Page 14 of Payback
Two Years Later
Charles Harris,
The honour of your presence is requested at the marriage of
Rosalie Shay Dawson
and Parker Lee Frost
It’s going to be an affair Chicago will never forget
with cocktails, dinner, dancing, and above all…love.
I close my eyes and my stomach rolls at the image of the wedding invitation I stumble upon in my father’s apartment. I came over to meet him here after work because it’s been weeks since we’ve spoken and months since we’ve actually laid eyes on each other. And with my father, if I don’t put forth the effort to come over and say hello, he certainly won’t.
Things have been off between us for the last couple of years. When he and my ex-stepmother found out about Rosalie and Ghost Penis, everyone became very distant. My father didn’t raise a fuss, despite my battle cries. He simply retreated to his little corner of Chicago like the passive-aggressive, privileged asshole he is.
But it’s been a year since he divorced Hilary, and I thought my relationship with him would improve once he didn’t have other women vying for his attention. Apparently I was wrong.
When I let myself into his apartment, I found the offensive piece of paper sitting on the kitchen counter even though he knew I was coming over. Maybe this is why he’s been so distant again lately?
My fingers glide over the embossed black calligraphy as I take in Rosalie and Ghost Penis’ names stacked on top of one another, similar to the position they were in when I found them in my bed screwing. I’m not completely surprised by this news. I knew they were together because Rosalie sent me a ridiculous letter a few months after everything happened. All it said was that she was sorry that I was hurt but she and Ghost Penis were in love. I could barely stomach reading it because it was about as genuine as the time she apologised for turning in my essay instead of her own in our senior literature class.
Then I started getting text messages from her, asking me to take my name off our apartment lease so Parker could move in with her. It seems the apartment building has a policy about subleasing, and my name still being on that piece of paper was negatively affecting their plans. Admittedly, that tiny form of payback felt too good to give in, so I ignored her texts for months.
But seeing the invitation in my father’s house does not feel good. Why are they inviting him to their wedding? Why does he need to be there when he is no longer married to Rosalie’s mother? They don’t even talk anymore, I don’t think.
My fingers brush over a note stuck to the back of the invitation. I pull it off and see it’s scrawled in my ex-stepsister’s handwriting.
“Daddy, will you do me the honour of walking me down the aisle and giving me away to the love of my life? I can think of no one else I want to hold my hand more.” Love Always, Your Daughter, Rose
I blink rapidly, feeling eerily like I’ve just been shot. My eyes shoot around the grey, sterile kitchen searching for hidden cameras, because I’m surely being Punk’d. This ridiculous note can’t possibly be real! I mean, I know Rosalie has daddy issues since her birth father has been MIA, but that doesn’t mean she gets to keep my dad forever.
But the note is real. And there’s no question what she’s asking.
Suddenly, the apartment door unlocks. I grab the invitation off the counter and rush over to meet my father at the entry.
“What is this?” I seethe, my voice shaking with fury.
Charles Harris is a tall man with a full head of dark hair that apparently is never going to grey. He stares down at me with his granite features as a wary look flickers in his eyes. “I didn’t mean for you to see that,” he replies crisply in his faint British accent.
“Are you going to the wedding?” I snap back as he shrugs off his jacket and hangs it on a hook.
He exhales heavily and strides past me toward the kitchen. “It’s not that big a deal, Alice.”
I follow in his wake. “It is a big deal. She’s asking you to walk her down the aisle! That seems like a very big deal.”
He pulls a glass from the cabinet and turns to face me. “It really has nothing to do with you.”
“Nothing to do with me?” I shriek, my anger bubbling over. “He wasmy boyfriend, not hers! You’remy father, not hers! And you keeping a relationship with her is a complete and utter betrayal toward me. If you walk her down the aisle and give her away to him, you’re basically condoning everything they did to me!”
He rolls his eyes and fills his glass from the tap. “You know how Rosalie is. When she wants something, she’s relentless.”
“Who cares? She’s not your problem anymore!”
He sets the glass down and takes the invitation from my hands. He tucks it into a nearby kitchen drawer, like concealing it will make all of this go away.
“You’re being dramatic, Alice, and I won’t talk to you when you’re like this.”
