AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Darkness had already fallen as I picked up the phone. Something about it seemed fitting. By my own design, I was separating myself from Dad, so it made sense I’d only speak to him under the cover of nightfall.
The long orange beams from the streetlamps stretched across the hood, seeping into the cab to cast sinister shadows across my skin. I laughed under my breath as I drove through the intersection. If only I was as good with words as I was images, maybe I could have a career in journalism like Jonah would. Or even literature.
The call was almost to voicemail, and a sudden lick of curiosity had me answering.
“Hello, Father. For what do I owe the pleasure of this call?” I grinned, flexing my hands on the smooth steering wheel. I’d never spoken to him with such flippancy. When Mother Dearest left, I’d said things in anger, but it wasn’t like this.
I liked the freedom. To know that he didn’t have any hold on me any longer.
“Astrid,” he said in a bland voice. Although it wasn’t quite as unaffected as he probably wanted me to believe. The labored sound of breathing was much too loud in the silence for that.
“What did you need?” I lost the grin, more concerned that something was wrong than interested in having some fun at his expense.
“I’m sure Rhys has told you about the family trouble?”
“He has,” I answered hesitantly. He and Mr. Bennett were close, closer than I ever wanted to know, but I wasn’t sure how much his lover would have shared with him while he was being held without bail. Actually, I wasn’t sure how much Rhys knew either. His mother didn’t seem like she was too keen to discuss the facts when it could threaten to crumble the foundation of her world.
“Then you know it would be best for you to come home.” There was no room for argument in his tone. Just like that, he expected me to listen, as if the last several months had never happened.
“The time that I move back in with you is over, Dad. You know that. I’m too different and I’ll never be the daughter you want me to be.” I paused, swallowing hard, then continued on a softer voice. “And you’ll never be the father I need you to be either.”
A cross between a gasp and choke sounded through Freda. “I’m sorry for that, Astrid. I…” He trailed off. Was he trying to compose himself? Had what I said bothered him so much? “I know I’m not what you would want for a father, and I’m sorry I couldn’t be that for you. Someday, I hope we can have some type of relationship. But that’s not why you need to come home. It’s for you and me, as well as your friendship with Rhys. Haven’t you talked to him?”
A frown tugged at the corner of my mouth as I drove down our street. His car was gone and the lights were completely off in the house. There wasn’t a bit of regret as I drove by it. In the short time I’d lived there, there hadn’t been enough good memories to offset the bad.
I pulled around the house to the back of the cottage and threw Freda into park. What was I supposed to say to him? Instead of climbing out immediately, I leaned back against the seat and tried to figure out his angle.
“Are you still there?”
“I’m here. And yes, I talk to Rhys every day.”
“But today, have you?” He asked with more energy than I’d heard him use in most conversations. He had always been mostly serene, unless giving a particularly passionate sermon. Then he was hellfire and righteous brimstone.
“Not since this morning,” I reluctantly admitted.
He made a noncommittal sound, and I imagined him nodding his head. “Stan called me. Based on what his attorney is saying, he believes his arrest and trial are about to make the news. You don’t need to get caught up in all of that, honey.”
Yeah, okay. I didn’t for one second believe this was all about me. “You mean you don’t want the world to find out that you’ve been having an affair with a married man.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, my face twisted up in disgust. I couldn’t believe I’d just said that to my father.
Then again, yes, I could.
“It’s already been in the news that he was arrested.”
With loads of exasperation, he tried to reason with me. “Arrested, yes. But not why, or the specific details. Now that he’s come clean to me, I can see he was into some very questionable things.” Then more to himself, he said, “I can’t believe I thought the best of him.”
“Okay, Dad, no. We’re not having this kind of heart to heart. And no, I won’t come back home. Was that the only reason you called?”
“Astrid. I’m only trying to protect you.”
What the fuck? He wanted to protect me? Where was that mindset when I had to deal with Mother Dearest every day? Or when they were ignoring me? Moving me across the country from everything I was familiar with? Even if he had a sudden change of heart, which I highly doubted he did, he couldn’t ride in on his Bible and try to protect me now.
And his kind of protection wasn’t the kind I wanted in my life anyway. Not when it came with strings of judgement and disappointment.
“Sorry, Dad. That’s just not your job anymore.”If it ever was.
I hit the disconnect button and turned my phone on silent. The chances of him attempting to call back were slim, but if he did, I didn’t want to listen to the incessant ringing. Who knew, maybe the fear of Stan’s trouble bleeding over on him was enough to light a fire under his butt.
When I barely had my driver’s door open, Rhys’ Rover whipped around the side of the cottage, coming to a forced stop next to me. The momentum was so strong, I was half afraid Rhys would go flying through the windshield.
