Her suitcase bulged in the middle
like it had overeaten.
She must have packed the day before – planned it.
Sorry, Allie, I gotta get out.
He’s getting worse.
Kelly-Anne took off the dull ruby ring Dad had given her.
Her face was bloated and pale.
No smile in weeks.
Still.
Don’t go.
I yanked at her jacket.
Come with me.
Her eyes were on the wall clock,
feet in her boots.
We’ll get somewhere cheap and
work it out, yeah?
Go and throw some stuff into a bag.
Do it quickly.
Come on. Quick!
I let go.
Don’t you love him?
He’s a bastard, Allie.
She had a plummy bruise on her arm to prove it.
Don’t you love me?
I can’t stay. And I can’t explain.
She eyed the ring.
Surely you above all people can understand.
I do but …
My forehead felt hot.
My knees locked.
He isn’t all bad, is he?
He works so hard.
He’s tired.
Allie –
We could make him happier together.
Both of us.
We could try again.
I can’t try any more, she snapped.
She twisted my wrist.
She’d never
hurt me before,
yet here she was
stacking it up.
You don’t need to stay here.
She unintentionally gestured to the mirror –
to herself.
The reflection stared back,
broken and
unconvinced.
What she didn’t realise was that
I didn’t have any choice.
I had to stay.
He was my dad, not my boyfriend.
You can’t just walk out on your parents.
Who else did I have apart from him?
Who did he have but me?
I sobbed in the hallway.
Kelly-Anne pulled a scrunched-up tenner from her bag,
a pound hidden inside like a present.
Here, she said,
as though money might make it all right.
I’ll get settled and call you.
Be strong and don’t piss him off.
Tell him you didn’t see me leave.
Make him believe I’ll be back
so he doesn’t look for me.
And that was that.
I watched her from the window,
worrying about what would happen when Dad got home
and discovered his fiancée was gone,
the engagement ring left on the hall table,
the same red ruby that had belonged to my mum
back when he loved her
best.