Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 59690 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59690 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Fuck.
Maybe I’d underestimated my father. I’d thought he would keep it together long enough to have dinner. That he wouldn’t be happy, but he’d lay it out on me after we left. He did not look like he was going to do that now. He was a volcano on the verge of erupting and burning everything in his path.
“We don’t have to do this,” I said quickly. If I could mitigate the fall out, I’d do it.
“You bring her here, to my house, and tell me we don’t have to do it.”
“We don’t.”
My father shot me an are you an idiot look. “What did you think was going to happen?”
“I thought you were going to meet my girlfriend,” I snapped.
His eyes swiveled to Harley, who stood defiantly at my side. Her chin was lifted. I knew that look on her face. Fuck around and find out. She’d used it with her own father. She wasn’t about to back down from mine.
“Your girlfriend.” He repeated the words like they were disgusting.
“That’s me,” Harley said.
Dayna cleared her throat. “Maybe we should just open the wine, Arnold.”
He ignored her again as he strode across the room to stand before Harley. Every instinct told me to get between them. My danger signs were firing rapidly. It took everything in me not to put her behind me or just walk out of that room. Maybe it would have been smarter to do that, knowing my father.
“So, you’re the new one,” he said flippantly.
“That’s me,” she repeated.
“I hope you realize this is just a rebellion.”
Harley looked dubious. “He’s in his thirties. Isn’t that what teenagers do?”
“I suppose you’d know,” he muttered.
She arched an eyebrow. “We’re really not here to be insulted. So, if that’s the best that you have, then can we move on and eat some dinner?”
“Yes, let’s listen to Harley,” I said confidently, sliding my arm across her shoulders. “Dinner, Dad?”
He was going to give. I could see it in the set of his shoulders. He wanted to be happy for me. He wanted to have dinner with me. Especially with how distant we’d been after the divorce. I had known he wanted to reconcile and used that to my advantage.
Then, the tension returned, and my hope dissolved.
“No Wright is sitting at my table.”
“Arnold,” Dayna said.
“Shut the fuck up, Dayna,” he snarled. “This has nothing to do with you.”
She curved in on herself, pulling the wine into her body. “Oh,” she whispered. “I’ll just…”
Then, she sniffled and disappeared into the kitchen.
Harley took a step toward her as if she could fix the fragile thing that my dad had broken. “Don’t speak to her that way.”
“I will speak to her however I see fit.” He lifted himself to his height. “Who the fuck are you to be critical of me in my own house?”
“Dad,” I warned.
Why hadn’t I realized that putting oil and water in the room wasn’t going to work out? Harley never backed down from a fight, and she had a problem with male authority figures. With good reason, to be fair, but she wasn’t going to let this go. Not after he yelled at Dayna.
She glanced up at me. I could see the fire in her eyes. She wanted to slowly dress him down until he paid for all the shit that he’d done to all of those in his path over the years. She could do it. But it would also burn a bridge that there’d be no coming back from.
She ground her teeth together. A moment of growth, watching her not give in to my father’s bullshit. “I should check on Dayna.”
“She’s fine,” he snapped.
Harley looked up at me with concern in her eyes. She did not want Dayna to be alone right now. Not after the way my dad was. But he was blocking her path. I shook my head slightly. Even though I hated it.
“You can drop the act,” my dad said.
We both looked up at him again. I had no idea if there was a way to salvage this, but I needed to try.
“Dad, we did this in good faith. We’re together. There’s no act.”
He chuckled, a disbelieving sound. “No, you’ve never been a good actor,” he said to me. “It’s here.” He pointed a meaty finger at Harley. “She’s twisted your mind.”
Harley’s eyes rounded. “What?”
“Don’t think I don’t know who your father is.”
Harley’s back went ramrod straight. She clamped her mouth shut to keep from speaking venom against her old man.
“Her dad has nothing to do with this. Can we just have a civil conversation?”
But he wasn’t listening to me. He wasn’t even looking at me.
“Owen Wright is a manipulative, conniving snake,” he spat. “He’s the kind of man who will do anything to get what he wants, to ruin his enemies. And what are we? Sinclairs and Wrights have always been enemies. This is some kind of bullshit, twisted game that you’re playing.” His eyes narrowed. “And you’re just fucking like him.”