Before I could even come up with something Marlon stepped in.
“Y’all good? Cause we at an event full of people right now.”
His voice was calm, but I knew him well enough to hear the tension under it. Marcus was right behind him too, alreadyscanning the room like security. Or maybe he was just looking for the nearest exit. Shit. I should too.
My father turned to them slowly.
“No,” he said. Then stepped closer into Marlon’s face. “No, it ain’t fucking good. You fucking my daughter, man?”
My heart started beating in my throat.
I looked at Marlon, pleading.
Like…please.
Please say something else.
Please fix it.
Please don’t?—
“…yeah.”
I closed my eyes for half a second.
Wow.Okay. That’s how we doing this?
Daddy scoffed once in disbelief before he turned to me.
The way my father gripped my arm and dragged me to the back room, you’d think I was a dog off the street and not his only daughter.
“Okay! Okay! I get it. Let go.”
He didn’t.
Not until we were all the way in the back room and the door slammed shut behind us.
Then he released me like my sins burned him. I stumbled a step back, rubbing my arm immediately.
“Come on, man. That was unnecessary,” I snapped, already heated. “You doing way too?—”
“You got some fucking nerve,” he cut in.
I straightened, matching his energy.
“Oh, I got nerve?” I shot back. “You just embarrassed me in front of a whole room of people and I’m the one with nerve?”
“I sent you here with a task,” he said. “A simple task. And you couldn’t even do that without opening your fucking legs?!”
Ouch.
The door opened again and Marlon stepped in. He shut the door behind him, locked it and faced us fully.
“Let’s bring it down,” he said. “We can talk without all that.”
Dad laughed but there was no humor to it.
“Talk?” he repeated. “You think we about to fucking talk?”
