Page 112 of Off-Limits

“Good. Then let’s go, because there are way too many fucking people around.

Three hours later,with Bury Tomorrow blaring around me, I find myself sitting outside the workshop in my truck, waiting for a reply from Arrie. My phone blinks at me incessantly, but it’s not for the reason I want, rather the many fucking emails I need to tend to.

Right now, I don’t care for them.

As if sensing my mood, Arrie messages me and I am not at all prepared for what I read.

Aunt Mani passed away.

Dottie’s mum is dead.

Starting the truck, I push it into first when another message pops up.

She’s with Uncle Lewis. I’ll let you know when she leaves.

“Fuck!” I curse, turning the car off and banging on the steering wheel again.

Hopping out of the car, I slam the door and head inside. My body is vibrating with pent up frustration, and anxiety bleeds through my veins. I should be there for her.

No matter the relationship she had with her mother, she still loved her. This is going to kill her, and I don’t even want to think of the guilt her dad will be dishing out.

He could never keep his god damn mouth shut. Whatever demons Lewis was wrestling, the fact that he couldn’t slay them in his own time, and dragged his daughter and wife along behind him, always made me mad.

Poor Mani. That woman had the worst life growing up, and then she married a man who treated her like shit and only loved her when she could do something for him.

It makes me sick, and I know he will be playing the victim right now as well.

Heaving out a deep breath, I push down the terrible memories of a time long gone and try and calm myself the fuck down. Plopping on the couch in the office, I reach over and flick on the light.

Looking at the mural, I think of Dottie, and what she must be going through.

I don’t know how long I sit in the office and stare at it, wishing a message from Arrie into existence, but it doesn’t happen. Sighing, I lay back on the lounge with my hand under my head.

If she doesn’t message me soon, I won’t be held accountable for my actions.

Images of Dorothy growing up infiltrate my mind, and I see the sweet little girl who wished upon a star that her parents would love her enough to end their addictions, but it didn’t come. Instead, the little girl morphs into a geeky, emo Dorothywith dark hair, dark eyeliner and an attitude for days. That girl lost her spark for life, her bright eyes dulling, and the star she wished upon plummeted to the ground and died.

I didn’t see much of Dottie as a teenager, as that was when I split with Kerry-Anne. I always made time to visit Arrie and spend time with her, but once I left that godforsaken toxic house, I jumped on my bike and rode as far as the eye could bloody see.

The last time I saw her before I found her in my apartment, was at her and Arrie’s graduation. A graduation that her parents didn’t attend. I’ll never forget the shy smile she gave me through the crowd when she noticed me, but when she tripped and knocked herself out, I remember my heart stopping in my damn chest.

It wasn’t until the hospital cleared her, that I could draw in a much-needed breath. I’d always had a soft spot for Dottie, but I never saw her as anything other than my step niece, until recently.

I still don’t know how to feel about that, but I refuse to dwell on it. We are both consenting adults, and once I have her in my arms again, I will never let her go.

And after finding out that Kerry-Anne and Shane haven’t been together for some time, and that she was only using him as crutch to blackmail Dottie, and that Arrie accepts and respects our relationship, there is nothing holding me back.

Us back.

Sighing, I remind myself this is only for a little longer, that we have to be apart, but then my phone vibrates beside me, and I glance down to see it’s a message from Arrie, I smile.

Give her thirty minutes, dad. Dottie is at the hotel. Room three.

Chapter Thirty-Two

DOTTIE

Arrie sits beside me while my dad sobs like a drunken fucking mess, but I can’t stop looking at the floor where they performed CPR on her, after dad found her in the toilet hunched over. It’s like there are phantom lines of where her lifeless body had been.