AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Stop it!” I shout at them both. I know that this argument must be attracting the attention of the rest of the guests in the house, so I’m praying I can stop all this nonsense before it gets really out of hand. I manage to grab a t-shirt and cover myself up so I can get out of bed, standing between the two furious men. “This is ridiculous,” I snap. I turn to my father. “Dad, look...this isn’t just a stupid fling, okay? Maybe it started out that way for him, I don’t really know...but not for me. He’s done so much for me in a short space of time. I know how much he cares about me.”
“You don’t know anything,” my Dad snaps. “You think you know this man better than I do, after three days? I’ve known him for three decades.”
“And still it seems I care about him more,” I retort. “If you gave a shit about him, you would see that he is finally happy and leave him to it. Don’t you want him to finally enjoy his life? Don’t you think that there is no better woman for your best friend than your daughter?” I shake my head in anger and disgust. “You’re so closed minded. You just want to see this as a negative thing.”
“It is a negative thing. It’s sick,” my father says, glaring at Wes. “He dared to do this, even though he knew it would upset me.”
“I have spent years living to please you,” Wes growls. “The business has always taken the direction you wanted it to. I come to these dumb parties because you ask me too. For the sake of the damn business. But I need a life outside of it. And now that I have found it, you want to fuck it all up for me.”
My father shakes his head in anger. “Don’t turn this around on me. Anyone else would be on my side. Why can’t either of you see how disgusting this is?”
Wes tries to launch himself at my father again, but I put a hand on his chest, holding him back from doing something he will regret. As angry as I am with my father, I know violence isn’t going to solve any of this. We need to talk about this like adults, though it seems that of us all, my father is the most childish. Seems kind of ironic, if you ask me.
“You obviously need some time to process this and cool off,” I tell him in as calm a manner as I can muster. “I know that you’re upset that we didn’t tell you...but to be honest, Dad, if you want to keep either of us in your life, you’re going to have to come to terms with it. We’re serious about making this work.” I reach out for Wes’ hand, watching disgust wash over my father’s face. I fix him a cold stare. “What do you say? Are you willing to give us a shot?”
My father’s silence says it all. I can see how disgusted he is, how much he wants to break Wes and I apart with force, how much he wants to walk away and never look back. In his shoes, I can kind of understand. I know it must be strange. I know it was unexpected. But now that this has happened, he needs to be a man and move on. Isn’t that what anyone else would try and do?
But not him, it seems. I watch him shake his head one last time. I watch his anger get the better of him. He glares at me.
“I will never accept this,” he hisses. “I will never give you my fucking blessing. You don’t deserve it...either of you. And as for the business...well, you can forget it, Wes. You’re not the person I thought you were. I want you both to leave right away. Don’t ever show your faces to me again.”
A part of my heart has shattered. I should have seen this coming, but I can’t deny how much it hurts me. To hear your father say he doesn’t ever want to see you again is so painful that it feels like a bullet to the heart. How am I supposed to process this? I find myself unable to breathe, Wes puts a supportive hand on my back, holding me up. I hadn’t realized I was about to fall until I felt the strength of his own body giving me strength. A tear drips down my cheek, and I know that it’s all over. After all the work I put into making things right with my father, he’s just tossed me away at the first sign of trouble. And suddenly, I realize that maybe I shouldn’t be upset about this at all. Maybe I should be relieved. I always knew he was a selfish narcissist, and now I know he’s an unforgiving monster too. My eyes meet his, my gaze full of fire and anger.
