by Rebel Hart
“How are things going with Jameson Automobiles?” he asks Emmett with genuine curiosity as he scoops up one of the hot chocolates in between his palms. “That’s a big job for a guy your age.”
“Plenty of good staff to help.” Emmett smiles. “At least until I finish school and can start running things full-time.”
“Any plans for college?” my father shoots back, and I hate how normal it sounds. Plus, we didn’t come here for small talk. I’m eager to get this over with.
“Emmett’s not exactly sure what his plans are yet, Theo,” I answer for him, firmly directing my father’s attention back to me. “His family is going through a pretty hard time right now.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” he replies in smooth surprise, as if Thomas’s murder wasn’t enough of an explanation for any trouble they could be experiencing.
“Emmett’s sister, Bernadette, is missing,” I blurt out, cutting to the chase.
“Missing?” He raises his brows.
I study him carefully, looking for any hint of guilt. I may not know my father well, or at all really, but we resemble each other enough that I’m positive I could spot a lie on his face.
“Yes, missing,” I continue curtly. “We’ve looked through her things and she doesn’t appear to have run away or hurt herself. She’s been gone for a week now. No one has heard from her.”
“Such a shame,” he commiserates. “She seemed like such a bright, pleasant young woman.”
This guy’s good. I don’t detect an ounce of sarcasm or insincerity in his voice, but I know for a fact that he didn’t see anything of Bernadette besides her screaming over her father’s dead body. I wonder if he assumes we would have forgotten that much, or if he cares so little that he can’t even bother to lie well. Unless…he has seen more of Bernadette than we realize.
“I wasn’t aware that you knew much about Bernadette?” my voice raises accusingly. “You’ve only seen her once, right?”
He recoils, but not in a guilty way as I would have hoped. He just looks embarrassed over his social fumble. “Sorry, must have gotten her confused with someone else.”
I flash a look at Emmett, wondering if it seems odd to him. “Obviously you know a lot of people in Jameson,” he says to Theo, straightening in his seat. “You have police connections and you know a lot of people who, let’s be honest…aren’t entirely on the up and up. We were just wondering if you had heard anything? Any talk of someone wanting to come after what’s left of my family?”
“I’m afraid not,” he shakes his head before blowing on his drink and taking another sip. “Listen, I like you, Emmett. You have what it takes to run Jameson the way your father should have been all those years. Not only that, but you’re seeing my daughter, right?”
I shift uncomfortably in my seat, not wanting him to act like a regular father. He’s done nothing for me, and it feels insulting. But Emmett nods honorably, just as he would with any girlfriend’s dad.
“If I ever hear of any threat to you or your family, I will come to you. You have my word,” my father vows earnestly.
I can’t sit still while he sits here and acts like this great guy. I restlessly fidget, prompting a slew of warning glances from Emmett. But who is Theo to care about threats on Emmett’s family? He was the biggest threat of all when he barged in with a gun and murdered Emmett’s father. Sure, he may have been a bad guy that Emmett was happy to see go, but my father didn’t care about that. He would have pulled the trigger just as quickly if Thomas Jameson had been the greatest guy on earth. He was only looking after his own interest in getting revenge, and I can’t stop myself from thinking he won’t let things end there.
Maybe he really was planning to keep going until all of Jameson was his, which only makes it that much more convenient for him to sit here and lure Emmett into his pocket. It’ll only make it easier for him to finish what he’s started when he’s ready.
“Spit it out, Ophelia,” Theo blurts suddenly. “I see your wheels turning. You and I may not be close, but you’re still my daughter. I can tell you’re thinking something, so why don’t you just come out with it?”
“Well,” I straighten in my seat to meet his challenge with a daring stare. “If you must know, Theodore…I am just wondering how we can be so sure you don’t have something to do with Bernadette’s disappearance. You took out Mr. Jameson after all. How can we trust you?”
“That was a deal between Emmett and me, and you know it,” he defends coldly.
“You would’ve found a way with or without Emmett’s cooperation,” I shoot back. “You took the Elites down. But maybe that wasn’t enough for you?”
“Thomas and I had an old score to settle.” He clears his throat and leisurely swirls the stirrer in his drink, as if murdering a man was no big deal. “That’s over and done with, and I have no interest in Jameson now. Beyond you.”
“Ha!” I laugh out bitterly. “That’s rich.”
“Ophelia,” Emmett mutters under his breath, nudging my leg under the table.
“I’m sorry, but it’s just a little hard to stomach, sitting here and listening to you claim to have any interest in me,” I sneer, hating the way my voice wavers with overwhelming emotion. “You didn’t want anything to do with me until the Elites tried to use me against you. And who knows how you would have solved that problem had Emmett not stepped in and offered to take me captive instead.”
He sinks a bit in his chair under my accusations, but keeps a calm and collected demeanor. Overall, he seems completely unaffected by my obvious hurt, which I’m not surprised about. I just wish it didn’t sting so much, and that he’d stop lying to our faces by claiming to care about me.
“I’m not proud of many things in my life, Ophelia,” he explains slowly, staring off at his line of boats on the bay. “But that’s in the past. All I can do now is try to move forward and make things right.”
