ALL I DO.
{ irl }

!! TW : domestic abuse !!

niola stops dead in her tracks when she sees her father standing in front of the stove, cooking some eggs on a pan over it.

for a moment, niola thinks that her father looks like an actual dad. but she's quickly snapped out of it when she thinks of rayne. before she can think of asking where her sister is, niola hears the precious sound of rayne trying to sound out a tough word.

"then miss posey pushed me on the swings when we were at the playground!" rayne rambles, talking to their father the same way she talks to niola, camille, and the triplets.

niola looks around for her sister before her eyes land on her. rayne is sitting in front of the table, buckled into her pink high chair. in front of her is a plate of scrambled eggs, cooked just the way she likes them.

rayne is chewing on a spoonful of eggs while she talks, happily swinging her legs back and forth under the table.

niola's gut tightens. she's the one who taught rayne how to talk. not him. their father wasn't even around for her first words. does he even know how rare it is for her to talk to people the way she's talking to him? does he even know that's how she likes her eggs, or was it a lucky guess?

"what are you doing here?" niola asks, making sure to keep her distance from him. she knows to keep a minimum of ten feet in between her and her father at all times. she learned that the hard way. niola is standing in the kitchen's doorway, watching his every move to make sure he doesn't try anything.

"is it cruel of me for wanting to visit my daughters?" he asks, not looking up from the eggs that are cooking on the pan.

"no, it's not cruel." niola tells him. "but it's rare. and out of character for you."

he chuckles, his brown eyes still glued to the pan. "you've always been smart, niola. and as usual, you're right. i'm not just here to cook eggs and leave."

"then why are you here?" she asks, beginning to get annoyed with his small talk. she just wants a quick and direct answer so he can get out of the house. "don't you have money to gamble away?"

his fist clenches around the spatula, making niola take a step back. but he simply takes a deep, calming breath. then he returns his attention back toward his eggs.

"i've made a decision," her father announces before turning to face her for the first time with a wide grin spread across his face. "that will alter our lives forever."

"what the hell are you talking about?" niola asks, crossing her arms over her chest while her father just laughed at her, looking back down at the pan. "are you drunk or something? have you been doing drugs again?"

"no, no, no." he says calmly. "i've decided that i want to take your mother to court and file for a divorce. i'd prefer to be married to a woman who supports my financial choices – not someone who constantly complains, calling me irresponsible and childish."

niola had to hold back an audible gasp. she was surprised, yes. but more than that, she was happy because now her mom will finally be able to keep all of the money she works hard to earn.

"i'm glad that you've come to make such a hard choice." niola says, giving him a small smile.

"that's not all." her father says with an excited expression growing on his face. "i want to be the one to have custody of you and raegan."

niola is taken aback by what he's saying for two reasons. first, this is the first time in her life that he's ever said he wants them as his kids. second, he got rayne's name wrong.

"what? no!" niola quickly shouts, without thinking.

"excuse me?" her father's voice raises a bit, traveling away from the calm tone he'd been using the whole time so far. "what do you mean no?"

"mom is the one who provides for us. not you!" niola shouts, stepping closer to him. "you don't do shit for your family other than waste our money and drive us deeper and deeper into poverty! you don't fucking deserve to even be a father. i mean, seriously! have you ever worked a single day in your life? because ever since i was a child, all you've ever done is sit on your ass and do nothing!"

"you sound exactly like your fucking mother." he gripped the spatula so tight that the hills of his knuckles turned white. but other than that, his demeanor stayed abnormally calm. "besides, your opinion means nothing. it's the judge's decision in the end."

"yeah?" she taunted, walking even closer to him so they were only a foot away. "then i'll tell everything to the court. i'll explain to them that you're a horrible person and an even worse father."

"you're a teenage girl, and i'm a grown man. nobody would believe you over me." he tells her, grabbing the closest thing to him – which happened to be a thin wine glass.

"i don't give a fuck!" niola screams, not noticing what's now tightly gripped in his hand. "i'm not letting you hurt rayne! she's-"

before she can react, niola's father spins on his heel and smashes the wine glass on her head. niola puts her arms up for protection, but it's too late – the cup shattered against her temple, broken glass falling all around them. the impact makes niola feel dizzy and a bit disoriented, but she ignores her blurred eyesight and runs over to rayne.

while niola fumbles with the buckle of her sister's high chair, their father calmly removes the pan from the stove and sets it on the countertop. then, he walks over to niola and grabs her by the shoulder. he yanks her away from rayne and pulls her over to the stove.

"you," he says, grabbing the pan and pressing the hot side against her left shoulder blade. "don't get to choose what happens."

niola screams in agony.

the pain from the pan burning her skin is so strong that she can't think straight. she just knows that she has to get rayne away from him. niola grabs a fork that was sitting on the countertop. she aimlessly stabs the prongs behind her, hoping she'll manage to puncture his skin. when she hears her father yell out in pain, niola knows that she did it.

the pain of being stabbed makes his grip on the handle falters, and the pan hits the ground with a loud clang. before niola can feel relieved and proud of herself, she knows that this will only as a momentary distraction.

she looks around and spots a used mug in the sink. the glass is thick enough that niola can tell it'll do enough damage to knock him out of she hits the right spot. she grabs the mug and turns to face her father. when their eyes meet, she feels completely useless.

niola's only weapon is a mug, but her dad is holding a butcher knife.

"what? are you planning to kill me?" niola shouts, backing away from him as he comes closer and closer with the blade. she hopes that she doesn't sound as scared as she feels at the moment. but it's kinda hard to sound brave when you're being held at knifepoint by your own family.

"maybe." he shrugs, making niola's heart speed up even more than it already is. "maybe not."

"well, i hope you know that you can't win custody over someone who's dead." niola points out, taking another step backward only to realize that there's a wall behind her.

her mind is spiraling.

how does she get out of this? where should she go? what is she supposed to do? is this really how she's gonna die? her mom will be so pissed. who's going to watch rayne? can rayne see what's happening? where's her phone? can she call 911? will they even get here soon enough or will she be dead by then? maybe they'll at least be able to save rayne from their father.

"what's wrong?" her father teases, touching the blade to the soft spot behind her ear. he's not pressing the point far enough into her skin to make her bleed, but it's enough to make niola nearly piss herself. "what happened to all those good grades, hm? i guess being smart didn't pay off, did it?"

he lifts the knife up, about to stab his own daughter dead, when he suddenly falls unconscious at her feet. niola watches her father fall to the ground with a thud, his chest still rising and falling with each breath he takes – which means he's unfortunately still alive.

she looks up from her father's body and sees matt standing in front of her with a frying pan in his hand.

"niola?" matt says, the sound of her first name making her heart flutter. "are you okay?"

the question makes her instantly break down into tears. she runs over and hugs him, nuzzling her face into his neck. matt wraps his arms around her as she begins to sob into him.

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a/n : nobody is allowed to make tangled jokes about the frying pan 😡😡
(sorry i'm trying to lighten the mood)
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