“You know why the House must be maintained. You know what it does. And you know you’re not supposed to do anything to jeopardize that.” He pointed at the doll, still clutched in his father’s fingers. “What’s that, Dad?”

“It’s none of your damn business.”

“She gave it to you. It’s hers. You’re busy trying to keep me from going anywhere or doing anything with her, pretending that she’s not good enough for our family, and you’re seeing her behind my back. She’s a child, Dad. A child.”

His father shook his head. He looked suddenly old. “She’s no child,” he said.

“And we’re only trying to protect you,” his mother said. “She is a bad influence.”

“Then how come you keep seeing her yourselves?”

Neither of them answered.

“Don’t you want it back the way it was? The way it used to be?”

“It can’t go back,” his father said.

“Why not?”

“Because it’s gone too far.”

“No,” Stormy said. “Not yet it hasn’t.”

“You’re wrong.” His father looked down at the doll in his hand. “You don’t understand.”

“What don’t I understand?”

“I fucked her, okay?” There was anger in his voice. “I fucked her ass.”

Stormy stared at him.

His voice dropped to a whisper. “Now I’m hers forever.”

“No.” Stormy grabbed the doll from his father, threw it onto the ground. He felt shaken, sickened. It was one thing to suspect something or to know it deductively, and it was quite another to be confronted with its specifics outright, but still he pressed on. “You have a choice, Dad. You always have a choice. Right now, you’re just choosing to give up, choosing to give in. You can break free if you want to. There’s nothing binding you to Donielle. Tell her to fuck off. Take control of your life, for God’s sake.”

“I can’t,” his father said weakly.

“Look at Mom.” He motioned toward his mother, wearing the oversized cutoff suit. “Look what’s happened to her, what she’s become. And you know why! You know what’s done this to her! Don’t you even care enough about her to put a stop to this?”

On the floor, the doll shifted, rolled onto its side. Stormy was not sure whether it had moved of its own accord or it had simply landed on a precarious angle and was settling, but the motion frightened him anyway, and he kicked the doll as hard as he could, watching it slide across the hardwood floor and under the desk. There were goose bumps on his arms, and he saw that both of his parents were looking under the desk at the figure.

“Donielle asked me to marry her,” Stormy said.

That brought them back.