Bound by Duty

Chapter Three

                 

I was making a half-hearted attempt at my algebra homework when my phone rang. Rynna was calling for a check-in and I was glad for the official distraction. My mind had been constantly wandering off since I got home. All avenues pointed to Aidan and what I should have said differently, or how I could have made myself look any more foolish. I sighed as I slid my finger across the screen.

"Hey, Ryn!" I couldn't help but smile as I answered. Rynna had been my rock during the rough years after Cole left, and I fully credit her with me being as functional as I am today. She also provided a constant connection to my father since he refused to use telephones. Just another one of his wonderful eccentricities.

"Amelia, I wasn't sure if you'd pick up. I just wanted to let you know that things are going...okay." Rynna's soft, proper voice floated through the speaker but I heard the muted panic behind her words.

"Is he eating? Will he even talk to you yet? Ryn, I've been gone for two months. Please tell me he's at least talking to you?" My father had never engaged with Rynna. Since my mom had died, he hadn't spoken a single word to her. My father was an odd man. On the worst days, he was outright mean. She had been my mother's best friend and they had all grown up together, yet he refused to acknowledge her existence. He hadn't actually even hired her to be our nanny, she just took it upon herself and continued to show up. For years she cooked, cleaned, and helped with homework for free. She always said mom would have done it for her if the situations were reversed.

She sighed and I knew she was holding back. "Come on, Ryn. Just tell me. Did he light the barn on fire again? Finally kill the neighbor's dog?" I had to make light of the situation because there were so many worse things my father could have done.

"You know I try to keep you out of these things, Amelia. Your father...he's just having a hard time. He's...lonely." Her hesitation only made my reaction worse.

"LONELY?" My blood pressure skyrocketed and, with it, my power bounded through me. A headache started to take hold at the base of my neck. It was the one I always got when too much power let loose too fast. "Rynna, you honestly think he's lonely? I spent years under that roof and was lucky if he spoke to me once a day. You think he is the lonely one? I have one friend here and can barely manage stringing a coherent sentence together around new people."

The temperature in the room rose and I knew I had to get myself under control. No one could send me into a tailspin like my father, and Rynna knew that. All those years of me desperately trying to make him show me an ounce of affection, even knowing he was the one who gave my future away.

"Now, Amelia, calm down. Honey, be fair. You know that your father hasn't been himself. Your leaving has just been...a transition." Her quiet patience was doing nothing to tamp down my anger. My guilt. I knew when I left that he wouldn't take it well, but I only had these few precious years to myself.

"Just tell me," I gritted the words through clenched teeth, trying to hold back tears, already expecting the worst.

Another sigh. "Well. He left. He moved out into the woods. He said that with you and your brother gone, he doesn't have to do it anymore. That he can be free, whatever that means. I don't think he really means it, honey, I just think he's hurting. You know how his delusions take hold. We just need to wait him out a little bit. I won't let him go far, you know that, right?"

Rynna continued on, trying to smooth over the words she knew cut me to the core. Hurt flooded my heart and my mind. He can be free. I dropped to my bed as the tears threatened and Rynna's voice faded into the background. I bit the inside of my lip, the metallic taste and the shot of pain stopping the onslaught of emotions. I was on my own. I've always been on my own, I reminded myself. Swallowing down emotions I didn't want to acknowledge, I hung up the phone, not caring if Rynna was still on the other end.