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Again his voice is casual as he answers, “Well, I woke up, had breakfast —”
“Dad, do not fuck with me right now,” I cut him off, pressing my spine against the door. “Just tell me what you did to Reed.”
“Oh that.” He sighs. “Well, nothing yet and that’s the truth. But I’m thinking about it.”
“I don’t…” I swallow, my throat going dry and scratchy. “Why the hell would you do anything to him? Why now? Why —”
“Because my feelings are hurt.”
“What?”
“First, it’s your brother,” he goes on, making absolutely no sense to me. “And now it’s you.”
“What are you —”
“What have I done to deserve this treatment? Why do you both insist on keeping me out of your lives? Out of my grandchildren’s lives.”
My purse falls to the floor with a thump. “What?”
There’s silence on the other end.
Dreadful and scary.
Not able to bear it, I’m about to speak when my father decides to make it even worse by going first. “You didn’t think I’d find out, did you?”
“I —”
“You didn’t think that you could hide this from me, did you, baby girl? You didn’t fucking think that you’d screw me over and I wouldn’t retaliate,” he says, his voice getting louder with each word. “Did you?”
I shake my head frantically. “I didn’t. I didn’t screw you over. I was —”
“You think Ezra’s going to marry you like this, huh? A fucking slut pregnant with a loser’s baby. Do you think his father would approve of it? Do you think he’s going to hand over that money to me now, after months of dragging his feet?”
“Dad, I —”
“Ledger Thorne, isn’t it? That’s his name.”
I didn’t think I could be any more terrified than I was but I was wrong.
Now my terror is eating at my bones.
It’s eating at my muscles and skin, making me shaky, making me want to throw up, attacking my breaths, my words, my thoughts.
“You sure know how to pick ’em,” he goes on. “A soccer player with anger issues. You do know his career’s in the shitter right now, don’t you? They’re talking about ditching his loser ass. Not that I care who you choose to spread your legs for. Like mother, like daughter. But I do care when it fucks me over.”
“I wasn’t…” I begin, pushing words out. “I’m not fucking you over. It doesn’t matter that I’m pregnant or whose babies I’m pregnant with. I —”
“Babies,” he interrupts, his voice dangerous and creepy. “Didn’t know that.”
I clench my eyes shut then.
At my stupid, stupid mistake.
I never wanted my father to find out. Not until I told Ezra and we decided on a plan as to how to deal with the situation. And even then, if there was a way to keep the news hidden from his evil self, I would’ve done it. I would’ve done anything and everything to keep my babies away from my father.
From my mother too.
From everyone in my other life.
People who don’t understand the meaning of family or love or anything remotely pure.
Never did I think, not even in my wildest imagination, that he’d find out this way. Not only that, but that he would retaliate when I least expected it. When I have done everything in my power to bow down to his wishes.
“It doesn’t matter that I’m pregnant,” I repeat. “The wedding’s only three weeks away and I’m still going to marry Ezra. I’m still going to hold up my end of the deal. You just have to let me do things my way and —”
“You are.”
“What?”
“You are going to marry Ezra, but not in three weeks. Day after tomorrow.”
“D-day after…”
“Yeah, because now I’m doing things my way,” he declares.
“What does that… What does that mean?”
“It means, baby girl,” he says in a soft, threatening voice, “that I’m done playing around. I’m fucking done letting you fool me, do you understand? Now if you want your brother to be able to keep his useless shop and his useless fucking license, you’ll do exactly what I tell you to do. You’ll stop shacking up with that loser and you’ll show up at the party tonight, in honor of your wedding. And you’ll show up in a way that no one will have a clue about what a little tramp you are. Do you understand what I’m saying to you? No one will know. Not until you’re good and married to that faggot piece of shit and that money’s in my bank account. Because trust me, if anyone finds out and this wedding is called off for any fucking reason, I’m going to put your brother in a world of hurt. And I’ll throw in your lover boy too. Two for the price of one. It wouldn’t be hard; his career is already hanging in the balance. One phone call to New York City FC’s owner who I’m friends with and he’s gone. And it will be all your fault. Yours and those bastard babies in your belly.”
