‘I’ve sent Lorna a message. She’ll be on her way here right now. So you just wait up here in the princess tower until she arrives.’

‘I don’t understand.’ I start to cry. ‘What did I do? Why are you being so mean all of a sudden?’

Michael leans his face right close to mine, so I can see his fury up close. Then he intimates my voice: ‘I don’t know. I’m still trying to get my head around it. An older man and such a young girl. She was only fifteen. It’s a power imbalance.’ He pulls back then, eyes still churning. ‘Of course it’s a bloody power imbalance. What do you think this world is? One big hippy festival? Do you think my father played fair when he beat the living daylights out of me and my brothers? That’s the way the world really is, Liberty. You get strong or you die. That, baby girl, is the only lesson in life worth learning.’

‘I’m leaving.’

‘No, you’re not. You’re staying right here until Lorna comes. You’re my flesh and blood and you’ll do as you’re told.’

‘Why do you even want me here? You sound like you hate me. What good am I to you?’

‘My goodness, Liberty. You might be good at chess, but you didn’t inherit my brain. You’re here so Lorna will come here.’

‘What?’

‘You’re the bait in a trap I’ve waited years to set. Lorna belongs to me. I trained her to be the perfect, compliant mate but she ran away and now she thinks she’s in charge. She needs to remember who owns who.’

‘So that’s your problem? That she got away from you? That’s what all this is about?’

‘Lorna didn’t get away,’ Michael snaps. ‘Did she? She’s on her way here right now. I got her in the end.’

I stand.

‘Let me get past.’

‘Without your dog?’

I turn back to Skywalker. His chest moves up and down, but only slightly. The rest of him is totally still.

‘He doesn’t look well, does he?’ says Michael, snapping his reasonable face back on. ‘Best you stay with him. Wait until your mother gets here. I can’t let you go running around on your own. What kind of parent would I be?’

‘Did you do something to my dog?’

‘He’s probably eaten something he shouldn’t.’

‘Will you call a vet at least?’

‘Not until Lorna gets here,’ says Michael. ‘Let’s hope your mother has a spring in her step.’

My eyes dart around the doorway. ‘Please. Let me phone a vet or—’

‘Sit down.’

‘Please, I—’

‘SIT DOWN.’

I plop down on the bed, my hand going to Skywalker’s fluttering chest.

Once upon a time …

I’ll bet you feel so lonely, you could die.