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Jake wiped his palms on his shorts and brought up his father’s number on his phone. Two, then three rings later, and stony silence met his ears, and Jake looked to see whether his father had ended the call or picked it up. “Hello?”
“Jacob,” his father answered, his words clipped and his tone cold. There was no emotion in his tone, no affection or happiness, and the earlier guilt at pushing his father away evaporated.
Jake closed his eyes and mentally hugged the little boy who’d grown up scared of his father’s shadow. His only wish as a child was that he could make his dad proud. Earn his love. It was a wish that would never be fulfilled and one he’d given up on. He straightened his spine, steadied his breathing, and wiped his sweaty palm on his shorts. “Father, we need to talk.”
“I don’t have time at the moment. You’ll need to book an appointment—”
“Make time,” he snapped, standing up and pacing. The man he’d become, the one who’d lost nearly everything curtesy of his father, was finally ready to stand up for the little boy he’d once been. “This is important.”
His father sighed as if he was being put upon. “Very well.”
It was now or never. His chance to break free of the chains his father had bound him in. “I’ve had enough of this toxic thing we have going on. It’s time you forget that I ever existed. Your interference has ruined—”
“You did that,” the other man spat, his voice a growl filled with accusation. “You were the one whose career was hanging on by a thread—”
“You think I’m worried about my job?” Jake asked incredulously. It was the least of his concerns.
“And this is why you’ll never make anything of yourself, Jacob. You’ll never see anything like my success—”
He huffed out a laugh, but it held no humour. “You know, I’m absolutely fine with that. I don’t want to be anything like you, Father. I want my friends and lovers to be with me because they love me. I don’t collect information on people to use it against them. I don’t buy them or threaten them. You have nothing and no one in your life who you haven’t manipulated and used to further your own agenda. You’re selfish and hateful, and one day you’ll piss off the wrong person. Karma will come and collect payment, and I can’t wait to see you realize you’re alone and have nothing and no one there for you. You are the epitome of everything wrong with society, and I want nothing to do with you—”
“Are you finished?” he asked.
“Not even close, but I will say this. Write me off as dead, Father, and I’ll do the same for you. If you see me in the street, don’t bother looking twice.”
“If that’s how you want it, fine.” The cold, calm voice filtering through the line was detached. There was no show of emotion at all, and not for the first time Jake wondered if his father was even capable of feeling anything.
He bit down on his tongue, resisting the urge to apologize so he could slink back into the shadows and hide. He knew he was pushing his father, tormenting him into snapping, and when he did, Jake had always been worse off. But it was time to make his final stand and push for what he needed, or he would never be free.
He hadn’t expected his father’s reaction, though. Giving up that easily wasn’t in his father’s blood. A chill ran down Jake’s spine. Even now, when Jake was nearly a thousand kilometres away with a third of the country separating them, his father terrorised him. How far did those tentacles of his influence reach? Jake closed his eyes, taking strength from the calm surrounding him. The cool breeze and the sound of water lapping at the shore, children playing, and people laughing. “Yes, that’s what I want.”
“Very well.” His father paused, and Jake’s shoulders slumped in relief. “But here are my rules.” His ears pricked up like a dog’s, and the hairs stood up on the back of his neck. Danger, danger repeated itself on a loop in his head, because there it was, his father’s impossible demands. “Leave Sydney and stay gone. Don’t come back. Don’t even step foot in the city. If you do, I’ll end you—”
“Is that a threat, Father? Are you actually telling me—”
“There’s that mind of yours wandering up into the clouds again imagining the most ridiculous notions.” The flippant response was nothing Jake hadn’t seen before, except the patronising comments were usually reserved for the women who tried to argue a point with his father. His go-to was accusing them of being overly emotional or irrational. But Jake wasn’t deterred.
“Well, set it out for me, then. You say you’ll end me. What exactly does that mean?”
“Don’t back talk me, boy.”
Jake laughed, the sound just like his father’s condescending tone, and something inside him snapped. Rage boiled through his blood, his vision tinged with a red haze as all the pent-up emotion of being bullied for decades rose to the surface, cascading over in an unstoppable torrent like the churning waters of Niagara Falls. “Or you’ll do what, Father?” His voice was unrecognizable. Arrogance oozed from him, mirroring his father’s callous disregard for Jake. “You know what, don’t answer that. You want me out of Sydney, fine. Consider me gone.” His voice was louder than he intended, booming out over the happy families, until he reined in his anger. Seething, he slammed his finger on the button ending the call, and resisted the urge to hurl it into the blue lapping waters of the Broadwater. Crushing the phone in his hand—he would be surprised if it still worked—he forced himself to breathe. He dropped it on the table and balled his fists, leaning over as he tried to calm his breathing. White-hot fury bled through his vision. His father had dealt his final blow, going for the jugular.
“Jake?” Cassidy asked quietly, sliding a hand up his back to cup his nape. He turned to her when she tugged him into her arms, and she held him, rocking him back and forth as his anger dissipated, and he was left with a hollowness—a void as deep as a black hole—in his chest. Shuddering breaths wracked him as the reality of what he’d just agreed to began to sink in.
“I told him—”
“I heard.” She pulled back and cupped his face. “Are you okay?”
“I… I don’t know.” He shook his head and his shoulders slumped.
“Cassie?” an unfamiliar voice called, and Cassidy pressed a quick kiss to the corner of his mouth before she turned and motioned to the man. “Give me a second.”
Jake watched as she turned and walked away. It wouldn’t be the last time she did it either, except that when it happened next, she would likely never return.
Dinner was quiet, Cassidy seemingly lost in thought and Jake replaying the conversation on repeat in his head. He pushed the chips around the greaseproof paper lining of the unwrapped package, leaving his fish untouched. Nausea crawled up his throat, telling Jake he hadn’t dreamed the conversation with his father. Any hope that it was just a nightmare he’d wake up from was shattered when a seagull landed on the metal seat next to him and squawked. He jumped, fright shocking his heart into a few pounding beats. He’d just agreed to leave Sydney, to walk away from everything he knew all because of his father.
He’d be leaving her.
