Chapter 2. Poison
When she left his office, Kate took her father's keys and drove to the small apartment where she'd once spent her summers with him. It was messier than she remembered, as if he'd stopped really caring, and she felt a pang, knowing that she'd done this to him, that she was the reason he looked so old and worn and sad now. She wondered how much worse he'd look by the time she was done with him, by the time he discovered the reason for her visit. She wanted to believe it would bring him at least a little joy, but she knew it was probably too late for that now. She was going to kill him, just like she had her real father. Maybe not today, but one day. She was poison; he knew it, she knew it, by God Jack must have realised it by now. She had poisoned her parents' marriage, her relationship with both of them, her own marriage to Kevin, Tom's family, and now Jack⦠would he ever be able to trust another woman again? She'd known about Sarah, there had been no secrets between them by the end, and still, all she ever did was lie. She'd lied when she said she loved him the same way he loved her; she knew now that she was incapable of the kind of selfless love he deserved, the kind of love he'd shown her. If she wasn't, she never would have gotten involved with him in the first place. She would have broken his heart before the damage became irreparable. She would never have let things get this far.
She made herself a cup of coffee, and sat down at the table to wait for her father. When he arrived ten minutes later it was still untouched, her fingernails chewed down past the whites, a habit she'd abandoned along with the rest of her childhood.
"What's going on, Katie?" he asked when he saw her sitting there with her knees drawn to her chest, dropping his car keys and crouching beside her.
Kate heard his knees creak, along with his back, and it made her feel worse, if that were even possible anymore. "Maybe you should sit down," she suggested.
"Why?" he asked, staying put, and she realised where her own stubbornness had come from. "What's this all about?"
"Just sit. Please."
He did as she asked this time, easing himself into a chair across from her and gazing at her with that concerned father look. It made her feel like she was seventeen again, and having boyfriend dramas, only she was glad she was that she wasn't, given what she had to tell him.
"Katie, are you in some kind of trouble?" he asked.
"You mean besides being wanted by the police?" she said ironically. She was beginning to regret coming here. It felt good to see her father again, but she wasn't sure she wanted to go reopening old wounds by dragging him back into her turbulent life.
"Yeah," he said seriously, choosing to ignore the tone of her comment. "Are you?"
"That depends on what you mean by 'in trouble'."
He was beginning to lose patience with her now, she could tell. He had that look, the look he got when she was a kid and he tried to ask her about Wayne, about whether or not he was treating her and her mother well. The look he got when he knew she was being evasive. "Damn it, Katherine, what's going on?" he asked again. She couldn't remember him ever taking that tone with her before.
Kate lowered her feet to the floor before finally looking him in the eye. "I'm pregnant," she said quietly, but she knew that he'd heard her.
