Chapter 13

Percy

"Shall I, or shall I not? That is the question," I paced back and forth down the kitchen with a spoon in my right hand, though I have no idea how it got there.

It's so obvious he did it.

Anger stirs inside of me. A rage I've hardly ever experienced. I should've known he was no good, that worthless piece of –

"Daddy?" Ebony stood at the door in her baby blue dressing gown with her teddy bear in her hands. "Why didn't mummy visit yesterday?"

My mind wanders back to yesterday's events. Annabeth with amnesia...it's almost too much to process. All those memories we spent together...gone. Like the snap of the fingers. I suddenly feel empty inside, as if those memories I treasured inside of me meant absolutely nothing.

"She wasn't feeling very well."

"Oh, shall I send her a card? At school we have to design Christmas cards maybe that will help."

"That's a good idea..." I murmured. "Go and get dressed and I'll cook pancakes, ok?"

She grinned and ran off down the hallway.

I started pacing again. Luke needs to pay, preferably with his life, but I suppose that's a bit too far. If I were the king of England, I'd hang him immediately in front of the whole city. No...I'd chop off his head and watch it roll in the basket, bleeding with eyes staring blankly at the sky. Hmm... dark thoughts.

"Need to kill him..."

"No you can't."

"Yes, he's a liar. A coward. He deserves to be punished; I can't let him get away with this."

"It might not have been him."

"Oh hell yeah, of course it was him. I never liked him anyway."

Am I talking to myself? Great, I'm going mad.

After dropping Ebony off at school, I had made up my mind.

The rain splatters heavily on the wind screen, but that didn't deter me for one second as I drove through the streets of London, overtaking as many cars as I could.

I stopped outside a tall Victorian looking house with ivy creeping up the walls. This is it. Perfect. I rang the doorbell and waited.

Only a few short seconds later, an all too familiar person opened the door. Blond hair and blue eyes. He smiled when he saw me but it faded just as quickly when he saw my expression.

With all my strength, I stepped forwards and punched him directly in the face, hearing a satisfying crack.

He yelled and clutched his nose in agony.

"What the hell was that for?"

Rage continued to build up inside of me. "What the hell?" I mimicked. "You know exactly why I'm here."

I grabbed his collar and slammed him against the wall, the blood still gushed out from his nose. "Listen here, if you think you can lie your way through this – you're completely fucking wrong."

"I-I don't know what you're talking about."

I glowered at him, pulling tighter on his collar so his face turned a sickly shade of red. "Annabeth did not hit her head. Don't even think about lying, bastard."

He gulped and nodded.

"If you ever hurt her again, I will personally kill you."

"You don't have the balls."

Oh really? I tightened my grip around his neck. "I can do it here right now..."

"N-no, s-stop – "

"Promise me you won't hurt her again."

"Why would you care?"

God, how idiotic can this guy be? He knows that I can kill him right now but he still persists with stupid questions. "Because I still love her, that's why," I hiss. "But she's obviously happier with you, and frankly, you're a better person than I am, so that's why I'm giving you this chance."

I let him go and he stumbled backwards, massaging his neck. "You're not going to tell her, are you?"

"No, I'll leave that oh-so-pleasant job to you. But remember what I said because I'll never forget it either."

I turned and got back in my car. His front door slammed as I drove away.

I may have won this battle but the war has already been fought.

I made my way through the storm, towards the recording studio. The walls were built up high, grey and gloomy.

I pushed the door open and my colleague, Sam, ran up to meet me.

"You are twenty minutes late!" she says, dragging me down the corridor. "You're going on tour all over Europe, and we hardly have any time to prepare and we've only sorted out two pieces which – "

"Sam," I interrupt. "It's fine. I can manage it."

"No it's not 'fine'," she retorts. "You spend more and more time at that to-posh-for-words orchestra. You go off with your friends, do whatever you like and now we've wasted another five minutes arguing!"

"I'm pretty sure that wasn't five minutes."

"That's not the point!" she pushes me into a room with a dark brown piano in the centre and windows all around. "So let's get these pieces sorted out. The backing musicians need to know ASAP since the first concert in Italy is basically after Christmas."

Don't worry, she's always like this. The closest compliment she's ever said to me is 'That was better than yesterday'. She's a good person at heart...well, at least I think so.

"Ok, I have these compositions that are solo pieces, this one is for the piano and cello and this one..." I gave her a slightly yellowed manuscript. "This is one I wrote years ago."

She took it and skimmed through the messy writing, her eyebrows furrowing. I know for a fact that she's an absolutely amazing violinist, she can read a piece of manuscript and hear every single note in her head.

"Impressive, probably the best I've seen..."

"You really think so?"

"Yeah, apart from the ending...it should have more relation to the rest of the music, maybe a quiet diminuendo...hmm, I'm sure we can figure something out," she allowed herself a smile. "What's the title?"

I hesitated because...I hadn't named it. It is the piece Annabeth and I composed together, it took us months in fact but I knew it was worth it. Somehow it had brought us closer in spirit. What am I even thinking? I don't honestly know anymore.

