Jillian raised her hands to her mouth before lowering them a fraction. “Gene?” she mouthed. “Are you serious?”

I nodded and just then, he began to speak.

“Shut up, Ava,” he growled. “Don’t worry about it. I didn’t call you so you could ask me a bunch of fucking questions.”

“Fuck you!” I exclaimed, before slapping my hand over my mouth.

Gene’s signature hyena-like laugh echoed in my ear. “I see you haven’t changed one bit, Ava.”

I removed my hand from my lips. “Why are you calling me? What do you want?”

“I already told you to shut up. Just like your sister, you Walters women… You don’t listen to a God damn word.”

Shaking my head, I exited the kitchen as fast as I could, almost jogging as I ran down the hall to my bedroom.

Gene continued to talk.

“You’re looking as pretty as ever, I see.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

He ignored me.

After closing my bedroom door, I sat down on the mattress, hanging my feet over the side. Trembling, I leaned forward and dropped my head into my hand.

“What the hell do you want, Gene?” I hissed.

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll get to that. But first, how’s my son?”

The fingers on my free hand began to curl into the shape of a fist. “Simon is not your son, you bastard. You lost that privilege a long time ago.”

Gene cackled once more. “Not according to the state. So, Ava, you can sit over there and pretend all you want, but the fact is Simon is my boy.”

I exhaled, barely restraining myself from unleashing a torrent of obscenity at him. “Either tell me what you want, or I’m hanging up on you right now.”

“Oh, sis, it hurts when you talk to me like that,” he began. “Now here I went and gave you a compliment, telling you how pretty you looked, and you didn’t even thank me.”

A long, silent exhale passed between my lips. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh don’t you?” he replied, the sound of his voice taking on an accusatory tone. “Maybe you need a little reminder…”

I sat upright and squeezed the phone tight between my fingers, but before I could reply, he continued.

“The Formula One race, this past weekend in Miami, I saw you there kissing your boyfriend.”

Baffled, I shook my head, trying to understand. “Kissing who? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t give me that, Ava. I saw the winner, Dyson Vix, pull you to his side after the race and kiss you.”

I scoffed. “Gene, you moron, Dyson is not my boyfriend. All I can tell you is that you’re wrong about what you think you saw. There is nothing going on between us. And anyway, even if there was, what the hell business is it of yours?”

Gene sputtered a chuckle. “Oh, it’s my business all right. And if you don’t listen carefully, and do exactly as I say, you can forget about seeing your nephew ever again.”

I bolted into a standing position. “Don’t you threaten me. I have no idea what you’re getting at, but if you think you are taking Simon away from me, think again.”

“Oh, I won’t be the one taking him. The state will do it for me. After all, that’s the law, you know.”

I pinched my lower lip between my teeth. Pacing back and forth across my bedroom, I knew Gene was right. Even after all these years, I still only had temporary custody of Simon. At any point, Gene could come back into the picture and take him from me. There was nothing I could do about it. Still, he’d never shown any desire to do it before, and I couldn’t understand why he would all of a sudden.

“Listen to me, Gene,” I began, clenching my jaw. “I know that you don’t want to have anything to do with Simon. So why don’t you just tell me what the hell you want.”

Gene remained silent for a moment and then, at last, revealed the true reason for his phone call. “Hmm, I’d say about a half a million dollars oughta cover it.”

“A half a million dollars!” I exclaimed. “How in hell am I supposed to get that kind of money? And why would I give to you, anyway?”

“Because if you don’t, Ava, I can promise you that Simon will be out of your life within the month.”

I froze in place, struggling to wrap my mind around what he was saying. “Are you… blackmailing me?”

“Blackmail is such a nasty word, isn’t it? I’d like to think of it more as a friendly sales transaction. You pay me five hundred thousand dollars and you get to keep Simon.”

“I don’t have five hundred thousand dollars, you piece of shit.”

“I know you don’t. But your pretty-boy racing boyfriend sure does.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Gene, I already told you. Dyson Vix is not my boyfriend. Even if he was, I would never ask him to give you a single penny.”

Gene ignored me. “It’s funny, you know. I mean in an ironic way. You going out with a race car driver after what happened to your little sister.”

“You’re an asshole, Gene. Why are you bringing her into this?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Because of how she died?”

My underarms soaked through my shirt. I struggled to understand his nonsensical rambling. “Street racing and Formula One aren’t anything alike. But why would I expect someone as stupid as you to understand that, Gene?”

Gene fell silent. “Here’s how this is gonna go, Ava, so pay attention. You have one month from today to come up with the money. You can expect more calls from me with instructions on exactly where and when…”

I interrupted him. “There isn’t going to be any money, Gene. You’re not listening. I’m not with Dyson. I don’t have that kind of money and…”

Gene screamed at the top of his lungs into the receiver. “And I’m telling you, if you don’t figure something out and do it soon, you will never see Simon again!”

And then, just like that, he hung up on me.

My hand fell away from my ear. I let go of my phone and it bounced once on the carpet before flipping over and coming to a stop. I stood there for a moment, shaking my head.

What was I going to do?

AVA

My mouth went dry. Unable to move, let alone think, I stood in the center of my bedroom just trying to calm down. Just then, there was a soft knock against my bedroom door.

I turned my head towards it.

“Who is it?”

“It’s me,” Jillian whispered. “Can I come in?”

I dropped my head a bit and exhaled, turning in the direction of the door. A few moments later, I wrapped my fingers around the knob and after twisting it, pulled the door in towards me.

Jillian stood there, her face fixed with worry. “What happened?”

Before answering, I looked past her, towards Simon’s room.

“I just checked, he’s sleeping,” Jillian said.

Without speaking, I nodded and stepped aside so she could enter. After she did, I closed the bedroom door behind her and just to be safe, locked it as well.

Afterward, I walked in her direction. Jillian opened her arms, inviting me in for a hug. By now, a feeling of numbness consumed me. I just stood there, looking at her, feeling nothing.

Seeing this, Jillian eventually dropped her arms to her sides. “Do you want to talk about it?”

I looked at her and without thinking, said the first thing that came to mind, “He’s threatening to take Simon away from us.”

“What? How?”

As best I could, I told her the details of our phone conversation, including his attempt at blackmail. When I finished, Jillian shook her head and walked towards my bed where she sat down. She dropped her hands in her lap and looked up at me.

“Do you think… Will he actually do this?”

Jillian and I had been friends since we were teenagers. She knew Gene well. He was probably the worst person either of us had ever known. Even so, something like this, well, it caught us both by surprise.

“I honestly don’t know,” I said, exhaling. A moment later, I sat down next to her on the bed. “I wouldn’t put it past him.”