2
He hung up without a second thought. My
hands were shaking, dropping my phone
<
repeatedly. I fell to my knees, looking at my
lifeless Lily, and I completely lost it.
How could a father talk like that to his own
daughter?
I’d always thought Mark was just pushing Lily
to reach her full potential. But I was so
wrong. He was affectionate and patient with
all of his students, but he never had any
patience for Lily.
He was everyone’s favorite teacher, but he
was the source of Lily’s worst nightmares.
He was selfish, vain, and he pushed Lily
straight into the abyss.
Lily’s smartwatch was dead. I charged it,
went to the call log, and found she called
L
I hit play on the voice recording. I could hear
Lily crying. “Dad, my chest hurts so bad.
Please help me.”
“Don’t call me ‘dad‘,” Mark replied coldly. “I’m not your dad! You’re pretending because
I made you stand for a little while. You’re just
trying to get attention. You failed your test
again, what, you gonna die on me? You trying
to check out?”
33
“Dad, I’m sorry.”
Lily was crying hysterically, “I’ll do better on
the next test. Please, just help me. It hurts so bad, I really think I’m gonna die.”
“Go ahead and die, stop being so dramatic. I’m busy tutoring Jake. I don’t have time for
your stuff.”
<
The call ended there. She had called several
more times after that, but he never picked up.
I was suffocating with pain. My hands shook
as I called him from her smartwatch, but it
went straight to voicemail.
He blocked her number!
He was in a warm house, calmly helping his
old flame’s son, while my daughter was
locked away in an old equipment room,
begging for his help while having a heart
attack, and he told her to die.
How could I not feel anger? How could I not
hate him?!
I called Mark again, and this time, Jake answered. “Hi, Aunt Sarah, is everything
く
I was barely holding myself together. “Put
Mark on the phone!”
“My mom just came home from work, and
Mark is cooking dinner for us!”
Jake’s voice was cheerful. “I did better on my
test this week, and Mark told me that he
would take me to the park next week. They
said that Lily was being punished; is she
okay?”
“Mark told me that Lily is lying and that she
is spoiled.”
“This afternoon, Lily called and cried and said
she was dying; do you think she is lying again,
Aunt Sarah?”
ILO
The innocence in his voice was like a
く
demonic whisper that sent shivers down my
spine.
I clenched my fists so hard that my nails dug
into my palms, the tears blurring my vision as
I roared, “Get Mark on the phone!”
Jake started to cry, and Mark came to the
phone. “What’s your problem? Why are you
screaming? You made Jake cry!”
“Mark!”
My chest felt like it had a brick on it. My
voice was soft and trembling.
“Your pathetic daughter is dead!”
He paused, then yelled, “Sarah! What the hell
is that supposed to mean? I’m her father. Can
<
I not punish my own child?”
“If it wasn’t for me pushing her, she’d be so
dumb she would never get to be at the top of
her class. Why don’t you tell her that instead
of playing dead she should figure out why she
did not do well!”
“Playing dead?”
I started to laugh, tears streaming down my
face. “How could you be so cruel and
heartless to a seven–year–old child, Mark?
You have a heart of stone!”
“Stop with the melodrama. I’ve seen so many
kids like her. You have to be harsh on these
kids or they’ll never learn!”
“Lily is dead!”
く
I screamed, “Are you deaf? I said she’s dead!
Dead!”
“Sarah, are you losing your mind? Jake is still
here!”
Mark’s voice was full of anger. “I have to do
this because your daughter always
embarrasses me! If I don’t push her, she will
never succeed!”
“You need to tell her that if she doesn’t want
me to parent her then she can just leave! I
don’t need to see her again!”
