Running From Mercy by Terra Little Page B

busy.” He released the door so she could move past him into the hallway.
    Nikki turned to study his face shrewdly. “You don’t like Aunt Pam very much, do you, Dad? That’s why you hardly talk to her and why you guys argue all the time.”
    Surprised, Chad’s mouth fell open. “What?” was all he could think to say. Anything else would’ve given up the ghost, providing his daughter with more information than was really necessary for her to have. Still though, he couldn’t help but think back on the origins of her question. For a long time hatred was the very thing he felt whenever he thought of Pam; that and incomprehensible anger. He’d held himself in check for as long as he could, thinking that he’d mastered his emotions and made peace with his life, but it hadn’t taken him long to discover that he was only fooling himself.
    Paris hadn’t known what to think when he finally did blow up, and for his part, he hadn’t been thinking at all. He’d only been feeling. The day came back to him as he stared at Nikki, the cause of it all.
    He beat Paris to the phone by scant seconds, snatching up the receiver and punching in numbers like he was possessed. Paris was pulling on his shirt and whispering for him to hang up and the longer he held the phone to his ear, the more agitated she became. Tired of her antics and oblivious to her distress, Chad yanked his shirt out of her grasp and stalked over to the door to slam it shut. Nikki was down the hall in her room, watching another one of those goddamn tapes she was fascinated with, ones of Pam prancing around onstage like she didn’t have a care in the world and he didn’t want her to overhear.
    The phone dragged across the floor with each step he took, knocking against furniture and stretching the cord, but he was beyond caring. He stared at Paris’s tear-drenched face and felt nothing but anger.
    Pam answered the phone on the other end and he sucked in a sharp breath before saying what he had called to say.
    â€œWhat the fuck were you thinking, Pam?” He fought to keep his voice even and reasonable, but it was damn hard to do.
    â€œI don’t know what . . .” Pam began.
    â€œYou don’t know? You don’t know , Pam?” He took two steps backward and pinched the bridge of his nose. “You’re a selfish bitch, do you know that?” He heard Pam’s shocked gasp and thought about going through the phone. “There’s a little girl here who has no clue just how selfish you are. You send all those silly presents and all that other bullshit, but it doesn’t mean a fucking thing. And it doesn’t make up for the fact that you abandoned your child.”
    Finally able to speak, Pam’s voice floated through the phone softly. He could hear that she was crying. “Please don’t do this to me, Chad. Not now. I can’t . . .”
    â€œDon’t tell me what you can’t do, Pam. You can do whatever the fuck you want to do. You can sneak away to have my child and you can give her to your sister like she’s a purse you don’t want anymore, but you can’t tell me anything?” He waited for her response and silence reigned when none was forthcoming.
    â€œChad . . . please . . .” Paris begged pitifully. She was still confused as to what had set him off. Everything had happened so fast. One minute he was in the kitchen pouring himself a glass of juice and the next thing she knew, the glass was sailing across the room, crashing into the wall and juice was flying everywhere. Then he was racing off, searching for the phone to “call the lying bitch.”
    She tugged on his shirt one time too many and Chad lost it. He smacked Paris’s hands away roughly and sent her stumbling backward with fear in her eyes. “This is too much,” he said to Pam. “Both of you, plotting and scheming to keep me away from my child. I