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“For now.”
“Yeah.”
“And tomorrow?” His accusatory gaze was hard to bear. “What happens tomorrow?”
“No clue.” I shrugged, uttering my truth. “But I’m clean today.”
“Yeah,” he replied with a sniff, releasing my arms. “Good for you.” And then he slammed the door in my face.
Rolling my eyes, I reached up and knocked again, and then I counted down from five, knowing full well that he was still behind the door, waiting to erupt on me.
I could take it.
I sure as fuck deserved everything this man could throw at me.
I’d put his entire family through hell.
I could see that now.
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One…
“Jesus Christ, Joey!” he snarled the second the front door swung open again. “What were you thinking getting involved in that lifestyle?”
“I wasn’t thinking,” I admitted quietly. “I didn’t want to think. That was the whole point.”
“I gave you the benefit of the doubt,” he strangled out. “I knew what you were about, but I saw a good lad underneath all of the trouble. I still do. But I…” His words broke off and he shook his head.
“Just say it, Tony,” I said calmly. “Whatever you need to say. Get it off your chest. I can handle it.”
“Can’t do that,” Tony grumbled. “According to my wife, I’m to mind my p’s and q’s around you. Since you’re fragile and all that.”
“Do I look fragile?”
“You look like a person I don’t know anymore.”
Ouch.
I kept my hands by my sides, willing to take whatever this man had to say—had to do. In a life of nothing, he’d been the only father figure I’d ever had, and I had ruined his daughter. I had robbed her of the future they’d hoped for her.
“I loved you,” he finally roared, chest heaving. “Like you were my own flesh and blood.”
“I know.”
“You made my daughter a mother before she was a woman, and then you left her.”
“I had to leave.”
“Maybe you did, but that doesn’t change anything in my head,” he choked out, voice thick with emotion. “But I can’t risk having you around her. Not in her condition. You let me down, Joey. You went spiraling down the rabbit hole and you took my daughter with you.”
What could I say to that?
