Page 67 of The Associate

How am I going to kill my father? Mason had been all for it a few weeks ago but now, he is becoming distant and avoiding helping me plot a way to get free. I am angry and annoyed that he won’t even entertain the idea of seeing Rico anymore.

I’m not going to leave the walls of this place but just going for a walk is helping clear my mind. If I’m not going to get any help from Mason to end the reign of Salvatore De Luca, then I will just figure out how to do it myself.

I just want my old father back, the one who loved and doted on his little girls’ every move.

“Daddy! Daddy! push me higher,” I scream as the swing moves back and forth.

“Any higher, my darling girl, and you will be spinning around that bar,” he chuckles, pushing the swing again.

“Higher!” I want to fly high into the sky.

The chains rattle against the metal of the frame. I am laughing, Father is laughing. He will follow me wherever I want to go, watching out for me.

I notice him watching all the cars that pass, and the movements of all the other men that are around. I idolise my father, he is my hero, the only man I love. I will follow him everywhere as well, even if I’m not supposed to.

While I’m swinging, a young boy comes over to him. He looks sad. I can tell he has been crying and as the swing is making its way back down, I jump off and run over to the boy who I now recognise as Mason.

“Mason, are you sad?” I wrap my arms around him. Another boy, the same age as him, walks up behind him.

“Sir,” the other boy says, looking at my father. “Jack Hawthorne has been murdered.”

“No,” My father shakes his head. “This cannot be.”

“It happened not too long ago, Sir. The other men only just found the body after hearing a loud bang,” the other boy says.

Looking up at my father, I feel a tear run down my cheek because others are crying around me. “Mason’s dad is dead?”

My father nods and I look back at Mason. “You can share my Daddy.”

My father’s hand is now resting on my shoulder and I look up at him. His face tells me not to say anything else. “Come boys,” He says to them both, “Let’s go inside.”

He lifts me into the air and we make our way back to the house.

I can hear Mrs. Hawthorne crying from inside the house before I see her. Everyone’s crying, but she’s the loudest. The sound is coming from the office. “Marie,” my father calls to my mother. She turns, looking at him, shock and sadness across her face. “Please take Genevieve back to our room.”

She looks at me in my father’s arms, nodding and holding her hands out for me as he passes me to her. She kisses me on the cheek and then looks down at Mason, who is staring down at the office doors. “What about Jack’s boy?” she asks my father.

He nods. “Yes, I think it would be best if you take him as well.”

“Very well.” She takes his hand and we make our way up the stairs and to my parents’ room.

There is nothing else we can do, we just sit in the room and wait.

Hearing a loud noise from behind me, I focus on what is around me now, not the memory I had been just living in. I look around, but the dark is hiding whatever or whoever is out there. “Hello?” I call out.

Silence follows. I keep walking, trying to ignore the sense of dread I am feeling. There is something out there. Animal or human, that I am unsure of. I am already on the other side of the grounds which is quite a distance from the house. I have to get back there as quickly as possible without spooking what is around me. Quickening my pace, I start making my way back towards the light of the house.

Within seconds, I feel two large arms around my body, a hand covering my mouth. “Do not fucking scream.” I try to bite this mystery man’s hand but he has it cupped a certain way so I can’t.

“I can’t breathe,” I mumble under his hand, which is large enough to cover my nose as well.

“Mine,” the voice says, releasing his hand from my face. It is also a familiar voice.

“You’re coming with me,” the voice says again, this time just a whisper in my ear. “If you struggle, you will only make it worse for yourself. Just believe me when I say this is for your own good.”

I lift my leg, bringing it back, kicking him in the stomach with as much force as I can muster. He drops to the ground, holding his abdomen. I run towards the house.

I hear him grunt as he scrambles to his feet. “Genevieve, stop!” he calls out.

I keep running. I’m not stopping for anyone. Not until I am in the safety of the house and Mason’s room.

“For fuck’s sake,” he yells. “Just stop.”

He tackles me to the ground. He is heavier than Mason.

I squirm under his weight, trying to get free. I feel him reach around and pull something out of his back pocket, and before I can think, his hand is over my mouth and nose, suffocating my airflow and before I know it, everything goes black.