“And exactly how do you plan to do that?” I snap harshly, but the man who greeted us interrupts, whispering something into my father’s ear.
“If you’ll excuse me.” Theo stands with a gentle smile, seeming relieved from the excuse to escape. “I have to take this call. It’ll only be a moment.”
I am still fuming when the sliding door shuts behind him. Emmett immediately hunkers down next to me, his breath smelling like chile liqueur.
“What the hell are you doing?” he hisses into my ear. “We didn’t come here to berate the man!”
“This is pointless, Emmett!” I snap back in a hushed tone. “Just as pointless as talking to Vivian or Lily. If he did do it, he’s not going to tell us anything.”
“Do you still think he could have something to do with my sister?” he asks earnestly.
“I don’t know.” I bite my lip and shake my head. “We can’t rule him out yet.”
“Well, then…let’s take a look around his house,” he suggests.
“Oh, yeah, sure,” I snort. “That’s not going to seem suspicious at all. ‘Hey, estranged dad who I hate! Can we just rummage through your house really fast, having just accused you of kidnapping!?’”
“Exactly why I wanted you to control yourself while he was here before,” he scolds. “Just follow me.”
I follow Emmett as he slides in through the back. We are of course quickly greeted by the man working in my father’s home. “Need something?” he asks.
“Just the bathroom,” Emmett replies.
“Ah, yes. Of course.” He steps aside and motions down the hall. “Second door on the left.”
We follow his directions, noting that my father’s office is just to the side of us. He casually shuts his door for privacy when he sees us walk past. Once we’re down the hall and out of sight, Emmett nods for me to go ahead into the bathroom.
“I’ll look around first, then you take a quick turn and see if you find anything,” he whispers.
I try to stall as much as I can in the bathroom, doing everything as slowly as possible. I would sample any ba
th products lying around, but my father is a classic bachelor. Only keeping the essentials on display, none of which include hand lotions or moisturizers.
After a few minutes, I hear a slight tap on the door. Emmett is waiting outside. “That’s probably as much as I can look around without taking too long,” he tells me, stepping inside the bathroom to take my place.
“Find anything?” I ask, but he shakes his head.
“Look for any sign that he may have been in touch with Bernadette. Look for notepads laying around that could have her number written down on it or something,” he instructs in a whisper.
“My dad’s not stupid,” I hiss. “He wouldn’t leave stuff like that just lying around. Especially knowing we were coming here.”
“Take a quick look, but don’t go through anything too much and don’t get caught,” he continues, ignoring my doubts. “Look for any weird doors or passageways with a lock on them,” he orders before shutting the door.
I nervously step through the few small rooms lining the hall. There’s a big living room on one end, and what appears to be my father’s bedroom on the other. The space is clean and minimal, but I can see the line of expensive clothes in his closet with lavish leather shoes and designer sneakers to match. My father is trying to look like any ordinary coastal guy out here, but I can see the signs of the other side to his life.
There is another bedroom near his that looks like it hasn’t been used any time recently. Nothing is out of place. There are no strange doors or anything that could hint at him holding Bernadette hostage. I try to take in as much as I can, but am only met with the occasional framed photo of my father standing alone at various places from his travels.
Emmett soon emerges from the bathroom, nervously smoothing back his hair. “Anything?” he asks, peeking around the corner to make sure no one is coming or looking for us.
“No,” I huff. “This is hopeless. I don’t know what you expect us to find. He knew we were coming. If he was up to anything, he would have hidden away any sign of it.”
“Ah, there you are,” my father chimes from down the hall. “I’m sorry, I feel rude. I should have offered to give you two a tour of the house.” He swipes his palm across the back of his head with a nervous smile. “I guess I was just embarrassed,” he confesses shyly. “This isn’t exactly the nicest place I’ve lived, or really the first impression I wanted you to have of me.”
“My first impression of you was putting a bullet through a man’s head, remember?” I respond bitingly before shoving past both of them toward the front door.
I catch a glimpse of Emmett rolling his eyes and sulking behind after me with an exasperated breath.
“Did you want to stay for dinner?” Theo calls out, chasing us towards the door. “I can have my cook whip something up for us.”
“No, thank you,” I state plainly as I storm through the front door. I’m still exhausted from the day before, and I’m beyond ready to go and hopefully never see my father again.
I march out to Emmett’s car and notice the two of them exchanging words in the doorway. “Nice to see you, Ophelia!” he calls out to me with one swift wave. “I promise it won’t be so long until we meet again.”
I want to think he’s making empty promises, but there’s something ominous in his tone. “What does that mean?” I whip back around to him.
“Just that I don’t intend to stay out of the picture forever,” he explains coyly. “I’ll be seeing you around.”
I release a huffy moan and give up, yanking the locked door handle repeatedly.
“Give me a minute!” Emmett snaps as he jumps into the driver’s seat and unlocks my door. “I know you don’t like the guy, but you don’t have to be so hard on him.”
“This whole thing was a waste of time,” I lament, sinking into my seat and crossing my arms.
“No, it wasn’t,” he defends. “I think your father is innocent.”
“What makes you so certain?” I ask in an unconvinced tone.
