Fear Her Wrath II: Crucible of Glass

Chapter 52

I thought I'd set my alarm early enough to make it home without getting caught, but when I got back to our apartment around 6:30 a.m., I found my dad—tired and haggard-looking from his all-night shift—struggling with the door's finicky lock. He looked at me, sighed, then gave the knob a hard twist that finally got it open.

We avoided eye contact as he made omelets and I brewed the coffee and put on the tea kettle, but when we sat down for breakfast together, there was no avoiding the topic. I decided to let dad be the one to break the awkward silence.

"So," he said, pushing his mug of tea aside. "Where were you?"

"At a friend's house," I said.

It was sort of true, but it wouldn't save me. He knew the truth. He was justing waiting for me to admit it to him.

"A male friend or a female friend?"

And there it was. I sighed, but mainly because I was annoyed with myself for getting caught. I could excuse lying to my dad about vigilante stuff, but I had no right to BS him just to avoid well-earned consequences.

"A male friend," I said.

I knew better than to expect Dad to lose his temper, but I was surprised by how composed he was. I knew he wasn't going to quiz me about whether I'd kept my clothes on, but he was well within his rights to assume the worst.

"Was it the Hmong boy you do MMA with? Benedict?"

Okay, maybe not quite the worst.

"No," I said blandly. "It wasn't."

Dad blinked. I had a sneaking suspicion I'd just sunk a little in his estimation, which was probably unfair on my part. He definitely erred on the side of being too unjudgmental. That was why Mom was able to take advantage of him for so long. That was also why I got away with so much, even when he strongly disapproved of my choices.

"So... who was it?" he asked.

I took a sip of coffee. There really was no way to make this sound less sketchy than it was, but I did my best.

"His name is... Gabriel. I met him at the party where I punched Gennifer in the face."

"How romantic."

It was almost a joke, which made me feel better. I reached across the table and added more sugar to my coffee. As you probably can guess, I hadn't got that much sleep.

"So, is he your new boyfriend?" Dad continued.

"No," I said, a little too quickly. "I mean... I don't know. I kinda just spent the night because I was lonely and upset, and he was... nice. Interesting. Really handsome," I added in a low mutter.

I could also have said "rich," but that didn't really factor into it for me. I wasn't going to accept any presents from a professional thief. I looked at Dad to see how he was taking it, and there was a weird expression on his face—like he was trying to decide whether to let me in on something that he thought was amusing.

"What?"

"You'll be happier not knowing."

"Oh great," I groaned. "Please tell me you and Mom didn't start that way."

"Well, there is a reason I'm finding it hard to judge," said Dad, still smiling to himself. "But Maggie, seriously, I don't want you sleeping over with boys, no matter who they are. Even if—you said his name was Gabriel, right—even if he was your boyfriend, it would still be against the rules. And since he's not, you're taking an even bigger emotional risk. Sleep in your own bed or ask my permission to go to a friend's house. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir," I said glumly. "I understand."

"Good," he said, but I could tell that something was still bugging him. He was tapping a finger against the side of his mug like he was trying to build up the courage to broach an unpleasant topic. I was wondering what else I possibly could have done to disappoint him when he threw me the curveball of the century.

"I'm going on a date this Saturday."

I actually choked on my omelet. A date. No wonder dad was being so nice about me sleeping over with Gabriel. That was pardonable teenage stupidity compared to this. A date. I was speechless. Who could he possibly... Oh, crap. As soon as I asked the question, the horrible answer dawned on me.

"Is it with Sergeant... whatever her name is?" I grimaced.

"Well, it's lieutenant now, but yes—Lieutenant Corrigan asked me to go with her to the Policeman's Ball. She was promoted yesterday and has to play politics, and said she'd feel better about going if she had a friend with her."

"A friend, huh?" I repeated suspiciously.

"That was the word she used."

"Aren't the tickets expensive?" I said, vainly grasping at any argument I could that would keep my dad from going on a date with Corrigan.

"She's paying for them," said Dad. "She knows we're not rolling in money, Maggs, even if she doesn't know why. I know this is a little surprising, but... Look, nothing's going to come of it. She just found out she had to go at the last minute and I was available."

I wasn't so sure. I'd seen the way she looked at him in the hospital lobby. Despite the age difference, she obviously thought he was prime boyfriend material. Ick. Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse.

My life really was going to hell.

"You jogging to school?" Dad asked, probably to get me to stop scowling and actually say something.

"Yeah," I said with a yawn. "Ben's supposed to be back today, and... I wanna get there before him."

"So you won't miss him?"

"So I can hide," I said.

Dad chuckled and took a sip of his tea.

"You know, I like him," he said. "Benedict, I mean. He's got a nice family. I'm sorry to hear things aren't going well between you two."

"Blame his psychotic little sister," I said, pushing back my chair. "I'm gonna change. Um... you're home for dinner tonight, right?"

"Yep. Any chance I could convince my wild child to stay in for the night? The Conacher-Dixon fight will be on the radio. Lovejoy's at ringside."

"I'll do my best," I said. I really had no reason to say no. Deadstream was locked up, and with final exams fast approaching, spending a night stretched out on the couch with my textbooks was probably the responsible thing to do. Plus, it'd make my dad happy, and I felt like I owed him that. First though, I wanted to see how things went at school. I was done ruining Benedict Vang's life.

I just hoped he'd accept that and move on.