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14
Gabe
Ifelt my phone buzz in my pocket as I stared down at Bella, her tears finally dry. She stared back at me with big, beautiful eyes and lips that were just begging to be kissed.
I pulled the phone from my pocket and checked who was calling.
It was my dad.
My heart ached.
I knew we had to have a difficult conversation that I wasn’t looking forward to.
“I’m sorry, I have to take this,” I said to Bella, excusing myself from the room.
Once I was in the hallway, I answered the call.
“Yes, Dad?” My voice cracked.
“Gabriel, I’m so happy you answered the phone, I thought I might have to call you a hundred times to get an answer.” Dad paused to cough. His voice sounded weaker than usual. Or maybe I was imagining things. He continued. “Anyway, about the land deal, Tony told me that—"
“I don’t give a fuck about Tony, Dad.”
“Well Tony sure as hell gives a fuck about the property, and I don’t see any way around this.” More coughing, that turned into a fit that seemed to take all of his breath away and leave him wheezing in its aftermath.
Leaning against the wall, I used my free hand to rub at my eyes and temples. A pain surged through my head.
There was a beeping in the background. Dad wheezed, as if still trying to catch his breath.
“Are you in a hospital?”I asked.
“No, not a hospital, a care home of sorts,” my dad said, brushing off my comment. “Just until I get better.”
“Roman told me you were dying, Dad.”
“Roman is full of shit.” His voice wavered. Every breath he took sounded more difficult than the last. He sighed and continued. “My kidneys aren’t doing so hot, I’m on dialysis, but it’s my liver they are most worried about. Who knew a liver was so goddamn important? But I’ll be fine, Gabriel. I expect to go home in the next day or two.”
A lump formed in my throat, and I knew that it was unlikely Dad was going home anytime soon, if he went home at all. Roman was right. Dad wasn’t going to talk about it though. He may have faked dying before for attention or to manipulate us, but I knew when it came right down to it, he’d never actually tell us that he was sick.
He continued. “Anyway, Tony would like to meet with you.”
“I’m not meeting with Tony,” I said sternly. “Why are you so concerned about this deal, when you’re in the hospital with liver and kidney failure?”
The line went almost silent, except for the beeping of machines in the background.
“Dad?”
He took a deep breath, loud enough that I could hear it over the line. “Gabriel, I made this deal with Tony and his guys, and we have to honor it. I don’t give a fuck about what happens to me, I’m looking out for you. These are guys you don’t want to mess around with and they have told me they will come after our family to get what they want.”
I knew that story. I knew it all too well. But the fact that my father had proposed a deal with land he had no right offering up filled me with rage. My fists balled up at my sides and it took everything in me not to slam them into the wall.
“You put my family in danger? Over a casino?” I growled.
“It’s not just a casino, it was an entire package deal, the casino was the final part of it.” He began coughing again, and it lasted for a good two minutes. I could hear voices in the background, and I realized someone was talking to him.
“I can’t do this right now,” I muttered. I hung up the phone and used every tactic in the book to calm myself down. Those might have been my last words to my father, but at that moment, I couldn’t have cared less.
My father put his kids and my family in danger. If only he cared half as much about us as we did him, we wouldn’t be in this fucking mess.
