He grunts in agreement. “Good pick-up.” While muttering about useless teens having nothing better to do, he heads for a spare in the trunk.
He rolls it halfway to the damaged one before I blurt out the real reason for my visit. “I want permission to date your daughter.” When hell-to-the-fucking-no flares through his eyes, I talk quicker. “I know I should’ve asked before it went as far as it did last night…” His growl has my gums flapping so fast I’m five seconds from take-off. “Can you at least admit you’re lying to yourself if you say you never saw this coming?” The sternness in his eyes lessens when I add, “I’ve wanted this for years, Liam, and from what Melody said last night, so has she.”
“She’s seventeen, Brandon. She’s not old enough to make life-altering decisions.”
He glares at me when I give Joey’s excuse a whirl. “She’s eighteen next month.”
After shoving the jack under the station wagon, he pumps up the car with the aggression he wishes he could pummel my face in with.
Since he’s minus one dangerous weapon, I continue with my plea. “She’s also very smart. Not just brain smart but street smart as well.” When he huffs like he doesn’t believe me, I ask, “You taught me to trust my instincts, so why aren’t you giving Melody the same leeway?”
“This is different, Brandon. She’s my daughter. My baby girl…” He curses under his breath when his voice cracks. “I don’t want her to get hurt.”
“I won’t hurt her.”
“It’s not you I’m worried about!” With Hulk-inspired strength, he rips the damaged tire off Wren’s car before replacing it with the spare. “If you are making gaga eyes at her, you’re not monitoring the area. You’re not watching her back. You’re not doing any of the things I trained you to do.”
“That’s not true.”
“It is, Brandon. You may not believe it now, but in the future, you’ll discover I was right. But by then, it will be too late. Melody will already be hurting.” I’m set to argue, but what he says next stuffs my words into the back of my throat. “They made me pick. They made me pick between Wren and Melody. They either raped my wife or my daughter. She was five, Brandon. Five!” He angrily brushes away a tear on his cheek. “Do you have any idea how much that question fucked with my head?”
I nod in full understanding. “But you stopped them. You fought back.”
“Yes. But only after I had given them my answer. Only after I had broken my wife’s heart.”
Hearing the words he doesn’t speak the loudest, I say, “Wren loves you, Liam. She’s never stopped loving you.”
He shakes his head, disagreeing with me. “You can’t love someone who’s incapable of loving themselves. It isn’t possible.” He stops screwing bolts onto the spare to lock his eyes with mine. “I appreciate you coming to me man to man as you should’ve months ago.” I nod, admitting the wrongs I’ve done. “But I will not allow you to date my daughter. That wasn’t what any of this was ever about.” He gestures his hand between us. “I care for you, Brandon, and I tell everyone I know what a good kid you are, but I once again need to put my daughter first. Can you understand why I need to do that?”
I want to shake my head. I want to tell him in a month the decision will no longer be in his hands, but the raw pain in his eyes has me nodding my head instead.
Relief sparks through his eyes before he matches the bobs of my head. “I’ll send Wren over later tonight to collect Melody’s things.”
His words are like a knife to the chest. “You can trust me with her. I won’t hurt her.”
My heart is already breaking, but he adds an additional crack when he replies, “No, I can’t. I trusted you with her. I don’t anymore.”
The deafening buzz of an air-compressor steals my chance to reply. It’s for the best. I truly don’t know what to say. I had considered many scenarios in the hours Joey spent in recovery, but not even being trained to look for the negative in everything had me stumbling over this scenario.
My slow trudge to the dividing fences between our properties slows even more when I hear Melody’s name being shouted by her mom. Even being scared shitless of all things that creep through uncut grass at night, Melody races across the overgrown paddock. Tears roll down her cheeks unchecked as she signs for me not to give up on her, for me to not to give up on us.
I’m about to push off my feet and meet her halfway, but before I can, her father arrives out of nowhere and curls his arms around her waist. She thrushes against him and claws her nails into his arm, but his hold is too strong. She has barely signed that she hates him when he drags her through the side door of their ranch.
Melody must break out of his hold not long after because, quicker than I can blink, she’s peering down at me from the window of her bedroom. She’s still crying, but now her tears are more in anger than fear. She wasn’t lying when she told her dad she hated him. It was fueled by the same anger that burned her alive when she point-blank refused to do his drills anymore. It was shortly after her fifteenth birthday. She wanted to forget the nightmare of her past, but she couldn’t do that with monthly real-life reminiscing. Her dad fought her all the way, but at the end of the day, Wren and Melody won.
They’ll win this battle too. It might just take a few days longer than I’m hoping.
13
MELODY
“W ill you please eat something?” My dad replaces the untouched sandwich and unopened potato chips packet with a plate full of fried rice and satay chicken before pivoting around to face me. “It has been three days, Melody. You need to eat, or you will end up sick.”
While rolling my eyes, I shift onto my opposite hip, so I’m facing away from him. I haven’t spoken to him since I told him I hated him. I’m so mad at him for taking away the only good thing in my life. I followed his rules, I did every one of his stupid drills, but instead of being rewarded for my dedication, I’m being punished for it.
Brandon has been a part of my life for so long, I genuinely feel hollow without him in it. We texted back and forth the night he braved my father alone, but we lost that branch of communication when my father discovered the reason behind my silence and confiscated my phone. Then he sent Brandon away this morning when he brought over our study notes for the bio-chem test we have later this week.
I know we’re young, but it’s hypocritical of my parents to preach sainthood when they didn’t follow it. My mom wasn’t a month out from being an adult when she slept with my dad. She had only just turned seventeen. At least Brandon is the same age as me. My father was twenty-one when he took my mother’s virginity, so he should’ve known better.
