
“I-I can d-do that myself. Y-you, don’t need to be here for t-that.”
Mike chuckles, “Nice try, princess. As if I’m going to miss watching you shower.”
Oh my god, this can’t be happening. I need to get out of here. I need Ayden. The thought slices my heart open. I was so close to happiness, so close to having something normal again. I finally found someone who cared enough to take time out of their day for me. Now, I’ll never have that. I’ll never have him.
I choke on a sob, and Mike huffs in frustration before stepping into my room. I back away frantically, trying to figure out how I can dodge him, but as I try to bolt, he grabs my arms, wrenching me back before slamming my face against the wall.
“Looks like you will be learning the hard way.” When I feel the gravel of his wet tongue run up the side of my face, I gag, not able to control the reaction. For that, Mike spins me to face him, and I get a stinging slap across the side of my face.
“If you throw up, I will make you lick it up, you filthy whore!”
My cheek is on fire from the force of Mike’s hand, but it is quickly forgotten when he grabs a fist full of my hair and starts dragging me. My hands automatically wrap around his wrists, trying to release his painful grip while my legs kick out frantically, trying to pull myself up without victory.
He doesn’t silence my screaming and seems to revel in it, laughing like a mad man. As Mike drags me by my hair down the hall and into the bathroom, the pain is excruciating before I sense warm moisture on my head. Drops of red spill over my eyelid, thick blood oozing down my cheek.
My face forcefully meets the cold tiles of the bathroom floor as Mike finally releases me. I try to scramble away, but he quickly drags me up by my arms, pushing me against the tiled wall.
“Get your fucking clothes off!” His spittle flies onto my face, and his vile breath hits me, nearly making me gag again. I hold my breath, trying to control it, knowing that he will make good on his previous threat.
I notice for the first time that my dad hadn’t been kidding. There is no bathroom door to give me any privacy.
Jesus. Fuck. This can’t be happening.
“C-can you p-please wait in the h-hall while I shower?”
Mike chuckles, “As if I’m going to miss this princess. Now hurry the fuck up and get naked.”
“P-please, Mike. Just wait in the ha-”
Mike’s fist cuts me off. Never in my life have I felt such pain. My vision wavers, going black briefly as little lights swim before my eyes.
“Get your fucking clothes off, Ali!”
My fearful cries bounce off the bathroom walls, physical and emotional pain rendering me useless. He’s too strong for me. I can’t fight him off. He won’t even listen to my plea’s. There is no way I’m getting out of this, at least not brutally beaten or maybe even dead. I have no choice. I have to do as he says.
Keeping my eyes closed, I slide my blazer off, letting it fall to my feet. My shirt and sk
irt follow, and I ignore Mike’s perverted ogling when I’m left standing in nothing but my bra and knickers.
“Keep going, Ali, everything off.”
I squeeze my eyes tight and try to control my breathing as I reach behind me to unclasp my bra. My ribs instantly protest the action, and I bite the inside of my cheek, working hard to hold in my whimper. Breathing through the pain, I get it undone, and my bra joins the rest of my clothes by my feet.
“Ahh fuck, not bad at all, little sis.” Mike visibly adjusts himself in his pants, and I cover my chest with my arms. He shakes his head. “Uh-uh, you’re not finished yet.” He points down to my knickers.
In this moment, I’m thankful for my tears since the blur distorts my ability to see the look on Mike’s face while I continue to obey. Keeping one arm over my breasts, I use the other to pull down my knickers, stepping out of them.
Mike rubs over his tented pant, “Fuuuck, this is gold.”
Needing to distract his perversion, I bolt for the shower, reaching in to turn on the water. I don’t wait for the water to heat, stepping straight under the icy stream, feeling my flesh prickle as goosebumps travel over my skin. I reach to pull the frosted glass door closed, but Mike stops my attempt with his hand and shakes his head.
“Nope, this stays open.”
If I thought I hated my dad before, then I was wrong, because right in this moment, knowing he willingly put me in this situation, fills me with more hate, more fury than I ever thought I could feel. I try hard not to lose the little control I have and turn my back to the person who is meant to be my big brother, my protector.
Even though the water is now hot, it does nothing to warm my skin. Nothing but my brother’s death is ever going to be able to warm my skin again. Mike snaps orders at me as I wash, and I follow them, wanting this to be over quickly. I just need to get through this until he falls asleep later. Then I will run and never look back.
“Wash those sexy legs, Ali.”
I move to turn, so when I bend, I don’t have to bare my arse to him, but he has other ideas.
“Stay right fucking there and do it. Don’t you move unless I tell you to.”
Heavy (Heavy Hearts Book 1) Page 14