TWO

“Ouch..” my dad flinched as mum cleans the amputated area with saline solution. His hand was swelling already and I fear it may already be contaminated. My mum applies less pressure and once she is done, she starts to cover it in gauze wrap.

Audrey returns from the kitchen with a bag of ice and lays it on the table while my mother wraps his entire palms in a waterproof bag and goes on to dip it inside the bag of ice. The care she showed this man, the feelings she had for him, the love she showered him with her every touch.

I’m still trying to process all that happened this afternoon. My father lost his tiny finger today, who knows what may happen tomorrow? Or the day after? How do we raise a hundred and ninety grand within three weeks? Even if we sold this whole house and everything in it, it wouldn’t amount to anything, and where would we live after that? I don’t even have a penny saved up anywhere, and it hurt to see Audrey give out her college money that way. Audrey is smart, I know how badly she wants to go to college, now everything she had saved up was gone, just like that, and we have Harold Edgar to thank for it. The man we call father.

The sight of my father hurting was painful, but knowing he could have avoided this made me angry. He never learns from his mistakes, and even if we somehow manage to get out of this – which I doubt- he is still going to fall right back into his bad habits.

“I’m sorry Peaches,” My dad says gently. Peaches. His pet name for my mum. I used to like how that name sounded on his lips, but right now I just feel irritated.

I don’t doubt my parent’s feelings for each other. There are days when my dad can be overly sweet, there are days where he would cook for her and they would sing happily together while doing the dishes together, but mostly he caused her pain. They say love is pain, and if this is what it feels like, I don’t dream of ever falling in love.

“Sorry is not going to change anything,” My mother murmured.

“You know I had plans for you, for us,” he lifted my mum’s chin with his index finger so that she would meet his eyes. “I know I promised you I was going to quit, but I couldn’t resist. I want to do so much for this family, I want to take you and my lovely girls out of this slum, I want to do better, and I just thought it was the right move. The reward was so tempting Peaches. I could have won up to a million bucks. That kind of money would have changed our lives forever. The girls can go to college, we could have gotten a bigger house in the city,” he sighed “And I was this close to winning. I’m sorry it turned out this way,”

“Stop it Harry,” she slapped his hands away from her face and stands up from where she was seated opposite him. “Audrey gave up any hopes of going to school to save you,” She dabbed her hands on a towel and tossed it harshly on the table “You always make promises you never keep, and look where that got us. I mean, how are we supposed to raise that kind of money? Just how Harry?” she screamed.

“We should run,” Audrey suggested.

“There’s no running from Pablo,” Father says “He has his thugs watching me. If I make any attempt to run, then I’m dead, and besides, where could we possibly run to in this present condition? We can barely afford to feed, what would happen when we wander into unknown territory?”

“Maybe you should have thought of that before betting away such a large sum, Harold,” I snapped.

“Aria!” my mum snaps “He’s your father, and you must respect him, no matter what,”

I rolled my eyes “Then when is he going to start acting like one? Look around you father, nothing is working. And it’s because of all the wrong choices you ever made. We are all suffering because of your incompetence and your greed,” I went off at him.

“Aria…” mum’s warning voice did not stop me from glaring at my father.

With slow calculated steps, my father sauntered towards me. His face was bruised badly, but my father was a fine man, despite his abject state of poverty.

“You hate me so much Aria, and I totally understand why,” he says “But you have no idea the decisions I have to make for this family. You do not know what it takes to be a father …”

“I can see the effects of your decisions father,” I make a quote sign in the air with my index and middle finger “It’s the reason you have nine fingers left, and if not for Audrey’s selflessness, you probably would have…”

“Stop it right now Aria,” my mum screamed. She steps in between me and my father to glare at me. “You can’t say things like that to him. Not now, not ever,”

“Why do you always defend him?” I screamed, “Why mum?”

She shook her head “Just stop it Aria. He’s in pain already. Don’t make this worse than it already is,”

“Nothing could be worse than this, Mother,” I scowled.

“Guys, we should be cooking up ways to fix this instead of fighting,” Audrey says. Audrey is the peacemaker. Our characters are just as contrasting as our looks. She is soft and gullible, unlike me.

“Thank you, Audrey,” Father cast her a thankful glance and limped back to his chair. The old chair creaked as he deposited his weight on it and adjusted to a comfortable sitting position.

“What other options do we have?” my mum turns to him “We have sold out all our assets. We could work for Pablo if he wants,” she suggests.

My dad scoffed “I know Pablo, and I know what he wants,” he stated.

“And what’s that?” mum asks.

“He likes Aria,” dad says flatly.

My fists curl up in a ball beside me.

“What do you mean Harry?” mum’s eyes widened.

Father dips his hands back into the bag of ice and wouldn’t turn to make eye contact with any of us “You heard him, he said so himself. He likes Aria. The only way we can have him forget about the loan is if we let him have her,” he says.

I feel like the air had just been sucked out of my windpipe, and I had to hold the wall for support.

“What!” mum exclaims.

“Don’t scream like I just said something that isn’t unheard of. Right now, that’s the only solution I can think of. If any of you has any other ideas how we can raise two hundred grand in three weeks, then let us know,”

I blinked severally and once more, I feel my stomach begin to churn. He did not just say that. No, he can’t possibly be suggesting that I give my body to that swine to pay off his debts.

“Father, how can your mind even conceive a thing like this?” Audrey screeched, rising to my defense.

“Let’s be logical. What else can we possibly do? You all want me to die? I know how it sounds, but give me a better idea if you have any. I’m not saying you get married to him. Just be his mistress, what do you have to lose?”

His words were accompanied by a deafening silence. I stared unbelievably at the man that sired me. I didn’t think a day would come when we would be reduced to this. When I would be reduced to this.

“Please Aria. I feel terrible as it is, and this isn’t the life I’d hoped to live, hell, this was never the way I envisioned raising you and Audrey, but it has come to this, and we have to find a way to survive it,” Father says. “Please,”

“Harold. You do know what you are asking of your daughter? She’s seventeen,” My mum shrieked.

“Eighteen in a few days,” my father corrected. I’m surprised he even knows my birthday. He never buys me gifts or even says a simple ‘Happy birthday' but it appears as though he’s already thought about it. When he’d taken that loan, he had it somewhere at the back of his mind that if it didn’t turn out well for him, he’d make any of his daughters sell their bodies to pay back. Monster.

“I would do no such thing,” I spat out.

“Aria…” my mum start to move closer to touch me, but I ducked before her hands rested on my arms and made for my room.

“I can’t believe this,” I hear Audrey say, as she turns to follow me “You’re unbelievable,”

I slammed the door to the room hard with a loud thud but Audrey yanks it back open and joins me in the room.