Page 84 of A Song for You

My father growls. “You’re late, so this will have to do.”

“Is someone joining us?” I ask, knowing it’ll just be us.

He glares at me but doesn’t respond as he walks to the dining room.

The table is set for two, his plate at the head and mine at the other end. The other four spots remain vacant. What’s with the formality? I haven’t really thought about it before, but watching Cat with her family has made me realize that the relationship my father and I have isn’t normal. Why we don’t sit side by side, or at the kitchen island. But even when my mother was around, we had dinner in the dining room every night. Formal dinner. Never mac and cheese or pizza or takeout.

It’s been steak and potatoes, mahi-mahi with jasmine rice, escargot, and caviar since I was a child.

And it’s only now, when I’d rather have a waffle out of a to-go box while lying in bed with my girlfriend, that I even question the life I’ve lived for the past twenty-four years.

“Have you cleared everything out of Carter’s apartment yet?” my father asks as Sienna places our food on the table and blushes when she makes eye contact with me.

She’s stunning. Poor thing will be fired if she doesn’t look at my father the same way.

Every woman on staff in his home is gorgeous. And young. When they hit twenty-eight, he lets them go. Then he starts again.

And he fucks every single one of them.

My skin crawls because, until recently, his actions didn’t even bother me.

I see the world through a different lens now.

The only constant in my life outside of my father is Wendy. She helped raise him, so she’s older, and she runs the house perfectly. She’s not soft in any sense of the word. No one could be soft and survive my father.

But she has a soft spot for the both of us.

Sienna, on the other hand, clearly prefers me over him.

I avoid her gaze, knowing that giving me too much attention will cost her this job, and because, as beautiful as she is, she doesn’t hold a candle to Catherine.

“Not yet. I haven’t had the chance,” I reply.

My father cuts into his steak and holds his fork aloft. “Get it done soon. Dean is going to put the plan in motion next week, and you don’t want to be anywhere near that apartment when that happens. There can be no trace of our family’s involvement in this.”

My heart rate skyrockets, and I put my hands on my knees to keep my father from seeing the way they tremble. “What is the plan?”

He shakes his head as he chews. “It’s better that you don’t know. Since you were his roommate, we need to keep you as far removed from this as possible so there’s no inkling of your involvement.”

I grip my knife and saw through my steak, avoiding his gaze. “The point is to go after his father,” I remind him.

“I know what the fucking point is!” His shout startles me, and I drop my knife to my plate with a clang. “I don’t need the reminder!”

“I just want to make sure innocent people aren’t hurt,” I say, keeping my voice even. “His father is the one who should pay.”

He laughs. “Not a single James is innocent, and you’ll do well to remember that.”

“Dad, by that logic, I’m guilty of your sins.”

“You are,” he says, wiping his face with his napkin, his eyes never leaving mine. “You’re as entangled as I am. We’re in this together.”

My conscience screams at me to beg him to stop. To do anything but sit here and let him destroy the family of the woman I love. But I keep my mouth shut. To him, my silence is acquiescence, so he places his napkin on his lap and takes a sip of his whiskey. “I’m thinking London for Christmas to see your brothers.”

Forty-Four

Cat

Sweet Disposition by The Temper Trap