I can’t understand his fear at first, and then I notice movement at the open front door. Dammit all. My father brought his personal security, aka hired goons, with him. Three huge guys nearly popping out of their suits smirk as they stand ready to carry out my father’s bidding.
My father’s lips curl with a look of disgust as he takes another look around the room. When his gaze finally comes back to me, his eyes are blazing. “You’ve had your fun, Elizabeth. It’s time you came home.”
Now would be the perfect time for Johnathan to come storming in, I think, as I assess the situation.
I’m not sure how I’m going to get out of this without divine intervention.
My father is a man who never accepts the word ‘no’, especially when it comes from my lips, but I say it anyway. “No.”
My father’s face darkens and he takes a step towards me. “Playtime is over, Elizabeth. I’ve been more than patient. It’s time for you to return home to your obligations.” He hisses the last word and I wince.
My obligations being that I’m to sit around in my room like some object that’s being stored until it’s useful to him.
I shake my head, and before I can speak again, Sophia speaks up for me, “She doesn’t have to go anywhere with you. She’s a grown damn woman and she can make her own decisions!”
God, I love her, but I really wish she didn’t just do that. Any hope that I had of temporarily placating him has now gone down the drain.
My father’s face starts to turn an angry shade of tomato red.
“Father…” I say softly, pleadingly.
I know I shouldn’t have to plead for my freedom, and it makes me sick to my stomach, but what other choice do I have? I can’t take on him and all his goons, and I sure as hell don’t want anybody to get hurt for trying.
If I can reason with him, maybe I can still defuse this and come to an understanding. “I can’t leave. So much has happened, and if you would just give me a minute, I can explain it all.”
“Do explain,” he says, his face somehow turning even redder. “Explain how you lied to your guard and left the house so you could go whoring at some dive bar in the shittiest part of town.”
His words are like a slap to the face. I can’t even count how many times in my life he’s called me a whore, but each time hurts just like the first.
He takes an ominous step towards me, and Charlie’s grip on me tightens. “Explain how you were rescued from your predicament, a predicament you deserve for your whoring ways, and instead of returning to me immediately, you decided to remain here and continue to play the whore.”
“You’re a bastard!” Sophia screeches behind me. She starts to take a step forward, but I throw my hand out to stop her.
My father turns his attention to Sophia and again his lips curl back with disgust. “And you’re the little blonde slut who’s corrupted my daughter.”
Sophia sucks in a sharp breath.
This is getting out of hand fast and it needs to stop. Neither of us deserve this, and I don’t want Charlie to have to listen to it.
“Stop, please,” I plead and clutch Charlie close to me. “You’ve said enough.”
My father’s attention turns back to me. “No, I haven’t said nearly enough, but we’ll finish this conversation at home.”
I shake my head. “I’m not going home. I have obligations and responsibilities here.”
His face tightens, and he’s so red now I’m afraid his head might burst. “Your obligations are to your family. To me.”
I don’t know why he thinks I owe him everything just because I exist, but he does. He thinks because he’s my father, something I didn’t get a choice in, that I’m to bend and bow to his every whim. He honestly believes I should be grateful for being his daughter. Grateful that he’s fed me and housed me, and forever in his debt.
Lifting my chin in defiance, I muscle up every ounce of courage I have, and look him hard in the eye. In the past, my defiance has always been met with painful words or violence, and I’ve been conditioned to expect it and avoid it all costs.
But in the past, it was only me who suffered for my actions, for my cowardice.
I can’t let him hurt Charlie. I can’t. Just the thought of my father doing to him what he’s done to me fills me with so much anger I start to see red.
“I have a new family now. A family of my choosing. And I will not abandon my child,” I say, and squeeze Charlie a little harder as I say it. I feel the truth in the words with every fiber of my being. Charlie is mine, he’s mine.