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When I don’t answer because the truth is too difficult to admit, Damon’s full lips pull into a tight line.
“You don’t need to answer that. You’ve never been taken care of … and it shows.”
He walks through the door then disappears around a corner.
And I’m left with the heavy weight of the truth of sitting squarely on my shoulders.
I don’t need a man, I tell myself.
But that doesn’t mean I don’twantone.
Damon
I should never have brought Ames to my house. Not that I’m upset over what happened or unhappy to get her away from the bastard who put those bruises on her body. But this is too close.
She was supposed to be a fantasy I could escape to.
A person in a place that was just mine.
Having Blue here feels like I’m mixing her together with all the problems in my life—the fights with Ezra, the loss of Emily, the games all the guys keep playing that never seem to end.
The battle with our fathers.
It doesn’t surprise me to find seven missed calls on my phone after cleaning Blue up and helping her get dressed. All from my father, the entitled bastard believing he deserves even a second of my time.
After the engagement party, his calls weren’t often, maybe one every few days. But as the weeks have gone on, his calls have been more frequent, from a call a day to two calls, three…
Every time, he’s left a message. I’ve deleted them all without listening.
It’s the same bullshit with him, even after all these years. William will always attempt to charm you in the beginning, just a father reaching out to check on his son, just a bastard lying with a demon’s forked tongue.
Always concerned about his image, he leads the world to think he’s a brilliant businessman, an expert when it comes to money and a family man who raised two powerful sons.
Anybody who buys that shit should be sent for a mental exam.
The image he keeps couldn’t be farther from the truth.
I know where he made his millions, and it wasn’t in some stuffy office, wearing a chokehold tie, scamming the middle class out of their hard-earned money while breaking every law.
No.
That was Daddy Dearest and Warbucks, also known as Tanner’s father and Gabe’s father. The rest of the Inferno fathers simply tag along, taking advantage of the backroom deals and elbow rubbing of the elite class in this state.
Where my father made his money was far more insidious than that, leaving Ezra and me to bear the scars of it.
And I bet the old man is running out of money now that enough time has passed since the last weekend he could drag us away from here for lessons in life no son should have taught to them.
The daily calls didn’t surprise me, but I can’t lie and claim the seven I just received in the past hour didn’t make my brow cock up and my muscles tense with caution.
I toss the phone back on the counter then turn to watch Blue walk through my kitchen studying all the high-end bullshit and the damage Ezra and I caused.
“Gonna cost a fortune to fix this shit, you know?”
She glances up at me with those gorgeous violet eyes, a color I’ve never seen in another person.
“Why were you and your brother fighting? Is he the reason you’re always so pissed off?”
“He’s a part of it,” I breathe out, not interested in getting into the details of my life.
