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My father put his coat back on, leveling me with a hard glare. “Don’t worry. We’re going to have a talk about this,” he said to Grandpa.
“No harm done, Royal.” Grandpa held his cane. His head lowered. “The situation was escalating, but I don’t think it would have resulted in anything. I think Dorian was more angry than anything.”
“I think we both know what his anger can result in, Father,” he said, my grandpa sighing. The two spoke to each other differently than that awkward day on the phone. Like they were both comfortable.
Like my father was comfortable.
The ease that the conversation had completely unnerved me, and I could do nothing but listen when my dad advised me to head to the car. He said he’d see me out there, but didn’t leave Grandpa right away. What the fuck?
I didn’t know what the hell was going on, but walked quickly to our cars. I waited outside of mine, but when my dad finally did come out, he waved me over to his.
“We’ll send someone for it. I’m taking you to school,” he said, and I didn’t argue. I just got inside, and I’d never seen my father so angry. I mean, he usually pushed that shit down.
It emanated off him today, and even worse than all those times he’d found out I’d been keeping secrets from him and Mom.
“What the hell was that, Dorian?” Dad shifted gears, his Audi zipping through town. “Tell me you weren’t about to do something to your grandfather.”
My adrenaline pulsing, I didn’t know what I’d been about to do before he’d arrived. “I…”
“The next words out of your mouth better be the truth and an explanation of why you went behind my back to him again.”
“I don’t know why. I…” I rubbed my legs, looking at him. “Are you guys talking to each other?” It almost sounded like they were or had at least been in contact with each other.
Dad had even stayed behind to talk to him.
I didn’t know what to make of that, but what I said had obviously been the wrong thing to say. My dad cut out of traffic, parking on the side of the road. I’d sent my father to a place he normally didn’t go, one where he straddled a line to remain collected. Taking off his gloves, I watched him check himself right in front of me, and I felt so bad. He dealt with anger as well, but he didn’t allow it to consume him.
He was so much better than me.
“You’re not the one asking questions here,” he said, his hand moving down his jaw. “And not that I need to answer yours, but the lines of communication are open between my father and me.”
But why? I didn’t understand. I shook my head. “Dad…”
“Why did you go behind my back, Dorian?” Dad released a heavy breath. “And why did I walk in on what I did? Why did it look like you were going to do something?”
“I wasn’t. I swear to God.” At least, I hoped I wasn’t. I breathed into my hands. “He told Sloane about that summer with him, and what I tried to do after. Poisoning him.”
Silence beside me, and when I looked over, Dad was rubbing the steering wheel. “He saw Sloane?”
“They ran into each other, I guess. Sloane dropped by that house Bru and her stayed at. Some of her paintings were there, and she wanted to get one.”
“I see.”
“I guess they got to talking, and it came up what I did.” I laced my hands behind my neck. “He had no right. No right to tell her that.”
My eyes closed, simmering. I felt like I was going to punch a fist through one of my dad’s windows, which would make shit so much worse.
I didn’t, though, holding back when I grabbed my legs. When I looked at my father, he had his eyes on the traffic zooming by us.
“Why weren’t you the one to tell her, Dorian?” he asked, shocking me. He nodded. “You should have been the one to tell her. You know that, right?”
I did know that, hard facts. I closed my eyes. “I was going to. I was. I…” I dampened my lips. “I just wasn’t ready.”
My dad sat with that beside me, and where he’d been unnerved before, he wasn’t now. If anything, he looked sad, his lips turned down.
“I suppose I get that, but you should have told her,” he said, sighing. “Because you didn’t, you gave that power away to someone else.”
Like I didn’t know that? I kept fucking shit up, and I was getting so good at that. I rubbed my mouth.
