They sat at the huge table in the dining room. It was made from some lovely and dark tree and shined so the overhead lights were reflected back at the people who sat around it. Terrance really did have terrible taste. They kept the lights off and instead let the natural light shine in through the windows. Colleen sat next to her daughter, a cooling cup of tea in front of her. Chelsea wished she could read her mother’s thoughts. Colleen’s face was frozen in an unreadable expression, and every time she reached for her cup her hands shook.
“Honey! I’m home,” Terrance called as the door slammed behind him.
Colleen’s face hardened into a mask and Chelsea glanced over at her. She had never seen her mother fight with one of her boyfriends. Either Chelsea hadn’t been home, or the breakup had happened somewhere else. She had no idea what might happen next.
“Colleen?” Terrance called out.
“In here,” Colleen answered, her voice flat and cold.
“Hey there...” Terrance said as he stepped into the room. He stopped when he saw Chelsea and then he took a step back when he saw Colleen’s expression. He had walked into the room with a spring in his step and Chelsea knew what the good news had been. Blue was going to fight. That meant Terrance had spent all night calling up rich monsters and inviting them to town so they could watch the violence on display.
“Where’s my daughter?” Colleen asked, her voice low and dangerous.
“She’s sitting right next to you,” Terrance answered giving his voice a cheerful lilt as if they were all playing some sort of fun game.
“Jamie! Where is Jamie! I know you have her,” Colleen shouted. She stood up and leaned over the table glaring at her once-fiancé.
“Colleen, what are you talking about?” Terrance asked as he took a step towards her.
“I know everything, you son of a bitch!” Colleen snapped.
“Colleen, please. I warned you about Blue and his lies-”
“I recorded the conversation,” Chelsea said. She kept her voice low and even, shouting wasn’t going to work on Terrance. And she took her time; she wanted to remember this moment, to make Terrance know he had been out-maneuvered. “Remember, when I called and offered you ten million dollars for my sister’s return? I recorded the conversation and played it for my mom. She knows everything.”
Terrance’s face went from confusion to anger to fury and then something else. The mask he had worn since they had landed, probably since he had met Colleen, had fallen away. The gentle smile, the grandfatherly way, all of that was gone. The only thing left was the monster that did whatever would get him the most money. His dark and beady eyes flicked between Chelsea and her mother as if he were looking for something. Chelsea focused on keeping eye contact; she refused to back down to this man.
“Come on, Colleen,” he said, turning to face her. “Jamie is fine. I just needed to borrow her for a few days. No one’s hurt her or touched her. She’s fine. I promise-”
“You think your word means anything to me?” Colleen interrupted. “You’ve done nothing but lie to me since the day we met!”
“I’ve done a lot more than that,” Terrance said. “The trips, the dinners, this house, don’t you like those things? Don’t you appreciate them? Well they don’t come free. You think auto-repair shops make this kind of money? The fights are just a business like any other. There is a demand, I have a supply, and people are willing to pay a lot of money for it. Why shouldn’t I provide a service people want?”
“A service people want?” Chelsea demanded. “You’re forcing people to fight to the death. That’s not a service and the world would be better off without it.”
“There’s money to be made. Either I’m going to make it or someone else is. Wouldn’t you rather it be me, Colleen?”
“No!” Colleen yelled she hefted her mug and threw it at Terrance’s head. He ducked just in time and it shattered on the wall behind him. “I would rather live in the street like a dog than make money that way!”
“Fine,” Terrance said through gritted teeth. “We could have lived a nice life together. You and me in this fancy house. We could have ruled this town, we still can...”
“The cost is what? My daughter? I would never do that to her, never! I’m her mother. I’m supposed to protect her, not make money off of her. Only a monster would do that. Give her back to me, Terrance. Please. If you ever had any affection for me at all, you will give me back my daughter,” Colleen said as a sob rocked through her chest.
“You have Blue,” Chelsea said. “Now you need to keep your side and give us Jamie back.”
Terrance gave out a long and dramatic sigh and shook his head, “I keep telling you over and over again that she’s fine, you’re overreacting. Sadly, you can’t have her back just yet. Now that Blue will be in the fight, we’ve pushed it back by three days to let some of our out of town attendees get here in time. So in three days, you’ll have her back.”
“No!” Chelsea yelled. “You promised she would be back yesterday and now you’re adding three days? No! You can’t do that. We had an agreement.”
“What are you going to do?” Terrance asked. “Call the cops? By all means. Then they’ll call me and I’ll call the people holding Jamie and then things will be bad for her. Is that what you want? Because right now she’s fine, but that can change.”
“How can you do this? You told me you loved me,” Colleen whispered.
“I do love you, Colleen. But I love my business, too. Now you can’t really be asking me to choose between you and my business. I am my business. Don’t make me choose.”
Colleen shook her head, “I’ve been such a fool. I chose you over my own daughters. I hate you. I never want to see you again.”
“Where is Jamie?” Chelsea asked. “I want to talk to her. I want to know she’s okay.”
“Fine,” Terrance said with a shrug of his shoulders. He picked up his phone and hit a few buttons. “I need to talk to the girl,” he said and then he handed the phone to Chelsea.
She took it and hit speaker and she and her mother cradled the phone between them.
“Jamie?” Chelsea said into the phone.
“Chelsea?” It was Jamie’s voice and Chelsea couldn’t stop the smile that spread across her face.
“Are you okay?” Chelsea asked into the phone. She struggled to keep it together, focusing on not crying and keeping her hands steady.
“I’m all right,” Jamie said, and Chelsea could hear her tears. “I’m okay. I’ve been trapped in this tiny room for days. No one will tell me anything. What’s happening?” Chelsea opened her mouth to answer, but Terrance ripped the phone from her hands and ended the call.
“See?” he asked. “I told you she was fine and you can have her in three days and I do apologize for the delay in returning her.”
“And Blue?” Chelsea asked.
“Blue is my son. He’s not your concern,” Terrance said. “Stay out of it, sweetheart. It’s way above your pay grade.”
“What father makes his son fight to the death for money?” Chelsea demanded.
“You’re really leaving, Colleen?” Terrance asked ignoring Chelsea’s questions.
Colleen said nothing. She just stood up and spun away from Terrance. They had packed her things earlier and together Chelsea and her mother grabbed a few bags and loaded up the car. Terrance didn’t try and stop them. Instead, he locked himself in his office as they left.
Chelsea drove. They didn’t speak at all on the ride over. Every time Chelsea turned to look, her mother would be looking out the window, her cheeks wet with tears. “Terrance was a bastard,” Chelsea said. “He lied to you, to all of us. It’s not your fault.”
“My daughter has been taken and no one told me, because you knew I would side with the man who kidnapped her. What kind of mother does that make me? What kind of person?”
“You’re a good mom,” Chelsea said, taking her mother’s hand and giving it a squeeze. “You just have terrible taste in men.”
A smile appeared on Colleen’s face as she turned towards her daughter. “My sweet Chelsea, you were always the brightest light of whatever room you were in.”