Free Sorcerer by David Menon Page B

grandmother’s will. I’ve got nothing. He’s stripped me bare’.
    ‘You’ve got me, Dad. He can’t take me away from you’.
    ‘Leave me, Gabby’ said Ed as the tears began to roll down his face. ‘The police have interviewed me but I didn’t tell them the whole truth. But I can’t hold it in any longer. I can’t pretend anymore. I just can’t do it anymore’.
    Gabby took hold of his hand. ‘What do you mean, Dad? What can’t you pretend about anymore?’
    Ed cried on his daughter’s shoulder like there was no tomorrow. The pain was coming from a place deep down inside him and was destroying what was left of his dignity. He started to feel guilty about poor Gabby. She was bearing the brunt of it all.
    ‘I’m sorry, love’ he said as he lifted his head and tried to regain his composure.
    ‘You don’t have to be sorry, Dad’ said Gabby gently. ‘I just want to know what’s going on’.
    ‘Your mother won’t have a word said against George. Even after I’d told her what he’d done with my money. He’s even taken away the pleasure of gifting to my own daughter. I was going to give you and Owen the house and enough cash to give you the best start. But because of him I can’t. I am who I am because of him. And I’ll always be the same’.
    ‘I want to help, Dad’ said Gabby. ‘I love you’.
    ‘Don’t say that’.
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘I don’t deserve it’.
    ‘Dad, you’re not making any sense’.
    ‘He used to come into my room at night. I was only a kid. It went on for years. I didn’t think I’d ever get control of my life back and I never have. He’ll keep on punishing me just for being alive and not even my own mother would even try and listen to me. She’d say that I was being overly sensitive. She said it was because I couldn’t stand to not get my own way all the time and that George was trying to be a good father to me. She never wanted to hear my side. That’s why I hated her. She knew he was doing it to me and yet she did nothing to stop him’.
    Gabby could feel her heart pounding. If her father was telling her what she dreaded he was telling her then this was going to ignite a bomb underneath the family.
    ‘Dad, are you telling me that you were abused as a child?’
    Ed nodded his head.
    Gabby swallowed hard. This was difficult to hear from her own father but he needed to tell someone and she was in some ways glad that it was her he was finally unburdening himself to. She felt nothing but compassion for him. He was hunched down like a little boy.
    ‘And are you saying it was Granddad who did it?’
    Ed nodded his head again.
    Gabby felt her father’s body shaking in her arms. This was the time he needed her most.
    ‘I used to dread the door opening. I kept my eyes shut but I knew he was there. Then he’d get into bed beside me. The more I tried to resist the more he hurt me until in the end I just had to give in’.
    ‘And when did it stop?’
    ‘After I moved out and moved in with your mother’.
    ‘Does Mum know any of this?’
    ‘No’.
    ‘Why have you never told her? She could’ve understood you a lot better if she’d known’.
    ‘It’s not easy, Gabby’.
    ‘No’ said Gabby. ‘That was a stupid question. Sorry’.    
    ‘What am I going to do now?’
    ‘Dad, Owen will know someone at the hospital who can help you. I’m not being flippant and I know it’s not going to be easy. I’m going to call Mum now and ask her to come straight home’.
    ‘I don’t want her coming back here out of pity so don’t do that, Gabby. He won’t be happy until he’s destroyed every part of my life’.
    ‘Well he’s not going to get the chance, Dad’.
    ‘You believe me?’
    ‘Dad, I’m your daughter and of course I believe you’.
    Ed placed his hand on Gabby’s which was on his shoulder. Then he stood up but his legs felt weak. He dropped to his knees.
    ‘Dad?’ said Gabby as she reached out to steady him.
    Ed’s mind was full of all the times