“No way!” said Don, angry now.   “You can forget about that.   $20 okay…Maybe even $30…?”

“You bloody cheapskate!” screamed Dannii.   She sat up on the bed to shout down at her father.  “$50 a week is a bargain, considering what you’re getting for it!”

“Jesus Christ!  You’re talking just like a common whore!” said Don, climbing off the bed.   “I wonder what your mother would say if she could hear you right now?”

“I wonder what she’d say if she heard about what you’ve been up to over the last three months!”

“Why you little bitch!” shouted Don, towering over Dannii, expecting the teenager to cower away from him.

Instead she stood her ground and said, “Go ahead and hit me!   I wonder what mum’ll say when she hears about that too?”

For what seemed like hours, Don stood glaring down at Dannii, wanting to belt her across the head, to wipe the smug look off her face.   Finally he calmed down enough to say, “All right…I’ll think about it.”

“Don’t think too long,” said Dannii as he turned to walk away.   “Mum’ll be home in another seven days.”

Don stopped in the doorway.   He glared in at his daughter for a moment, then turned and stormed off to his own bedroom.

Over the next week there was a brooding silence between the two of them, with Don only visiting Dannii twice at night.   By the time Karla returned home, he still had not agreed to give Dannii the $50, although he had given her $35 that week.

“My goodness,” said Karla, looking round at Dannii’s new bicycle, television, and video-recorder.  “You’re spoiling this girl, Don.   Why don’t you ever spend money like this on me?”

“He’s promised to raise my allowance too,” said Dannii.   She received a look of pure hatred from her father, standing behind Karla.   Until she started to turn back toward him and he had to quickly adjust his facial expression.

“Not too much,” said Don, trying to play it down, although he knew that he would have to give her the full $50 to keep her quiet.

“Just enough,” said Dannii with a giggle.

‘My God!  What have I let myself in for?’ wondered Don.

‘$50 a week!’ thought Dannii.   She knew he was too weak to stand out against her for long.   ‘And this is just the beginning!   All I have to do, whenever I want something from now on, is threaten to tell mum on him!’

Dannii had difficulty controlling her urge to giggle, as she thought, ‘And I won’t even have to do much for it!’ knowing that things would be very different now.   Over the last ninety days her father had had things his own way, having sex with her almost every night.   But now her mother was back from America, he’d only be able to have her on rare occasions when the two of them were alone together.   ‘No I won’t have to do too much at all!’ thought Dannii, knowing she had her father well and truly over a barrel.

THE END