Page 116 of Everdoll

“Raymond…” My father was still muttering. “What is that bastard doing to you, Mina?”

The water got stuck in my throat. I coughed violently.

“You’ll address him properly, or I’ll send you back where you came from.”

He seemed not to hear me again, acting like only his own words mattered.

“He doesn’t hurt you? How? How? He’s been torturing me for years… locking me up there and forcing those foul concoctions down my throat. That bastard… He ruined my life.”

I knew I shouldn’t take his ravings to heart. It wasn’t the first time he had said this; when he first tracked me down, he had pleaded with me to save him from Raymond Kern’s hands. But I couldn’t wrap my head around it. What could Raymond possibly want from my father? Why torture him? Why keep him drugged?

An unsettling sensation crept over me. I hadn’t made sense of it back then, but now, seeing Raymond’s possessive streak, an absurd thought took shape in my mind.

He might have wanted all his master’s attention to himself.

Oh… It seems like I found an acceptable excuse. To break up with him. To end this suffocation. To escape this deception. I swallowed.

“Do you have any proof, Dad?”

My father seemed to have heard me now.

“We had an agreement. If I find that paper…”

I rolled my eyes. “An agreement? I should’ve guessed. He wasn’t torturing you, right? You were the one who wanted something from him.”

“He told me to stay away from you!”

My scoff faded. Truth be told, I wasn’t very glad that my suspicions confirmed, and I desperately wanted my father to shut his mouth. But the words kept spilling out of him regardless.

“I told him to go to hell! I’d heard the whispers about him, I knew the families he target ended up dead. But I never thought he’d lay a finger on me. I was in debt, he threw some cash my way, and then…”

“You took his money.” I cut him off, seething. “Did you really take his money, Dad? Didn’t you question it at all?”

“Shut up, Mina!”

His shout made me tremble with a familiar fear. Before Remi came, my father had always treated me like this. But after a month, everything had changed. Whenever he was about to do something, Remi would protect me. His body was small, but with his metal arm, he could throw my father meters away.

Now he’s gone. Remi can’t protect you anymore.

At that moment, I had returned to reality. I knew I was dreaming, but this time the lucidity cut far deeper. Stepping out from beneath his protective wing forced me to reckon with everything I had left behind in my childhood.

I stopped escaping.

And I needed this. Otherwise, I would never grow up.

“Don’t yell at me, Dad.” I was surprised at own harsh tone. “You left your daughter and your home. You can’t speak to me like that.”

“Blame me instead of that bastard? Fuck you, Mina!”

“I told you to speak properly about him. He’s had more of an impact on my life than you have.”

“You selfish girl…”

He couldn’t be possibly saying this, right? I set my glass down on the table. I shoved my father, still sprawled on the floor, toward the kitchen drawers and grabbed his coat.

“Don’t.” I glared at him. “Don’t you dare talk to me about selfishness.”

My father trembled. I pushed him aside, kicking him a few times like nudging garbage out of my way.