Page 5 of Into These Eyes

Jamie

“ Y es!” I yell with utter satisfaction.

“You’re cheating!” Dad protests, a big doofus grin on his face.

“Park Lane is mine! Now I’m going to bleed you dry, old man.”

He laughs, giving me an affectionate wink. It’s not like he doesn’t gloat when he scores the top two Monopoly properties.

On the couch beside him, Anika giggles and claps her hands, her bright eyes glued to the Finding Nemo DVD I’d put on nearly an hour ago. As soon as Mum had left, Dad insisted I take Anika upstairs for her bath. Because, of course, he couldn’t possibly do it himself.

While I ran her a bubble bath, I chased her around the bedrooms, playing her version of hide and seek. My motivation might’ve been to tire her out, but by the end, my cheeks and belly were both aching from giggling so much.

Once her bath was ready, the bubbles and delicious scent inspired me to lock the door and get in with her. Really, it was easier than hanging over the side of the tub for an hour while she played.

We spent so long in there, I had to carefully top it up with hot water twice.

My fault, since I insisted on playing her favourite game of creating a bubble beard and shaving it off over and over.

Then we moved on to filling her plastic dolly up with water and squeezing it so it looked like she was peeing.

That never failed to have my little sister in fits of hysterics.

Despite all my efforts to tire Anika out, she’s showing no signs of nodding off. I glance at Dad as he takes a peek at his watch.

“Why don’t you take Anika up to bed? It’s almost nine already.”

I glare at him. “Oh, I get it. Since I’m about to kick your butt, you’re ending the game?”

“Can’t sneak anything past you, can I?” he admits.

“You suck.”

“You suck!” Anika yells, clapping her hands.

“Jamie … she needs her sleep.” Dad warns, but he still has a smile plastered on his face.

“Fine,” I grumble. “That means you’re packing up.”

“Deal.”

I stand and lift Anika into my arms. She instantly grabs my cheeks with her sticky fingers. “Ow, ow, owwww!” I giggle and tickle her feet. She squeals in delight, lifting my mood when she presses her flat palms against my face and squeezes.

“Fishy, fishy!” she yells. I pucker my mouth and make fish-lips at her before plonking noisy kisses all over her rosy cheeks.

“Go on, you two,” Dad reminds me. “And stop revving her up, Jamie. She’ll never get to sleep at this rate.”

To my utter shock, once I’ve got her in bed, her long lashes—which I’m forever jealous of—flutter closed. As I lie beside her and watch her drift off, I wonder if Dad will bother coming up to kiss her goodnight.

After ten minutes, I give up on that stupid idea, carefully slip from her bed and head downstairs.

When I join Dad on the couch and see he’s watching a boring documentary, I get started on my latest reading assignment for school while I wait for Mum to get home.

The doorbell rings.

I stare at Dad and he stares right back, a frown on his face. “Why’s your mother ringing the doorbell?”

I shrug. He’s right. She should’ve pulled her car into the garage and come in that way. Tossing my book on the couch, I get up and hurry into the foyer.

Grinning, I swing the door wide.

And freeze.

Two police officers stand on the other side of the locked security door. One male. One female.

My heart takes off like a rocket. Before I regain the ability to speak, Dad’s behind me, resting his hand on my shoulder.

“Are you Brian Evans?” the male officer asks.

“That’s me. What’s the problem?”

Both officers’ eyes swing my way, then return to Dad.

“Do you mind if we come in?” the female asks.

Dad moves me aside, but he doesn’t release my shoulder as he unlocks the security door. The policewoman removes her hat as she steps inside, her partner following her lead.

As Dad’s hand tightens on my shoulder, my heart doesn’t know whether to beat harder or stop altogether. By the look in the officers’ eyes, devastation is about to hit my little family.

“Jesus,” Dad says, his voice filled with anguish. “Please don’t tell me she’s been in a car accident.”

“Mr. Evans, is your wife Matilda Evans?” the male officer asks.

“Yes,” Dad croaks.

Both sets of eyes snap to me. “Maybe we should talk in private?” the woman suggests.

“Mum …” I whisper, my throat slamming shut as Dad’s grip on me grows tighter.

“Just tell us,” Dad insists.

“Mr. Evans, we’re sorry to inform you that your wife Matilda has been killed.”

Silence engulfs us all before Dad shakes his head. “No. No, you’ve got it wrong,” he reasons. “She’s out. With her friends. That’s all.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Evans. She was murdered earlier tonight.”

“ Murdered? ” Dad gasps.

The world spins. My knees buckle, slamming painfully into the tiled floor. Dad kneels beside me, crushing me to his chest as I try to draw in air as thick as oil. I think I’m drowning. Drowning on words I desperately didn’t and don’t want to hear.

“How?” Dad cries, his voice vibrating against my ear along with the thunderous beat of his heart.

“She was stabbed. We have the suspect in custody.”

The only thing I hear after that is the wail of Dad’s cries as he holds me and rocks me right there on the cold tiles. It can’t be real. Things like this don’t happen to families like ours.

That’s what I keep telling myself all night as I lie in bed, waiting for Mum to come home, waiting for her to apologise for being so late, that she simply lost track of time.