"Iridescence."

"A fitting name," Sam mutters; her focus is lost in the countless black notes.

If only Annabeth remembered it.

XXX

15:30. End of school. Oops, I'm late. I slammed my car door and rushed out to collect Ebony, she was the only one left waiting next to the teacher.

"Sorry I'm late."

The teacher gave me an evil eye from underneath her glasses and strands of grey hair. It's quite clear that she doesn't approve of the fact I had Ebony at seventeen.

Ebony hugs me tightly. "I thought you died."

My eyes bug out. "Died? Isn't that a bit dramatic?"

She shakes her head and looks at me earnestly. "You kept muttering to yourself this morning that you had to go and kill somebody. So I thought they killed you instead."

I sigh mockingly. "You, miss, have no faith in your big, strong daddy."

"Nope!"

I shake my head and grin at her, my hand wraps around hers as we walk to the car. "Well, on the bright side I got your piano exam results today."

"Really? What did I get? What did I get? Tell me, tell me, was it a distinction? Can we go to the sweet shop? – "

"Hold on, hold on," I say with a smile, opening the car door for her. "You passed...and yes, you got a distinction!"

"Yay! Yes," she started doing a strange dance in the back of the car. "What was the number?"

"141. I'm so so so proud – I have never ever got that before, and it's even more humiliating for me because you're like four years old."

"So? What's wrong with being 4?"

"Uh...nothing?" change the subject... "So what about that sweet shop then?"

"Yes! The one where you buy those really long liquorice sticky thingies."

I grinned and drove off down the road. I parked near the shop and my eyes wandered to an all too familiar couple walking on the pavement. Just great.

"Is that Mummy?" Ebony says, jumping up from her seat excitedly. "Who is that with her? Why are they holding hands, daddy?"

So Luke obviously didn't tell her the truth. Look at them. Just look at them, laughing and grinning to the ends of their ears. I mean, she's only known him for two days since her amnesia and she's already holding his hands. See Luke, you've won, the prize is yours. Go ahead. Go and show off, see if I care. But the thing is I do care. And that's why it hurts.

"Can I go and see her?"

"Um...Yeah..." I say dumbly.

Ebony ran off onto the pavement immediately and pulled on Annabeth's coat for her attention. I could see them starting to talk, smiling like crazy.

I got out the car and slowly made my way towards them. God, this is awkward. Luke's nose isn't bleeding anymore although it looks slightly crooked – hopefully it's permanent.

"Shall we get those sweets, Ebony?"

Luke scowls at me. And to my surprise, Annabeth copies him.

"I heard what happened this morning," she says venomously.

"Yeah, what happened?" I blurt out.

She glares at me harder but I don't cower away. "You attacked Luke out of jealousy because of me. And if you even think you're going to win me back like that – you are so wrong."

"Excuse me?" I gaped, wondering if I heard right.

Luke...that little bastard telling liar.

"You heard me," she says, her lip pulls up in disgust. "I don't even know why I tried to be friendly with you."

Ebony tugged on my hand, her eyes starting welling up with tears. "Daddy what's going on?"

"Nothing. Nothing is going on," I turn back to Annabeth. "Look, he's lying to you. He only seeks attention for himself and – "

Smack.

"Daddy!" Ebony gasps stares up at Annabeth with fear.

I turn back to face her, ignoring the stinging in my cheek.

"He's even changed you, Annabeth. Can't you see? All he wants from you is a satisfying sha – "

Luke swings a punch at me but I grab his wrist just in time. I push him away and he stumbles back, people around us give us frightened glances and walk away in the opposite direction. Someone snaps a photo which cannot go down well. Stupid paparazzi, like I've said a billion times.

Thump.

Luke staggers back, clutching his balls with a seething expression on his face. Annabeth immediately rushes to his side and I'm left standing in the dust wondering what the hell just happened.

Did my daughter really just hit Luke? Annabeth's boyfriend? New found lover of all time? This day could not get any better. I stand there with my eyes wide and my mouth slightly open, unable to process the fact that my own four year old daughter hit a twenty three year old man where the sun doesn't shine.

"You are one amazing girl," I tell her.

"He's was going to hurt you, Daddy," she says seriously, her eyes are still full of tears. "He's a nasty person."

But still...did she really just punch a fully grown man? My four year old daughter? "Ok, I'll buy you twice as many sweets. Actually, triple."

"Percy," Annabeth gasps, she looks shocked that I didn't tell her off. "She just hit my boyfriend."

"And?" I snap. "My daughter sticks up for me 'cos that's what families do, right? Is that a problem or is there a problem with your head?"

Ebony giggles and sticks her tongue out at Luke, who looks like he wants to throttle her – which of course is completely unacceptable.

I take Ebony's hand and we walk off together down to the sweet shop.

"I'm proud of you, angel."

She squeezes my hand tightly. "And you are my big, strong Daddy after all."