AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Then I’ll go with him,” Liliana cuts in. “Dad, just listen to what we have to say.”
“To what? This madness?” Frank shakes his head. “I’ve been gone for days. Days! You’re trying to tell me that you’ve fallen in love so deeply you can’t bear to be apart – in days?”
“It sounds farfetched, I know,” I tell him. “I wouldn’t have believed it myself if it hadn’t happened. But it wasn’t even days. I knew the first moment I saw her. Lili is mine. I’m hers. It’s simple. There’s no way we could even fight it.”
“He’s right,” Liliana says, looking up at me with an adoring glance. “Dad, I felt it too. And the past few days have been amazing. He treats me so well. I’ve been so happy.”
“Of course, you have,” Frank retorts. “Do you know how easy it is to be nice and kind for a few days? You have no idea who this man really is. He could wait until I’m gone and then beat you within an inch of your life. He could be a serial adulterer. He might be a con artist, waiting to try and get money out of us.”
I stifle a smile at that last suggestion, even though this is such as serious situation. I meet her eyes, giving her the permission to say it. It would sound worse if I did.
“Dad… Nico’s rich. Like, really rich. If anything, he ought to be worried about me scamming him out of his money.”
“Which I’m not, by the way,” I say, slipping my arm around her. “Lili didn’t know how much money I have until she saw my house, and that was after we had already become close. Look, it’s simple. I want to be with her, and she wants to be with me. We’re both adults. I think it would be reasonable to allow us the chance to see if this works out.”
Of course, I have no doubt that it will. But I need to at least show that I’m aware of his doubts. I know how this must look from the outside. How can I explain that I was so sure about this immediately?
Frank’s face has been reddening all this while, and now he’s right in my face, pointing up at me. “You better get out of here before I do something I regret,” he hisses. “I’m not having your filthy hands on my daughter.”
Anger rises up in me, and I feel a caveman instinct telling me to react. To push him away, hit him maybe, get him out of my space. But he’s still Liliana’s father.
“Get away from me, before you regret it,” I tell him coldly. “I won’t hurt you in front of your daughter, but you don’t want to push me.”
“What are you doing?” Liliana gasps, trying to push her way between us. “Stop it.”
“I’m not going to accept this,” Frank hisses, refusing to move away from me. “You snake! I’m not going to let you take my daughter away!”
Seeing that we aren’t going to back down, Liliana gives a cry of frustration. I’m about to echo her sentiment when she whirls around, heading for the door.
“If you can’t behave like adults, I can’t stay here,” she says. “It’s too much. I can’t watch you fight. I’m leaving.”
Before I can say anything to stop her, she’s gone, the door slamming shut behind her in our stunned silence.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Liliana
I don’t go far, although I do go quickly. I don’t want them to be able to follow me and drag me back.
I’ve noticed several times that there’s a maintenance closet on our floor, not far away from my room. I quickly rush to it and grab hold of the door, putting myself inside. It’s small and dark, but at least it wasn’t locked. And it so close that I can still hear the noises from the corridor, even if it’s a little more muffled. There’s also a crack by the doorframe through which I can see the hall clearly, leaving me perfectly positioned.
I wanted to stop them from fighting, but my motive for leaving was also something else. I want them to worry about me, to be forced to get along so that they can go looking for me and bring me back. It’s an unfamiliar place, and dad was worried enough about me before. Nico, too, would want to protect me. Now I just have to wait.
But instead of their footsteps racing after me, I hear the door to a room being wrenched open, and then Nico’s voice. “She’s gone,” he says, sounding worried and angry. “You’ve pushed her away!”
“Me?”
I only hear my Dad’s retort before the door closes again, muffling their voices. I hold my breath, straining to hear – and soon I do. They must both be shouting at the tops of their lungs to be heard through the heavy doors, and though I can’t make out every single word, I can understand the gist of it.