“I’ve met a lot of bad guys doing a lot of bad things when I was by my father’s side,” he explains. “I can usually spot a guilty man, and your father doesn’t seem like one of them. At least not in terms of Bernadette.”
“Then why was he acting so fucking weird?!” I argue, wishing he would be guilty out of pure spite.
“He’s trying to charm us. I can’t tell you exactly what his motivations are, but he’s not a guy who’s responsible for a missing girl. I just don’t see it in him. You have to trust me on this.” He stops and looks at me. “I’m proud of you,” he says softly.
“For what!?” I shoot back, still feeling angry.
“I know it wasn’t easy for you to come here and see him today,” he explains.
I sink down in the seat. Emmett doesn’t know the half of it. This about more than just my dad. It’s about him and that stupid deal they made. Whatever way Emmett redeems himself, it’s hard to reconcile with his partnership with my father. And I still can’t shake the feeling that Theo will be coming back to get more out of that deal than was originally promised.
Seeing my father does scare me. I’m afraid that whatever part of him made him fit into the Elites is something hereditary that exists in me, too. What if I am just as capable of being selfish and vengeful? To the point that I’d sacrifice others to get what I want. Isn’t that what I’ve been doing? Only feeling motivated to find Bernadette because of my own selfish need for Emmett? I don’t think enough about the fact that she’s his sister or what this is doing to him inside. I’ve been distracting him every step of the way, not helping like I promised.
We’re silent for most of the drive back. Emmett eventually plays me an album from a band he’s been telling me about, claiming he wants to take me to one of their concerts sometime. It feels good to talk about normal things for a bit, but I can’t let go of the greasy feeling leftover from my father’s visit so easily.
As much as I hate to admit it, I think Emmett is right. He may know more about bad people than I do, but I didn’t see any sign of guilt in my father either. He’s up to something, but whatever it is doesn’t seem like it will lead us to Bernadette. And now I am left knowing that once all of this is over, I’ll have to worry about my father trying to show up in my life again, thanks to his departing promise. I can only hope that he just feels bad about never being around and wants to make it right, but something tells me nothing in my life will ever be that simple again.
“Hey, what are you doing tonight?” Emmett asks suddenly.
“Reeling from everything that just happened,” I quip. “Or at least that’s as far as I’ve planned. Why?”
“There’s a Halloween party,” he announces casually. “Wanna go?”
“A party,” I gape. “Wow…I wouldn’t have thought you’d want to go to a party right now…with everything that’s going on.”
“We could use the distraction I think.” He nods. “Maybe relaxing a little will set our heads straight. Give us some clue of what to do next.”
“Sure,” I shrug with a smile. “Let’s go.”
We stop by a second-hand store on the way home to scour through the clothes for some sort of Halloween costumes. We have a blast digging through the racks and trying stuff on.
“Where is this party anyway?” I ask, as I try on a wig.
“This girl from school, Diana,” he replies, straightening the wig for me and planting a soft kiss on my lips. “Her parents are famous musicians. Very wealthy. She always throws these giant parties and makes everyone endure her own nasally performances. But I don’t think she’s going to be as successful as her parents.” He laughs.
“I’m sure they’ll just buy her fame,” I joke.
Emmett and I settle on some vintage clothes that can let us pass as hippies. To him, this is just a way to pass the time and get our minds off of things. But I’m excited for so many other reasons. In my entire time at WJ Prep so far, I have never been invited to a party.
He shoves
a pint of liquor into my purse before we walk into the party. The only Halloween decorations to be found are an unlit string of pumpkin lights half-hanging from the edge of the staircase in the living room, where a makeshift stage had been built to accommodate each of the musicians taking turns singing slow, steady acoustic songs.
Emmett quickly gets caught up talking to a group of guys, and I am left standing on my own awkwardly, realizing maybe I hadn’t been missing out on much by not getting invited to these things. He finally turns back to me and says they’re going to go check out Diana’s brother’s new car.
I’m not on my own long before a familiar tall, slender figure approaches. Malcolm. He’s holding a PBR and his icy blue eyes light up with a kind smile as soon as he sees me. Everything seems to slow down a little.
“Didn’t expect to see you here,” he says coyly as he slides into a standing position next to me against the wall.
“Why’s that?” I shoot back.
“I never see you at parties,” he explains.
“I’m never invited,” I scoff.
“Well…glad you got invited this time.” He smiles, stumbling slightly as we both laugh.
“Somebody’s drunk,” I snort.
“No, I swear. Just hopelessly clumsy.” He flashes an adorably sly boyish grin. “Okay, and maybe a little drunk.”
“Hoping to join you soon,” I reply as I raise the pint from my purse in cheers before taking a big, long swig.
He’s standing too close with a light in his eyes that’s making me feel uneasy.
“I like your costume.” He points to my long-tasseled suede vest.
I peer at him from the corner of my eye, noting the way he’s looking me up and down. I don’t know if it’s the swigs of liquor I am taking every so often, or just the desperation of feeling awkward and alone at a party, but I don’t feel nearly as defensive towards him as I normally would. Which is dangerous, considering Emmett is right outside and could be back at any time.