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His eyebrows rose. “Pretty sure I knocked up your mother with you. So, yeah. That makes you my son.”
“Takes a lot more than sperm to make you a father, Dad.”
He started walking toward me and Cecilia reached out for him. Telling him to stop. Telling him that she’d get me to go upstairs. He turned around, pushing her back toward the kitchen counter as she stumbled on her feet. And as she caught herself against the counter, she cried out. Her voice filled with panic, horror, and anger.
“He’s just recovered, Howard! Stop it!”
I didn’t flinch. As my father stalked toward me, I looked him straight in his eyes. I wouldn't let him control this house anymore. I wouldn't let him control my life, or my happiness, or my worth. I kept Cecilia in the corner of my eye, checking to make sure she was all right. And after she got back up onto her feet, I narrowed my eyes at my father.
“The fuck are you looking at, Clinton?”
I sighed. “I’m not afraid of you anymore, Dad. I don’t know why you’re so angry. I don’t know why you hate me so much. But I’m done trying to figure it out. I’m done trying to figure you out. This has to stop, and it stops now. And if you don’t want it to stop, I’ll call people who will help me stop it. For my sake, and Cecilia’s.”
He put his finger in my face. “You leave my wife to me.”
“Not a chance in hell.”
He paused. “What did you just say?”
I stepped up to the plate, mere inches from my father’s face. One on one, without a care in the world as to what he did after this. Because if he beat me to a bloody pulp, I’d take both the doctor and the lawyer up on their offers. So long as they helped Cecilia out in the process. My smile settled into a grin. A snarky grin I’d learned from him over the years. His nostrils flared with anger. His eyes bulged with revenge. I smelled the stench of alcohol on his breath and shook my head.
Pathetic. “I said, not a chance in hell, Dad.”
Before I knew it, my father’s hands pressed into my chest. The wooden spoon went clattering to the ground as my hands came up in defense. Cecilia screamed in the background, and the whole world fell black. Black at night. Black, like the color of my soul. Well, the color my soul had been. Rae changed a great deal of that. Cecilia changed a great deal of that. And in that moment, I wondered if Rae would be proud of me. Proud of me standing up to my father. Proud of me holding my ground. Proud of me fighting for my own happiness and safety within the walls of my father’s mansion.
And I decided she would be. If she knew what was happening right now, she’d be proud. Possibly screaming at me like Cecilia currently was. But she’d be proud after the fact.
Not today, Dad. You’re done with this shit today.
The only thing I processed was the smell of alcohol. The only thing I felt was my father’s storm unleashing against me. He held so much anger within him. He had such fury in his fists. The only thing I saw were his angry eyes coming at me as I shoved him in his chest, listening as Cecilia screamed in the background.
“Stop it! I’m calling the police if you don’t cut it out right now!”
Her voice faded away. Fell into the background as I moved and ducked my father. Whatever this storm brewed from, I wasn’t going to be my father’s punching bag any longer. If he wanted a fight, a fight is what he’d get. And I’d make sure to repay him for every fist that ever connected with my face. I’d repay him for every bruise he ever wrung around my neck. I’d repay him for every knee to my stomach and every elbow to my back and every time he pinned me against my fucking bedroom wall to teach me a lesson about being late for school.
Because damn it, we all deserved better.
Even my father.
“Stop! Please!”
“You’re a selfish little brat, you know that?”
“Howard, no!”
Drunken fists flew around in the air and I dodged every single one of them, until a couple connected with my ribs, causing me to grunt out. But the only thing saving me was the fact that my father was completely smashed. He teetered on his feet, giving me a chance to get away from him. I slunk around him in the kitchen, moving away from him and watching as she stumbled into the kitchen counters. I gripped my stepmother by the upper arms and moved her out of harm’s way, ripping open the kitchen door and pushed her into the dining room just as my father came up behind me.
And when he fisted my shirt, he ripped me away from my stepmother.
Away from the woman I’d defend tonight.
“Get back here and fight me like a damn man.”
Cecilia cried out. “Howard! Stop! No!”
I scoffed. “Just getting the innocent out of the way before I teach you a lesson with your own medicine.”
And as Dad slung me across the kitchen, forcing me to the ground, I heard him come for me. I felt his footsteps growing closer. I scrambled off the floor, readying myself for a fight just as his hands connected with my chest again.
