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I trailed my gaze down his form and as much as I wanted to appreciate him, I turned my nose up. “Why do you always have to be so formal? Couldn’t you come in a pair of joggers like any normal man?”
“I was working late... why does it bother you?” He smirked. How could he smirk at a time like this?
I sighed, sounding bored, and shook my head, “So, why did they ring you before me? I’m his daughter.”
His lips pursed as he studied me. I could tell he was looking for the right words. It wouldn’t matter, I was already upset. He couldn’t twist the knife any more.
As he opened his mouth to speak, the nurse walked back in. “I’m so sorry to keep you waiting like this, we had an emergency.” She looked so apologetic, I knew how busy it was and I nodded.
“It’s fine.”
Troy held his arm out, his fingers pointing in the direction of the door and I followed behind the nurse. My gaze fell on my dad lying there peacefully and my knees almost buckled. I reached out and clung to the door frame. Troy must’ve noticed and kept me up as he gripped my waist. I was too washed out to shrug him off, his comfort was welcomed as I took the final steps to say goodbye to my dad.
Chapter Three
TROY
The warmth of her body immediately left my own as she stepped inside the room. It made me sad to see Mitch lying there. I’d grown close to him through the years. I hadn’t always agreed with his handling of Emily but what could I say, she was his daughter. For me to make my feelings known, I would’ve had to confess to what happened between us. There was no way I could do that.
Emily dropped down into the chair at the side of the bed, took his hand in hers and rested her forehead on the back of his hand. A lump in my throat restricted my airway and I had to force myself to inhale. The sound of her sobs forced me to turn away from the scene before me, just for a second. I couldn’t tell her that I was next of kin on his hospital records. He’d been having some issues recently with high blood pressure, they’d found an irregular heartbeat earlier this year, and he was placed on beta blockers.
The chair scraped along the floor and slowly I turned my head back. Emily was out of her chair and leaned over to kiss his cheek. I pushed from the door frame and made my way back to her. I enjoyed having her in my arms again, I just wanted to touch her. The last time we were together wasn’t so friendly. She sat back down and stared at her father. I dropped my hands to her shoulders and massaged them softly. You know when you shouldn’t push your luck but you do anyway? That was me right now. I couldn’t help but touch her, it was instinct. This could be the last time I ever got to put my hands on her, not without her wanting to gouge my eyes out anyway.
“Emily?” I pleaded with her.
“Please leave me alone.” She sniffed her tears back and I heard the shake in her voice. “I can’t believe he’s gone. We were getting on so well.”
“He spoke about you a lot, you know?”
She twisted around and looked at me, “He did?” Her eyes have a glimmer of hope in them and right now how could I take that away from her.
“Yeah, he did. He was so proud of you?”
She cocked her head to the side, a sneer formed on her lips. “And you were doing so well Troy, you just had to spoil it. If there was one thing Mitch Lancaster wasn’t, that was proud of his daughter. If anything, he was prouder of you. His little protégé.” She shrugged my hands from her shoulders and stood up. “You’re the golden boy and you’re not even his son. Me, I'm the black sheep.” Her blue eyes darkened like a storm had rolled in. “Excuse me.”
She stomped away and out of the door before I could even call for her to come back. I looked down at Mitch, “It seems she hasn’t forgiven me, Mitch. You said she’d come around one day…” Maybe when Hell has frozen over, I thought to myself. God, she was beautiful, even with a face full of tears, her blonde hair a mess and her almond-shaped eyes, red from crying. I slipped my hand into my pocket and pulled out my phone. I doubted there’d be any messages, it was four in the morning. I’m not sure even clients with insomnia would want to conduct business at this crazy hour. When I saw my screen was blank other than the one picture I kept of us, I sat in the chair that Emily had departed and leant back with a sigh. I tipped my head back and closed my eyes while I waited for Emily to come back from wherever she’d gone.
I didn’t have to wait long. Her voice echoed and bounced off the bare walls as she entered the room, “Why didn’t you tell me?” She shouted.
“What are you talking about?” My eyes sprung open as I lifted my head and I looked at the firecracker that was oozing with anger.
“You know what I’m talking about. I asked the nurse why they left it so late to contact me and she told me that you were the one that brought him in and you,” She pointed her finger in my direction, “you were his next of kin. What else don’t I know, Troy?”
I sighed, stood up, and squared my shoulders.
“You said the hospital rang you too.” she added, “why couldn’t you tell me the truth? Is it too much to ask that even with my father lying there on his deathbed, you still couldn’t bring yourself to be honest with me?”
A smirk threatened to tug at my lips but I stopped it, “It wasn’t like that, Em…” With tentative steps I moved towards her, my hands held up in defence in front of me.
“You’re a liar. You’ve always been a liar.”
Her words went in one ear and out of the other. I didn’t care. She could call me whatever names she wanted; I knew she was hurting. As our bodies were just centimetres apart, I reached out to touch her. To stroke my fingers down her soft olive skin but before they reached their target, her hand slapped mine away. “I hate you.”
“Do you mean that?” My gaze collided with hers as tears swam in her eyes.
“Yes,” she sneered as her nostrils flared in temper, “I do.”
We stood still for the longest time, just staring at one another. Emily broke it first when she glanced at her father in the bed and cleared her throat. “I have to go home. The nurses said there was nothing else I could do here tonight and they’d ring one of us when we could collect his belongings.”
