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The button for the ground floor flickered and the elevator jerked, but the doors slowly closed and Stephanie breathed an internal sigh of relief. She didn’t dare do it aloud. Her dad would absolutely take it the wrong way. She must’ve given herself away somehow anyway, because his hand landed on her shoulder and squeezed in a way that she once found comforting. Now it just made her skin crawl. She shrugged him off and moved away, standing in the corner farthest from him.
He just laughed, like her opinion of him didn’t matter at all.
“What do you say we start looking for a new place, kiddo?” He asked, nonchalantly leaning against the back wall. “I’m looking at a promotion at my job, you know. More money means a better life for us.”
Stephanie bit her tongue so keep from answering. All the money she’d saved up burned a hole in her pocket. She was on her way to the fabric store. Dad had followed her out of the house, but she knew he’d be breaking off for his own business once they left the building. She just had to make it through this elevator ride and she’d be on her way to spoiling all her dad’s plans.
“Just you wait, Stephie, soon we’ll be raking in the cash,” her dad said, smiling with a glint in his eye that she knew from every scheme he’d ever pitched to them in the dead of night.
She told herself not to rise to the bait. There was no point, he’d never listened before and he definitely wouldn’t now. She closed her eyes and tried to calm down.
“Everything will change after this.”
Her blood boiled.
“Nothing will change, Dad,” she hissed, glaring at him. “You say you’ve changed but you’re the same as ever. You’re going back to your roots and we’re going to be the ones who suffer for it! You’re going to go back to jail and it’ll just be me and Mom again. She’s miserable because of you. Why do you think she’s taking pills all the time?! It’s because you’re such a piece of shit!”
She didn’t see the hit coming. He popped her right in the mouth and she stumbled back and caught herself on the wall.
He was still smiling.
“Show some respect, I’m your father.”
Stephie tasted blood.
“Besides, I’m a reformed man, Stephie,” Dad said, spreading his arms wide. “You’re looking at a whole new Arthur Brown. I’m nothing like I was before, and soon you’ll see.”
The elevator dinged, the sound off-key and stretched out like a dying scream. The doors stuttered open with the grind of dirty gears.
Arthur Brown stepped out and didn’t look back, leaving his daughter in the elevator car like a forgotten thought.
“You’ll see,” he said with a laugh, hands in his pockets, not a care in the world. “You’ll all see.”