Page 19 of Roman

“Why Roman? Why do it?” I shake my head and step back.

“I will keep talking to Rhylee. I won’t fuck her over like I did you. If you ever believed anything I have ever said, believe that.” I don’t let her respond. I know she wants to but I leave the room so she can’t.

Then I get in my rental car and drive away.

19

Pria

I knew it was going to happen. When I wake up in the morning eyes rimmed red from crying most of the night, I find the spare bedroom empty. He left. Probably didn’t even spend the night. When I look out the window to where the rental car has been parked for the last couple of days I find my car parked there instead. Whoever came to get him must have brought my car back. “Hey, Dad…” Rhylee comes padding out of her room ready to see Roman like she has every other day.

“He had to get going early,” I explain hoping it will soften the blow.

“What? He’s gone? He said he would bring me to school before he left.” The sadness in her voice sounds exactly how I expected it to.

“Why don’t you give him a call?” I offer. She shakes her head and leaves the kitchen to go back into her room, slamming the door behind her.

“Crap,” I hiss. There really isn’t much I can do about it now so instead I get myself ready for the day.

Today is when both of us are forced to go back to reality. Rhylee is back to school and me back to work. She sits next to me in the car typing on her phone at a rapid pace as if she has been doing it for years. When we reach the school, she completely ignores my goodbye and shuts the door behind her. At least she didn’t slam it.

I drive across town to Mike’s office and take the elevator up to our floor. Only when I reach it I think that maybe I have gotten off on the wrong floor. “What is going on here?” I look around the construction zone as people wearing hard hats go about their business as they tear down and put up new walls all over the place.

“I’m sorry mam but you need a hard hat if you are going to be on this level. And can I see your badge?” a man comes up to me, his nametag reads Jack. The logo he has on the other side of his overalls says, Lumber Jacks. I’m not sure why I focus on the terrible pun of his company name as he proceeds to tell me that the space was sold to another company over three weeks ago. My knees threaten to buckle under me.

I’m not even sure how I make it to my car or how long I sit in it before I start driving back to my apartment. With my purse on my shoulder, I get out and walk to my front door, pausing when I notice the door isn’t closed all the way. Every time I leave this place for work it’s shut and locked. That’s when talking catches my ear. “How is it my fault you lost her? I set up everything, wrapped it in a big pink bow for Christ’s sake. The girl was your problem after you took her, not mine.” My hand covers my mouth, holding in the gasp as I listen to Mike talk about my daughter while heavily pacing my apartment. “That asshole is gone, now is your chance. I will take care of her mother so you don’t have the same damn problem again but this is it. My debt is square.” The talking stops and I stand there for a while longer. Too long because the next thing I know Mike is pulling open the door. “Hey there!” he gives me his megawatt smile as if he wasn’t just talking about using my daughter to pay off his debt.

“Hi Mike.” I force a smile. “What are you doing here?” I ask stepping by him to go inside, straight for the kitchen, the knife block in my sights.

“I wanted to come by and see you before work. You got a jump start today though.” He normally would come and pick me up for work, but with the morning Rhylee was having I opted to bring her to school myself. Turns out that was all a bad idea. Turns out I should have packed up me and Rhylee and left town with Roman.

“I already went.”

“Oh Pria. You shouldn’t have done that.” He almost looks sad. “You probably shouldn’t have come back here either.” He wastes no time lunging at me but I’m already pulling out the biggest knife from the butcher block and stabbing it anywhere I can. Mike lets out a strangled cry and falls away from me. Blood coats my hand and gushes out of him as he flails on the kitchen floor. I don’t stay to watch him try to recover. I take off out of the apartment and run toward my car, knife still in hand. My fingers slip on the handle when I try to open the door. It takes me two tries and an attempt to clean off my hand before I’m able to get inside. When I do I tuck the knife under the seat and bite down on my lip in an attempt to bring myself out of the shock I have found myself in. Somehow I get out enough to put the car in drive and gun it toward the school. Whatever happens next I know I need to get to my daughter. If he just told whoever was on the phone that Roman is gone there is no way she can be safe right now.

20

Roman

Her car isn’t out front but I decide to knock on the door anyway. Kasin and I got to the airport after we left Pria’s car in her parking space and I couldn’t bring myself to get on the damn plane. Not without Pria and Rhylee.

I have it on the tip of my tongue to tell her everything I had rehearsed in my head on the way back here but when I step up to the door and find it cracked open with a bloodied handprint on the white paint, I know I came back for a whole new reason. As we drove away this morning I felt as though I was leaving a piece of me behind but I also had that nagging feeling that shit wasn’t over. Not even a little bit.

When I step inside and see the pool of blood on the kitchen floor I dart around the apartment and try to find either Pria or Rhylee. Neither of them are here and it causes a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. My phone vibrating in my pocket pulls my attention and I hope to fuck it is one of them calling me but when I see it’s Reek, I know something even worse has happened. “Tell me.”

“You were right, he’s a fucking asshole,” Reek confirms.

“Get to the point Reek. There is blood all over her apartment and she and my kid are both gone. I hope to fuck you have everything on him.”

“Shit,” Reek curses. “I got you brother. The guy’s in debt with the wrong people. He owes a lot of money. A few weeks ago, he brokered a deal with the assholes. He sold a kid Roman. Your kid. To pay off his damn debt.”

“Fuck!” I don’t even listen to Reek any further and hang up. I bring up the find my phone app and pinpoint right where Rhylee is. At least her phone anyway. It’s on the move driving down the highway. I had a couple of missed calls from her this morning and a few texts asking why I wasn’t there to drive her to school. I couldn’t bring myself to answer them. I do now though. I press send and for five agonizing seconds the phone just rings and rings until finally someone answers.

“Dad?”

“Thank fuck Rhylee are you okay?” I let out a breath and take off out of the apartment right to the stupid rental car.

“Yes. I’m with mom. We are on our way to Rhino.” I let out a laugh.

---