AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Fine, ask me your questions. You’ve been missing for months, and I thought you were in trouble. Instead I find you here whori—”
He never finished the statement, Kellan punched him so hard blood flew from his mouth and his head jerked before the chair toppled over.
Pulling a handkerchief out of his inner pocket, he wiped off his knuckles. “Let’s be very clear, Mr. Sharpe. When you speak to her, you will speak in a respectful, polite tone, or you will be corrected. No one speaks to her like that. I don’t give a fuck who you are.”
Liam and Jasper picked him and his chair up and positioned him back in place.
“And people say I have anger management issues,” Jasper quipped, making Little Bit actually laugh. It helped with the tension in the room.
Kellan gave her a soft look. “My apologies for interrupting, I didn’t care for his tone.”
“Thank you,” she said, and I had to cover my own smirk as Sharpe stared from her to Kel and then back again. He had no definitions or understanding of the woman he was dealing with.
I hope she made him choke on it.
“You know, I was going to ask a lot of different questions, but I mainly only have two.” She straightened and took two steps forward without quite closing the distance to him. “Did you know that Uncle Bradley raped Mom after you were married? And did you know what he was doing to me?”
CHAPTER25
EMERSYN
The earlier trembling seemed strangely absent as I stared at my father. Outside of some video footage on the news, I hadn’t seen him in almost three years. If I tried to concentrate on it, we barely spoke. I received gifts and cards, the occasional sorry he couldn’t make it back for my break, but that Uncle Fuckbucket would take care of me.
Right now, I couldn’t recall the last time we sat down to a meal. Whether it was that harsh reality surfacing from years of denial or the violent one seated right in front of me, staring with empty eyes, I had no idea.
Worse, watching him—all I could see was the vague resemblance to his brother. It was there… around the eyes and the shape of his mouth. His chin wasn’t quite as squared off, and his cheekbones weren’t as sharp. The pun didn’t even pull a smile to my lips.
More disturbing, the exhaustion on his face. The luggage beneath his bloodshot eyes. Scraping away the polished veneer left a far different man from the one who inhabited my memories.
“Answer her questions,” Kellan said when Daddy didn’t say a word.
He cleared his throat. “Maybe we could have some privacy…”
“No,” I answered before anyone else could, squeezing Freddie’s hand too much. He didn’t pull away or say a word, however. “These guys are my family. What you tell me, I’ll tell them. So no, they aren’t going anywhere.”
“They are not your family,” Daddy snapped, sending spittle and blood flying. It was a little unnerving to see how gruesome the blood on his teeth appeared as he spoke. What was more unnerving was how unmoved by it I was. I’d seen bloody attack after bloody attack—I’d even killed a couple of people…
His bloody mouth honestly didn’t register as something concerning. He could still breathe, right?
“You’re avoiding answering the questions,” I told him, aware of how his gaze swept over the guys and kept coming back to me.
“Emmy,” he said, his voice dropping in pitch. “Sweetheart…”
Yeah, I didn’t like that nickname any more than I did Princess.
“Let’s talk,” he said, trying to steady his breathing. Sweat had already soaked through his stained shirt and it seemed to be soaking through him now. The sour smell was cloying with the combination of body odor and his favorite cologne. Maybe it was on his shirt somewhere. It would have to be to linger this long.
None of that mattered. He was afraid. Genuine fear lurked in his eyes. The difference in his reaction to Mom’s couldn’t be more apparent.
“Please, Princess—”
“Don’t call me that,” I said before the guys could. Though Jasper’s knuckles went white and Liam’s expression bordered on murder face. I didn’t dare look at anyone else. “Especially if that’s how you intend to plead your case.”
The shift in his expression was a lot harder to read. Confusion? Surprise? Irritation? I wasn’t sure what he was thinking.
“What happened to you?” Turning the question on me. “Brad said you’ve been having some issues, though this is—dangerously close to delusional.”
I closed my eyes, but the sudden grunt of pain as the chair crashed over had me opening them again. Daddy was on the floor. Blood leaked from his nose as Jasper and Vaughn, this time, hauled him up. Liam flexed his hand as he glared at him.
