Too Late to be My Dads

The pain I had anticipated never came.

A tree broke my fall.

Once I was pulled to safety, Lee slapped me in the face, his face pale.

“Enough is enough, Niamh!”

Ethan wasn’t looking any better either.

Shaking from head to toe, he approached and gave me a kick.

“What do you think you’re doing, Niamh?”

I was kicked to the ground.

Because I had just had my stomach pumped, the kick made my abdomen feel like someone had stabbed me and twisted the knife violently.

A sickening taste of copper rushed into my mouth.

I spat out a mouthful of blood, and my knees went weak before the two men.

“Mr. Longham, Dr. Davies, please let me be. I just want to die.”

Lee and Ethan were bewildered.

Ethan frowned. “Is this a new game? Guilt-tripping us with your life?”

“No,” I responded, my eyes bloodshot. “I met Mom’s System. I was told that I would join Mom when I died. Please, just let me die.

“You don’t ever have to worry about me competing with Sadie for your love. You don’t need to keep me around just to watch me.”

Since the incident with Sadie, Ryker Sand, trained in the military, handled my punishment.

He locked me in a dark room for five straight days.

Ryker blasted high-intensity light into my eyes, preventing me from sleeping.

Whenever sleep was about to take me, he would pump adrenaline into me.

The first thing I did upon my release five days later was to plead with my fathers to let me go.

However, they made it clear that I was not going anywhere.

“You can’t just walk free after pulling that stunt right under our noses. God knows what you’re going to do to Sadie.”

“That’s right. We promised your mom that we would raise you right. You can’t just leave.”

Likely at the mention of Kylee, Ethan and Lee’s scowls eased, their faces reflecting a trace of their former affection for me.

“Niamh, are you sure you met your mother’s System? When?” Ethan pulled me up and asked.

I told him everything. The System showed up this morning when starvation nearly ended me.

The pair exchanged glances.

Lee said, “You might not know this, Niamh, but your mother mentioned before leaving that the System would disappear along with the completion of her quest. You might have been hallucinating.”

I shook my head. “N-No. I did talk to Mom’s System. Dr. Davies, just leave me alone. I want to die.”

With death being brought up, Lee's face tensed.

He pushed back his rising rage until he couldn’t anymore. “You don’t get to decide whether it was a hallucination. We’re taking you to a psychiatrist.”

Like before, Lee shuffled my hair.

He had a funny look, though. “It’s been three years. To be honest, we’ve talked about this. If you promise not to show your face to Sadie, we won’t—”

Tony Barker and Ryker showed up.

“Ethan, Lee, have you seen Sadie?”

Ethan and Lee were taken aback.

“Wasn’t Sadie with you?”

Tony was exasperated. “She went missing right after taking a call. She went out, saying that a friend wanted to give her a present. Don’t tell me…”

All my fathers grimaced hard.

Their minds wandered back to the incident three years ago on Sadie’s birthday. A friend of hers called and asked her to go out.

Then, she was vulnerable to those punks.

Ethan, Lee, Tony, and Ryker turned to me all at once.

Meeting their gazes, I shivered in fear.

Despite the silence, I knew what they were thinking. “N-No, it wasn’t me.”

“Who else could it be?” Thrown into a rage, Ethan grabbed me by the collar. “Niamh, you were distracting us with the attempts. What did you do to Sadie?”

I shook my head. “No, it wasn’t me.”

Ethan was knee-deep in his rage to listen to what I had to say.

“Niamh, you’ve not changed one bit. Didn’t you want to die? Fine, you got your wish.”

He raised his fist to strike me.

Stepping in just in time, Tony grabbed Ethan’s arm and warned, “Not here, Ethan. There are too many eyes on us.’

Ethan pulled his arm back and shot an angry look at me before murmuring, “Take her home.”

Tension hung heavily in the car.

Ethan, Lee, Ryker, and Tony kept making phone calls to locate Sadie.

Curled up in a corner, I shuddered violently.

I knew that hell was coming for me.

Once the car came to a stop, they yanked me out of the back seat.

I broke down the moment my eyes fell on the house.

It was where I once stayed.

My knees buckled with fear. “I have no idea where Sadie went. Please let me go.”

Lee grabbed a fist of my hair, his voice chilling. “Didn’t you want to die? We were your father for years. It’s only right for us to give you a send-off.”

I shook all over.

It was true that I wanted to end myself.

However, I couldn’t handle the pain.

Even at this point, they refused to spare me.

They dragged me into the house.

Several burly men stood inside the place.

Ryker slammed me to the floor, his brows furrowed. He uttered in contempt, “Set her straight.”

Dozens of hands reached for me.

My limbs were held down as a sharp pain spread across my body.

Every inch of my body screamed in pain.

I cried for help desperately.

The moment I called out for my fathers, Lee felt bad enough to shut the whole thing down before these men got serious.

Lee approached and said, “Niamh, so long as you tell us where Sadie is, we can overlook this matter, if only for your mother’s memory.”

I replied in tears, “I have no idea. It’s the truth. I didn’t do anything to her.”

Before Lee could say anything more, Ryker pulled him back. “Lee, haven’t you learned? She won’t talk unless we make her. Has she ever once admitted to the things she did to Sadie over the years?”

Something fleeted across Lee’s eyes.

In the end, he threw his hand back. “Proceed.”

I knew then that that was it for me.

Despite my intensifying agony, I no longer begged for mercy.

Amid my haziness, I could see Kylee’s face.

‘Go on.

‘Just hit me.

‘I’ll soon reunite with Mom.’

Ethan, Lee, Ryker, and Tony kept making calls.

Finally, a familiar number reached Ethan’s phone.

“Where are you, Sadie?”

Sadie’s voice filled the room. “Dad Ethan, I’m out having dinner with my friends. What’s with all the missed calls?”

The four men were shocked.

“Weren’t you kidnapped?”

Sadie chuckled. “What are you talking about? Why would I be abducted? Can’t talk now. I’ll be home in a bit.”

Meanwhile, the butler’s call came in.

The butler said that Sadie was right in front of him, safe and sound.

Ethan, Lee, Ryker, and Tony sighed in relief.

“That’s great. Sadie’s safe,” Lee expressed emotionally when his eyes bulged out of nowhere. “Niamh!”

My presence finally registered in their minds.

They quickly called off the beating.

My four fathers approached me and called my name, only to be met by silence.

“Drop the act, Niamh. Sadie’s been found.”

“I guess we were wrong this time.”

Ethan got down on one knee, giving me a nudge, but I showed no response.

Realization hit him that I had stopped screaming in pain for a while now.

With his heart sinking, he reached his hand under my nose.

It was a shame that I had stopped breathing.