Waiting for someone to tell me it’s all been a terrible mistake.

In the early hours of the morning, Anika slips into my bed and snuggles close. I hold her tight and try to absorb her warmth. But when light filters in through the window, winter seeps right through my feather-down comforter and burrows deep inside my soul.

At 9am sharp, Detective Jarrod Reid enters our home. Dad ushers him into the living room, where only last night we’d been oblivious to the horror about to destroy our world.

With Dad still in shock, he doesn’t force me out of the living room as I sit beside him and listen to the detective explain what happened to Mum.

He tells us that my mother’s murder was captured via a security vehicle’s dash-cam. The suspect was recorded holding the knife he’d driven into my mother’s chest. He tried to flee the scene, but was caught by the security guard. An open and shut case, the detective reassures us.

“But … but where?” I ask. “She was out with her girlfriends.”

Detective Reid hesitates, his eyes fixed on Dad, his expression unreadable. “I’m not sure your daughter should be here for this.”

“We’re talking about her mother. Whatever it is, she has a right to know,” Dad mutters.

Detective Reid nods, his sympathetic gaze lingering on me. “It’s come to light that she wasn’t out with friends. She was visiting a man. Lachlan Lake. Does that name mean anything to you, Brian?”

What? A man?

That’s not possible. Mum wouldn’t …

I look at Dad. The small amount of blood remaining in his face drains away. Shaking his head, he glares at the detective. “What do you mean by visiting a man? ”

Exactly. This detective’s got it all wrong. Obviously.

“It’s part of his statement. They were in a … romantic relationship.”

If I’d managed to eat any breakfast, I’m sure it’d be all over the carpet right now.

“This is bullshit!” Dad roars, leaping to his feet. “Get the fuck outta here with your filthy lies! My wife would never do … anything … like …”

For a terrifying moment, I think Dad’s having a heart attack.

He sways on his feet, his face bright red, hands fisted at his sides.

After a moment, he flops onto the couch beside me.

Resting his elbows on his knees, he drops his head in his hands.

I stare, one part of me processing the absurdness of Mum cheating, another wondering if Dad might actually pull clumps of hair from his scalp.

Like, just maybe, he believes it.

I force my gaze to the detective, noticing his eyes flicking from me to Dad and back again. I shake my head, unable to force words from my tightening throat.

“I’m sorry,” Reid says, giving my hand a quick, gentle pat. “Unfortunately, it’s true.”

Pushing the idea of Mum doing anything to hurt our family aside, I concentrate on the practical side of the revelation.

Swallowing down my shock, I ask, “This man … he killed her?”

Reid shakes his head. “It was his son, Gavin Lake.”

I’m not sure if Dad’s listening anymore, but I suddenly have an insatiable need to know every detail. If I know how it happened, why it happened, then I can make sense of what seems impossible. “But … why?”

Reid gazes at Dad for a long moment. When he realises my father isn’t in any state to take in information, he turns to me, explaining that Gavin Lake had discovered his father’s affair with my mother last night before she arrived at their house.

His own mother had recently passed away, so when he found out about the new woman in his father’s life, a violent altercation took place between father and son.

“Gavin left the premises, but when he returned and saw your mother near his house, he attacked her.”

As silence fills the room, Dad sobs uncontrollably into his hands. I hold him close the way he’d held me the night before, but I don’t let him distract me. Some boy killed my mother?

“How old is this … Gavin Lake?”

“Eighteen.”

“So, he’ll be sentenced as an adult?” I want to confirm.

Reid blinks at me. “That’s right. Pending a thorough investigation, of course. But, like I said, the evidence is highly incriminating. Trust me when I say this, Jamie. He’ll pay for what he’s done.”

I stare straight into his eyes with fierce determination. “I hope he rots in prison forever.”

He stares back with utter conviction.

My mind races back to last night. I watched her get ready. I watched her lie.

How happy she seemed. Glowing even. And she’d told me not to hold onto grudges when it came to family. To open my heart.

Had she been trying to soften me up for the news that would break our family apart?

Every muscle in my body tenses. I can’t even comprehend Mum cheating on Dad, let alone how I’m supposed to feel about it. But there are feelings welling inside me. Feelings I’ve never dealt with before.

Hate. Anger. Rage.

Those are solid, easily identifiable emotions I can cling to. Focus on.

And I know just where to direct them. Toward a violent thug who took my mother’s life.

As Dad continues to fall apart in my arms, I realise in that moment that it’s me who’ll have to be the strong one.

It’s me who’ll have to keep everything together.

It’s what Mum would have wanted. Anika’s so little.

She needs a mother. Had it only been yesterday I’d been so grateful I don’t have a kid to look after at my age?

And Dad? He’s always been the typical old-school Aussie bloke.

I’ve never seen him cook a meal in his life, let alone make a bed, do laundry, or any type of housework.

He works his job in construction, comes home and does whatever needs doing around the yard.

That’s it. And Mum let him get away with his gender-role beliefs.

The weight of it all comes crashing into my body, threatening to take me to the floor and crush me like a steamroller.

I don’t think I can cope with that much responsibility.

But what does it matter what I think?

A boy called Gavin Lake has stolen the future I was meant to live.