Page 286 of Power Play

Ryan’s taillights disappeared around the curve, and my body moved before my mind caught up.

I spun toward the house and nearly slipped on the frozen driveway, catching myself against the hood of my mother’s car before running for the porch. My father said my name somewhere behind me, but his voice barely registered over the blood pounding inside my ears.

The front door stood open, warm light spilling across the stone beneath my boots as I rushed inside and headed for the narrow table beside the staircase.

“Charmagne, where are you going?” my father demanded.

My purse sat exactly where I’d left it when Ryan and I arrived, back when I believed bringing him here meant something. Back when he was still mine and I hadn’t stood beside him while my father carved pieces from him with a smile.

I grabbed the strap with both hands because they were shaking too hard to manage it with one.

“Charmagne, your father asked you a question.”

“Not right now, Mother.”

The words came out louder than anything I had ever said to her. My mother stopped behind me, but I didn’t turn to see what my defiance had done to her face.

I couldn’t care about her expression, my father’s guests, the dinner still sitting on the table, or the humiliation they would claim I had caused by allowing my life to become visible inside their perfect house.

Ryan was leaving.

My father stepped into my path before I reached the side door. “You are in no condition to drive.”

“Move.”

“Running after him while he’s behaving this irrationally will only make the situation worse.”

“He isn’t behaving irrationally.” The strap of my purse cut into my palm as I tightened my fist around it. “You humiliated him, and I let you.”

“I told him the truth.”

“You told him what you needed him to believe so he would leave me.”

My father’s expression hardened. “If one difficult conversation was enough to make that man abandon you, then I have proven my point.”

The accusation entered me so easily that I almost absorbed it.

That was what my father did. He found the fear already living inside me and fed it until it sounded like reason.

Ryan wasn’t abandoning me. I had abandoned him first.

“Move, Daddy.”

“You need to calm down.”

“I need to get to Ryan before he leaves.”

My father remained in front of the door. “And if he refuses to listen?”

The terror behind that possibility nearly brought me to my knees, but I shoved it down and stepped around him.

“Then I’ll make him listen.”

My mother followed me into the mudroom. “Charm, darling, wait. We should discuss this before you do something impulsive.”

I dragged my coat from the hook. “Not right now, Mother!”

My voice cracked through the room hard enough to make her recoil. I shoved my arms into my coat, grabbed my keys, and pushed through the door before either of them could stop me.