What in the hell was I thinking? I needed to get out of there but getting up now while everyone else was seated and quiet would only draw attention to me. I was trapped, and I all I could do was sit glued to this seat and try to hold it together long enough to wait for an escape.
Marta spoke again. “Some of you remember Jack, I’m sure.”
I haven’t heard that name mentioned since I was a child.
Marta’s voice pierced through my shock. “I’m going to hand the floor over to him now so that he can fill you in on his great and silent accomplishments that have led us all here to this day.” She sat down, and all eyes turned toward my father.
“Good evening, everyone,” he said.
That voice….
Dad—I mean, Jack—paused. “I think I should begin by dismissing the aquarium staff for a couple of hours.”
The wait staff looked up at him in surprise. They whispered to each other, and within a few moments, a catering manager had gone up to the front table to speak with the board members and my father directly. The manager looked flustered as he talked with my father, and then he turned around and waved his waitstaff away with him to leave.
Then, he plastered on that crooked little smile of his. “A big thanks to the staff for providing us with such a cooperative and vastly adequate venue,” he said as the service staff left the rooftop, leaving the bars unmanned and the tables of food uncleared.
“Now,” he said as he cleared his throat. “We can get down to business.”
I looked around nervously. Now there was no one there that I could even signal for help.
“As some of you may have known, and as many of you did not know, I staged my own death many years ago in order to allow me to disappear for all essential purposes. When I disappeared from public view, many of you had known me as a high-ranking board member of our rival college, Goldshire Academy.”
He took a pause for drama’s sake before continuing.
Guess some things don’t even change with death.
“That assumption, on the surface, of course, was true. My family had been long vested in the pockets of Goldshire and had long served as one of the prominent faces of our rival school. I worked tirelessly to line the pockets of Goldshire members and to secure the college’s place as a formidable opponent to Lineage. What all of you did not know, with the exception of my dear friend Marta, is that during my time at Goldshire, I was also furthering the interests of Lineage.”
I jumped as the man sitting next to me tapped me on the shoulder.
“Sorry,” he said. “I was just going to offer you some more wine.”
I looked at the wine bottle he was holding half-tilted in his hand and realized that he wasn’t a threat.
“Sure,” I said. “Thanks.”
“No problem,” he smiled as he refilled my glass. “Pretty shocking stuff, huh?”
I looked at him in confusion, and he just continued talking.
“I can’t say I’m surprised, though. Everyone knew he was behind his wife’s killing. It was only a matter of time before he resurfaced again.”
“What did you say?” I asked.
“Oh, I assumed everyone here already knew that,” he looked a bit taken aback. “Pauline, his wife…everyone knows he put out the kill order on her. Of course, it was the right thing to do, being that she was about to rat him out and all. I just felt bad for their kid, you know?”
I put the wine glass to my lips to avoid having to respond. In the back of my mind, I heard my father continue to speak, just as I heard the man sitting next to me continue to speak. But all the words just sounded like nothing.
My father had pretended to be dead all these years. He had pretended to have allegiance to Goldshire while he was alive. Hell, he even pretended to love me and my mother while he was still around. None of it was true, though. And it seemed not even the rumors were true as well. He hadn’t embezzled money from the college. He had merely shifted hands with it and given it to Lineage while he was working behind the scenes to use both schools as a cover for a much more sinister and illegal operation.
No wonder my mother was glad when he left us and probably even more glad when she thought he was dead.
But she must have stumbled upon something that clued her in on what was really going on and to the fact that he was still alive. And when she did, she became his next target. He killed my mother, not Michael. Michael may have been put up to the task, but it was my father who commanded her murder. Looking at him now, so cozy alongside Marta, it wouldn’t surprise me if he had been behind the murder of Michael’s father as well.
I listened as he finished his speech to a round of roaring applause. He had just promised more money, more swift transactions of illegal drug trades behind the guise of Academy finances, than any of the people here could have dreamed of. I had no idea how he would manage to explain away the fact that he was supposed to be dead to the public, but now that he was “back,” he said he had no intention of hiding again. He would expand his reach by combining both schools for a singular, wicked purpose, and he would not hesitate to hunt down anyone that dared to expose him or slow him down.
That solidified my decision. I needed to be sure that he died tonight.
After his speech, Marta left momentarily to fetch and recall the aquarium waitstaff. Apparently, it was okay for them to come back now that all the blatant talk about illegal activity and murderous intent was done for the night. People murmured in low voices at their tables and ate and drank as if it was a grand celebration. After they had finished eating, I saw my father and Marta get up from the table and begin to make their rounds to talk to all their guests. That couldn’t happen; I couldn’t be at this table when they got here.
Even though it had been years, I knew that my father would recognize me, and Marta certainly would as well. I needed to leave for just long enough that I avoided his table visit and perhaps come up with a plan to attack him on the way to his car or something. I also needed something bigger to use than just a single steak knife. I got up and started to walk toward the stairwell. I would take a minute or two in the restroom to gather my thoughts and formulate an amended plan.
“Beautiful dress,” a voice said from behind me.
It was my father’s voice, and I tried to bury the utter fear that rose up into my gut.
“Thank you,” I said without turning around.
He chuckled. “Your mother always admired the color garnet.”
I reached into the bodice of my dress to grab the knife. I may not be able to kill him, but at least maybe I could hurt him badly enough to escape.
“I wouldn’t,” he said as I felt a hand being placed on my shoulder.
I could try to run, I thought as I eyed the stairwell. I would have another chance to kill him another time.
But, Dad spoke as if he could read my mind. “I’m sure you’re thinking about how fast you can make it to that stairwell and maybe even how quickly you might be able to make it out of town,” he said as I struggled to hear anything over the pounding in my own ears. “But your boyfriends won’t make it out at all if you choose to do that.”
