Part Three

It was nine pm by the time Kelley pulled into the garage, looking at the empty space where his father’s car should be. The foyer light was on but the rest of the house was cast in darkness. It was Marley’s sixteenth birthday that she was spending at a hotel in the city, a gift from their father.

Kelley froze in the hallway and turned towards the kitchen. The bright moonlight illuminated the room with its large bay windows and he saw his mother sitting at the table, a glass of wine in front of her.

“Mom?” Surprise laced his voice since his mother and father were supposed to be in the city with Marley.

Tears streaked Laura’s face and Kelley went down on one knee in front of her, his hands on her knees. She laughed ruefully and sniffed as she slugged down the rest of the glass’s contents. “You look like him.”

“What’s wrong, Mom?”

“Too many secrets in this house. If I could go back I’d make a different choice. I had no idea who your father really was, but his brother was worse and here I am, stuck in this house with no voice, no rights and when I look at you I wish I’d been stronger.”

“You can be strong, Mom. You can leave right now, you don’t have to stay with him.”

Laura shook her head sadly. “He owns me, my life, everything.”

“He’s cheating on you, Mom. I saw him at the hotel with another woman.”

“She’s not his daughter so it doesn’t matter.”

Kelley frowned. “Who, Mom?”

Laura didn’t seem to register his words. She was staring off into the distance. “He keeps everything hidden in his office. I should look there.”

The front door slammed closed and within seconds the imposing figure of Charles Alexander loomed in the doorway. His eyes were narrowed as he took in the pitying form of Laura with Kelley at her feet. He took one step into the room and Laura visibly flinched.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Charles was addressing Laura.

“Don’t talk to her like that!” Kelley had no idea where the courage had come from. Even though nobody had ever said it out loud, he knew his father was a dangerous man. It poured from him in waves, the power, the absolute danger of power.

Outside thunder cracked loudly, flooding the kitchen in a bright, white light for a second. Charles didn’t even look at Kelley as he took another step toward Laura. Charles pushed Kelley away with such force that he slid over the kitchen tiles and the slap made Laura’s head snap to the other side and she fell off her chair with a scream.

Kelley was up on his feet and he ran straight for Charles, picking him up in a tackle and slamming his back against the wall. Charles’s elbow came down on Kelley’s shoulder and he let go of his father as he went down to his knees.

“You’re just a boy, Kelley. You have no idea what it takes to be a man, to keep a woman in line. You can’t even keep Norah in line. She sucks a different man’s cock every night of the week, not boys like you and Hanson.”

“Shut up!”

“Charles, leave him. He doesn’t know anything.” Laura was on her hands and knees as she crawled to Charles’s feet.

“He needs to know about the world he lives in. There, check my phone. A picture says a thousand words but a video has sound.” Charles unlocked his phone and slid it towards Kelley over the counter.

Kelley grabbed the phone and pressed play on the video. Norah came into view, wearing nothing but a collar around her neck. She was on her hands and knees, a circle of men seated around her as she crawled towards one man.

Kelley recognized the plush suite from his father’s hotel. Norah looked directly at the camera as another man came into view from behind and slapped her hard on her ass. She closed her eyes and moaned in pleasure.

The man produced a dildo and shoved it into her. She gripped the man in front of her, her hands fisting his pants. “Yes, just like that.” Her voice was breathy and she panted as the man kept pushing the dildo in and out of her.

The man in front of her unzipped his pants and gripped her head roughly, shoving his erection into her open mouth. Kelley pressed pause, he couldn’t watch anymore. He felt sick to his stomach and he looked at his mother, also on her hands and knees.

“You’re sick.”

“On the contrary. Norah especially likes it. It satisfies her little nymphomaniac urges. She goes through ten men on a good weekend and she never complains when her bank account lights up.” Charles laughed then at the shocked expression on Kelley’s face.

“She’s seventeen!”

“Consenting age is sixteen. Women will always want to ruin you, Kelley. Use them and discard them. Never let them into your heart. Women are there to please men.”

“Charles … I’m sorry, I’ll do whatever you want.” Laura was begging now, sounding even more pitiful than she had earlier.

“You’ll need to apologize to Marley .. she’s sixteen now and with every passing day she becomes more ready to replace you.”

“I’ll make it right, I promise.” Laura was nodding her head.

Kelley saw red in that instance. Marley could replace Laura. She wasn’t Charles’s daughter. That’s who Laura had been talking about. Charles was introducing Marley to his sick and twisted lifestyle, he’d probably been doing it to his mother for years.

She’d been conditioned to be weak, to crawl and beg. Kelley lunged at his father, his fist making contact with his stomach, he heard a grunt before Charles had his hand around his throat. Kelley saw the gleam of silver on Charles’s knuckles and a split second later it made contact with his cheek bone.

Kelley felt the skin split, the blood running down his face but Charles didn’t stop. His eye was swollen shut and Charles let go of his shirt and spat on the floor next to Kelley’s head. “Get out of my house. You’re no son of mine. See if the streets treat you better than I did.”

Kelley lost consciousness then as Charles walked away, Laura’s arm in a death grip as she followed him meekly. Kelley had no idea how long he’d been out but he woke up to a stinging sensation on his face and a soft pressure on his cheek.

