Etching Our Way (Broken Tracks 1)

I tilt my head, my eyes focused on a groove in the polished wood of his home office desk.

“Let me get this straight.” I clear my throat and bring my gaze back up to his, leaning forward in my seat as I clasp my hands together tightly. “You want me to marry Natalia to close a business deal?”

“That’s what I said, didn’t I?” He shakes his head, clearly exasperated that I haven’t yet grasped onto what he’s saying.

How can he not see what he’s asking—no, telling—me to do?

I can’t wrap my head around the fact that he’d do this to me. Not only is Natalia my best friend’s cousin, but she’s finishing up college, the same as Nate and me. I know that she intends to travel the world and dance, so how can he think that’s something that I want to take away from her?

Besides that, I have a girlfriend; a girlfriend that I love like I’ve never loved anything else in my entire life.

I stand up, widening my stance and shaking my head before spinning around and walking toward the door of his office. “No.”

My hand grips the brass door knob as he says, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

The threatening tone to his voice has my hand stilling and the muscles in my back tensing. Closing my eyes, I see her face clearly, her smile and the happiness that shines brightly in her eyes. There’s no way I’ll do this to her.

I turn around, facing him and grimacing at the sneer on his face. “I’m not scared of you, you can’t force me to marry Natalia.”

He’s silent a beat before he pushes out of his chair, standing to his full height as his hands brace on his desk. He leans forward, a muscle in his jaw ticking. “I have more power in my baby finger than you will ever have in your whole body.”

“I don’t give a damn,” I say, pulling open the door. “I won’t do it.”

“You will marry her, or I’ll show you what a man like me can do. Blood or not, you won’t defy me.”

His voice comes closer and I spin around to face him in the open door. “Want to bet?”

“Fucking try me, son. Try me and see what I’m really capable of.”

He narrows his eyes at me, turning to face the waitress when she comes back over to our table again to replenish our drinks. “Make it snappy,” he tells the young girl who takes his empty glass. He turns back to me, a sneer spreading across his lips. “And look how that turned out, where is she now, huh? Six feet un—”

“Don’t you fucking dare!” I shout, shooting up out of my chair, my chest heaving as a loud clattering sound echoes around us as the chair crashes to the floor behind me. “Don’t you dare say one more fucking word—”

“Or what? What do you think you can do, huh?” He raises a brow, daring me.

I’m silent for a beat as anger burns a path through my veins. I have to try and control my temper. “You want to see what I’m capable of?” I take a step around the table, bracing my hands on it and looking down at him. “Fucking try me, because I can guaran-fucking-tee you that I have more power than you ever had.”

I watch him, his eyes misting over as he sways side to side. “You won’t do—”

“I fucking will,” I growl, getting impossibly close to his face and holding my breath at the stench that emanates off him. “You were never a father to me, you were an abusive dictator who thought that he could rule my life. Not anymore, old man.” I stand back up to my full height, calmly buttoning up my jacket before looking back up at his angry expression and smirking. “You’ve been gone for a long time, things change, people change.” I pause, letting that sink in before spitting out, “You’re worthless in this city, I’m done with you. Don’t contact me again.” Turning on my heels, I weave in and out of the tables before telling the waitress to put the food and drinks on my tab.

“Don’t you walk away from me!”

I take one last look at him when I get to the door, my gaze flitting over his tired features. He’s not worth my time anymore, he never was. I shake my head before walking out of the door and turning my back on him for the final time. I won’t let him dictate what I can or can’t do, he’s poison and I won’t have him in mine or the kids’ lives.

I call Edward when I get outside, telling him that I’ll be walking back to the office. I need the fresh air to wrap around me and calm me while giving myself some time to think.

I push my hands into my pants pockets, watching all the people rushing to get lunch and heading back to their workplace before their breaks are over. The streets are full of sky-high buildings, offices on nearly all of the floors. I look up at them, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk and marveling at the sight of the city.

Ever since I became CEO I feel like I haven’t stopped, my mind is almost always on the job; what I should and shouldn’t be doing, where to go next. It’s been going one hundred miles a minute and for some reason, today it’s stopped. My head finally clearing of everything.

A flash of color on a woman’s scarf has my mind flitting back to the woman I saw flying past the office windows earlier this week. I can’t seem to get the image of her out of my head. I didn’t see her face but if I close my eyes, I can imagine what her face looks like now. I bet it hasn’t changed one bit since the last time I saw her.

Someone barges past me, hitting my shoulder and I open my eyes back up, shaking my head and clenching my hands at remembering her. I don’t want to remember her, I don’t want to think about her or what we could have been had I done ten years ago what I did just now.

Another person barges past me and I narrow my eyes at them; that’s the problem with most of us nowadays, we’re always in a rush, never stopping and basking in all that life has to offer. All we think about is work and what we need to do, our minds focused on the past and what we should have done.

It’s time I slowed down for good. It’s time I put my family first and switch off. I can’t remember the last time I had a full day off, but that’s going to change this weekend. I fully intend to take time out and make memories with Clay and Izzie. I need to be the father that my own wasn’t.