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“You wouldn’t understand.”
“Then fucking explain it to me!” He grabbed my shoulders as if he wanted to shake some sense into me.
“I could have tried harder to control that car, I could have fought harder to stay awake, to hold onto her when she was ripped from me. But I couldn’t. I feel like a damn failure and whenever I look at her, when I see the bruises, I’m scared to touch her, scared to hold her in case I hurt her!” My head fell back on my shoulders, and I tried to keep my emotions in check.
“You can’t think like that because it will eat away at you, maybe not all at once, but slowly overtime, it’ll break you down and that isn’t what she needs nor is it what you need. You need each other.” He gripped my face in his hands. “Go home to her. We will deal with Chad tomorrow.” It wasn’t an ask; it was an order, and it was one I wouldn’t obey no matter how much he begged me to.
“No. Let’s go.” I snatched my face from his grip before I returned to the driver’s seat. “You can either get in and join me or I’ll leave you stranded here until I return. Your choice.” I strummed my fingers on the steering wheel as my father returned to his seat. “Finally,” I huffed as I revved the engine before speeding off down the straight but narrow road towards the warehouse.
Everyone was there when we arrived, including Victor and Miles. Victor’s eyes landed on my father with a surprised look, and I shot him a mind your own fucking business one right back.
“How’s my daughter?” he snapped.
“Your wife is with her now. Why don’t you call and ask?” I spat back as I made my way to the room Chad was being held in.
“I have done, and guess what, my daughter is asking for her husband, fuck knows why since he’d much rather be here than with her.”
“Fuck you.” I seethed. “Are you telling me that if that was Florence, you wouldn’t want to skin the man alive?”
“This isn’t about me! It’s about you. Do you know she broke down to the girls, to her mother, and yours? No, of course not, because you’re not there. You don’t care.” That was the last straw.
I charged at Victor, but he didn’t move. My fist struck his right jaw and it felt as though I’d pummeled concrete for hours on end.
“Lorenzo, that’s enough. Anastacia wouldn’t want this, and you know it!” My father pulled me away from Victor who cracked his jaw with a scoff.
“Get the fuck off me! I’m going to end that fucker’s life, then I’ll celebrate it with a drink, whoever wants to join me, you’re welcome and the ones that don’t, well, you’re welcome to go fuck yourselves.” I couldn’t understand the shit that flew out of my mouth, I couldn’t stop, and the worst thing was, I didn’t want to.
I pushed my father off me as I carried on my way to Chad’s room. I heard my father apologising for me and I hated it. I didn’t need anyone to apologise for me.
“Don’t apologise for me, I’m not a child,” I snapped without looking back.
“Then stop fucking acting like one,” my father roared back at me, but I blocked him out. I blocked them all out. My focus was on one person and one person only…Chad.
“Lorenzo, what’s going on?” Gino asked as he pulled me to the side. “Let’s go out back.” He shoved me out the back door onto the dirt track at the rear of our warehouse.
“Nothing is going on; I have shit to do.” I turned my back to him.
“Don’t do that. It’s not the time to have a fucking pity party.” He gripped my arm and spun me around to face him.
“I’m not throwing a pity party. You can’t imagine the shit that’s going on in my head.”
“Of course we don’t. And why do you think that is? Oh, I know, because you don’t fucking talk to us.” He lit a cigarette and brought it to his lips, taking a deep, long drag.
“Have you seen her?!”
“Who? Ana?” His eyes narrowed. “Of course I have, we all did as you carried her like a child out of that building. That sight was enough to fuck up anyone. But you cannot go blaming yourself for that.” He passed me the cigarette which instantly soothed the anger that bubbled beneath the surface. “She’s home, she’s safe, isn’t that all that matters?”
“I need to go.”
“Home?” he asked.
“No, to pay a certain lover boy a visit.” I flicked the smoking cigarette on the dirt as I made my way back inside.
* * *
“Good morning, lover boy.”
I entered the room where Chad hung by his wrists from the ceiling. The stench was enough to knock even the strongest of stomachs sick, a mixture of piss, vomit and tears.
