IF I FALL - #Wattys2016

ANGER | TOM

Can't say that things were going too well on my side.

I received a call from Chanel who asked me to come to the house right away. I would have ignored her request if she was not crying on the phone.

She didn't say much but I already knew it had to deal with the father. Not that I care about Chanel's happiness with him. But she was a tough cookie who only cared about money. I never seen her cry since I met her. So if she had to shed some tears, that necessarily had to do with money related problems.

When I got there, she was sitting on the floor, all her clothes thrown across the room. Her face was dirtied by the makeup that leaked all over her face. Pretty scary, I have to say.

She saw me and started crying again.

"Did he hit you?" I asked, thinking that for the house to be in that kinda mess, a fight might probably have been the cause.

She kept crying and crying and I just didn't know what to do. Whether to stay there or try to cheer her up, even if I didn't really want to do that.

She mumbled something I couldn't understand.

"What?" I asked, annoyed and not keen to do social work at that time of the day.

She grabbed some crushed papers and threw them to me.

I picked ball of paper she threw and unwrapped it.

'PETITION FOR DIVORCE'

I looked at her, incredulous.

"Wh... What happened?"

She sobbed and scoffed at the same time, which produced a very weird sound. She finally calmed down and wiped her tears off.

"You father finally got tired of his toy, that's what happened"

"Did... Did you guy fought or something?"

"He just is ready to move to Los Angeles. I knew if this opportunity went thru, he would throw me away. I guess I still had hopes because it surprised me. How stupid I am!"

"So what? Good for you! It's not like you loved the mother fucker. You divorce, you claim a percentage of his assets and done! You just live your life"

She snickered.

"Really Tom, you can't be that stupid! Don't you know your father? Don't you know he plans everything?"

She had a point. I knew he probably made her sign a prenup and probably also found a way to protect his assets in case of divorce. If his own son was not entitled to anything then I guess she was in an even worse situation.

I heard foosteps in the Hallway and quickly saw the father appear in the door frame. He looked at me before briefly glancing at Chanel.

"Why the hell are you still here? Take your clothes and leave immediately before I call the police for trespassing" he then turned to me. "Now you, come with me"

I glanced at Chanel who was laying on the floor, crying her soul out. I should have stayed and helped her. But too curious to find out what kinda crap the father had created this time, I simply followed him upstairs, to his office.

He sat down behind his massive desk and pulled out a cigar put of his cigar box.

"Seat" he told me, as if I was a dog.

I didn't move an inch. If that bastard thought he could order me around, I was definitely not the one to give him reason.

"What happened?" I asked.