“You have to leave before he wakes up, Kelley. He’ll really hurt you when he finds you here. I’ve packed as much as I could for you. There’s money too, use it wisely because it has to last you for another year. You can only claim your inheritance when you’re eighteen.” Laura was rambling as she cleaned the wounds on his face.

“Mom, what are you talking about?”

“There’s no time, Kelley, you have to leave. You’re free now. Don’t ever come back here. Make a life for yourself and be happy.”

“I’m not leaving you here.”

“You have to. It’s too late for me but it’s not too late for you. Go and never look back. Promise me. I'll keep Marley safe until she can leave too.”

Laura helped Kelley get to his feet and pressed his keys in his hand. “Mom …” She shook her head and nudged him out of the kitchen.

“Everything’s in your car, he can’t take that from you but he’ll take everything else. Your cards will be cancelled so withdraw as much as you can right now. He’ll stop your school tuition and any accounts you have in town. I love you, Kelley. Now go.”

Laura closed the front door behind him and he heard the lock turn. His shirt was sticking to his skin with his own dried blood. He climbed into his Escalade and looked at himself in the rearview mirror. It could have been worse.

His left eye was swollen shut and starting at the edges from his eyebrow and down across his cheek bone the open wound looked terrible. He knew he’d have a scar but at least that was the only damage to his face. His phone would probably stop working too if his mother was right.

Charles Alexander owned the whole of upper Yorkdare Bay. All the hotels and lodges there too were owned by him. Kelley couldn’t stay on this side of town and he drove towards lower Yorkdare Bay where the middle and lower income people lived.

A glance at the car’s clock told him that it was just past two am. Kelley parked his car just before he left the edges of upper Yorkdare Bay and walked to the ATM. He withdrew the maximum amount from all five of his cards and tucked ten grand into his football jacket.

He had no idea how much money his mother had left in the duffel bags on the back seat of his car. He had one year left of school and he knew he couldn’t go back to Smith’s Private School. He needed to find a place to sleep first before he could worry about something as mundane as school.

Kelley felt a wave of dizziness overcome him as he headed back to the Escalade. This part of town was relatively quiet and for a moment Kelley considered sleeping in his car right there. It would only be for a few hours until the motels opened.

The smarter move would be to drive and park in a motel’s parking lot, it would be safer. He stumbled over his feet as his head pounded and the lethargic feeling threatened to take over. “Easy, buddy.” A man came from behind and slipped Kelley’s arm over his shoulder.

“I’m okay. I just need to get to my car.”

The man laughed, his voice deep and rough. “You’re far from okay. I’m guessing the Escalade is yours?”

Kelley nodded his head weakly wondering if he’d wake up in a few hours with his worldly belongings missing as well as his car and maybe even his kidney. The man fished his keys from his jacket pocket and the Escalade beeped twice before the man pushed him into the passenger side of his car.

Kelley was in and out of consciousness but he was aware of the man driving his car asking him questions. He couldn’t have answered even if he wanted to. Kelley felt relief when darkness finally took him.

Kelley woke up with a tight feeling around his eye. His hand touched a bandage of sorts and he sat upright in the double bed. There had been a strange man, driving his car. His football jacket hung on the back of a wooden chair and he stumbled his way across the ratty carpet towards it.

“It’s all there.” Kelley turned abruptly and looked at the man standing in the doorway.

“Thank you.”

“Come on through to the kitchen, it’s lunch time and you need to start talking.”

Kelley followed the man out of the bedroom and into a small kitchen. Two plates stood on the table for two and Kelley took a seat as the man poured two glasses of orange juice. Kelley was starving and he picked up the fork.

“This might be a shithole but when you eat at this table you say grace.”

Kelley lowered his fork back to the table. “Sorry.” Kelley closed his eyes when the man closed his.

“Dear Heavenly Father, we give our gratitude for the meal we are about to eat. Thank you for the countless blessings you bestow upon us every day. Amen.”

“Amen.” The man nodded and started to eat.

Kelley didn’t really care what was on the plate as long as it filled his starving stomach. Lunch was a quiet affair but Kelley didn’t feel like his life was in danger. Did thieves feed you before they robbed you? The man had helped him when he didn’t have to.

“Did you stitch up my face?” It felt tight like stitches did.

“Yeah, someone got you pretty bad, your eye looks okay but you’ll have a scar forever.”

“Thanks.”

“Talk kid, what happened to you? You clearly don’t belong on this side of town so why were you there last night? What’s with all the cash in your jacket?”

“My dad kicked me out of the house last night. No, it’s not something I want to talk about but he did this to my face. I was withdrawing cash from my accounts before he cancels them. My name's Kelley, Kelley Alexander.”

“I’m Jesse Owens. I own the MMA dojo down the street. You’re just a kid, Kelley Alexander, the kid of a very, very rich hotel owner.”

“I doubt my father would agree with you. I’m no son of his, in his own words.”

“Then I won’t say sorry for saying that he’s the biggest asshole to ever rule this town.”

“I found out some things last night, it didn’t end well for me.”

“So now you’re a homeless orphan?” Jesse gave him a half smile.

“I guess I am. I have a year of high school left although I was told I can’t go back to my old school.” Kelley sighed as Jesse leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Public school’s free. Motel down on Pickings Road is not too bad, cheap too. You can get away with a grand a month, get yourself an after school job. Figure out a plan to get your revenge, take your time with it too, the best plans are hatched over time.”