Page 157 of How You See Me
“Mom brought stuff in case I got bored, but I haven’t felt like doing anything.”
“How do you feel now?”
“Excited to draw.”
Chapter 33
Hayes
Ava and I are halfway finished with our project when Mom walks in with a small parade trailing behind her.
“Look who we found in the lobby,” she says, motioning to Kayla and Victoria.
Ava, now sitting up in bed and flushed with energy, yanks the blanket over our crafting mission. I rise to hug my other two sisters. Both are in college and too grown up for their young ages. Kayla’s twenty-two, a first-year medical school student with the posture of someone who doesn’t flinch under pressure. Victoria’s just nineteen but already a college junior, always sprinting past expectations.
The women in my life never cease to amaze me.
“I’m so glad you’re back,” Victoria says, throwing both arms around me. “But what’s this I hear about you getting a girlfriend?” Mischief takes over herface. “Is she a Marine, too? She’d need access to some indestructible tactical gear and weapons to penetrate that wall of yours.”
“Shut up,” I mutter, prying her off.
“She’s an artist,” Ava chimes in, like it’s the best quality anyone could have.
“I knew that.” Victoria winks my way as she gets in line behind Kayla to hug Ava.
I move to close the door but an older version of a familiar face steps inside.
“Hi, Hayes,” my father says, setting his stance as if to say,I’m here to stay whether you like it or not.
I don’t. Not one little bit.
Ignoring him, I hold my shit together long enough to point at Ava through the crowd. “I’ll be right back.”
To avoid any potential interrogations, I escape. The hallway blurs around me. I rip the mask off once I reach the elevator hallway, lungs gasping for air that doesn’t smell like bleach and slow decay.
The door takes forever to open. When it finally does, I punch the Ground Level button like sheer force and a few floors can make the past disappear.
But a hand slams between the sliding doors, and they reopen.
Fuck me.
“Hayes,” my father says, guarded but casual, as he steps inside. He watches me closely, knowing I’m a ticking time bomb with him in my presence.
We stand on opposite sides of the small metal box he turned into a boxing ring by showing up uninvited. This isthe first time I’ve seen him in almost five years. No matter what he has to say to me, I’ll never forget how his leaving destroyed Mom. How his accusations that she’d been unfaithful when Ava was conceived ripped apart their marriage years before that. After nearly three decades of marriage, she’d never given him a reason to doubt her devotion. There's not one deceitful bone in her body. Only love. It’s a shame I can’t say the same about him.
“Why are you here?” I hear myself ask, the words seemingly coming from someone else.
“Because I am worried about Ava and your mother.”
“Since when?”
“Don’t give me that—”
“You lost the right to demand anything of me a long time ago. Don’t act like you care suddenly.”
The elevator dings, and I launch myself out the second the doors open, walking fast, not looking back.
“Hayes!” he calls once we’re outside.
