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He seemed surprised I would just announce it like that, and it took him a moment to recover. “You care about him,” he surmised.
“I love him, Dad.”
His lips parted, but I held up my hand. “Again, my heart seems to be on its own timetable.”
Dad cleared his throat. “Yes. Well. You’ve always been very decisive about what you want and how you feel.”
“You usually call me stubborn,” I emphasized.
“You get that from your mother.”
A little bit of the tension lifted from my shoulders, but I was still on guard. “I know it’s fast. I know, obviously, I’m still learning about him. But I’m not going to change my mind.”
“Not even knowing his father is your old man’s biggest rival?”
“He’s not involved in this. I would bet my Mercedes on it.”
He knew how much I loved my G wagon, and surprise transformed his face. “You’re that sure?”
“John McClaren kicked his only son out of the family, going as far as to strip him of his name because he has disabilities he refused to treat.”
“Disabilities?” Dad questioned.
“He has misophonia and tinnitus. He also has severe anxiety and, I’m starting to think, PTSD.”
“PTSD? What the hell from?”
“From McClaren’s idea of parenting,” I explained, rage bubbling up inside me. “He locked him in closets. Was physically abusive.”
Dad frowned. “He told you this?”
“Yes. But even before he told me, I saw the evidence. The trauma. It’s why I punched that cop and stayed in jail. He was freaking out, Dad. Kept telling me he didn’t want to be in the closet.”
“These are serious allegations.” My father’s expression was a mixture of concern and anger.
“They aren’t allegations. They’re facts,” I said. “He isn’t capable of doing the things Niles is accusing him of. Even if he were, he wouldn’t because he’d never lift a finger to do anything for the man who abused and abandoned him.”
Speculation brightened Dad’s eyes. “Would he attest to this… on the record?”
“No,” I deadpanned. “Absolutely not. It took all of this for him to tell me about his father. He’s convinced I won’t want to be with him now. He told me that in confidence. And that’s how I’m telling you. Matthew is not a bargaining chip. He’s a person. A man who’s been conditioned to believe he has to hide who he is. I’m entrusting you with this private information because he’s important to me and because you need to know he didn’t do this.”
“I see.”
“I hope you do,” I said, meeting his gaze. “Because if you do anything to hurt him, I will never forgive you.”
“I’ll want to meet him, formally.” Dad decided. “Your mother too, of course.”
“No.”
He drew back. “Excuse me?”
“He’s afraid of you.”
He sputtered. “He said that?”
He didn’t have to. “My paternity came as much of a shock to him as his did to us.”
“But I’m?—”
