He didn’t.
I was hoping this would go better, but I’d been too optimistic.
“I wanted you to know the truth. I didn’t want to lie about any of it.”
Nothing.
“But he’s not that man anymore. He’s saved Damien’s life, he’s saved mine… He takes care of me.”
My dad wasn’t a quiet guy. He usually had something to say, lived for the opportunity to have a conversation because he was lonely. But now he was silent, processing everything I’d said. “I’ve got to be honest, sweetheart. I was expecting you to say something completely different…”
“I know it’s a lot to take in…”
He was so disturbed that he pushed his lunch aside and rested his hands on the table, his fingers interlocked. His eyes were still down, deep in thought. “I wasn’t expecting this man to be a criminal mastermind.”
“That’s not all who he is…”
He shook his head slightly, sighing quietly.
Heath and I hadn’t gotten this far just to trip over the finish line. “Dad, he’s different now. I know what he did was wrong. It took me a long time to look past it. But he’s the man I love, the man I want to spend my life with, and it would mean the world to me if you could keep an open mind.”
His thumbs gently brushed together, his eyes watching his movements.
“You said I wouldn’t love this man unless I had a good reason, that you trust my judgment.”
“I know what I said, sweetheart. This is just a lot to take in at once. Honestly, I didn’t expect you to want a man like Damien, like the men in his world. I pictured you with a successful man, but someone more ordinary.”
“Well…I guess I don’t like ordinary.” Now that Heath had put the thought in my head, I couldn’t imagine spending my life with a mediocre man, one who just went to work in an office or something and was always home by five. I came from a line of criminals. “And Damien lives in that world, but you don’t blink an eye over it. You did too—”
“Yes, but we’re men—”
“That’s sexist,” I snapped at my father, the first time I ever had in my life.
He was just as stunned.
“It’s unfair for me to be excluded just because I’m a woman, Dad.”
“But you can’t take care of yourself—”
“Heath can take care of me just fine. Isn’t that what you want? A man who can take care of me? Physically, financially, emotionally…he can do it all.”
He bowed his head with a sigh. “It doesn’t sound like he’s similar to Damien, who makes a product and sells it to shady characters. This man is much higher on the food chain, and the more eyes on you, the more enemies you have. I bet this man has a target on his back every single day.”
That was true. He did.
“That’s my issue, Catalina. He’s the Skull King, isn’t he?”
All I could do was blink because I couldn’t believe he even knew what that was. He’d been out of the game for decades.
He didn’t need me to confirm it. “That’s a whole different level, Catalina. As long as you’re with him, you’ll have a target on your back too. Yes, he can protect you, but he’s also the reason you need protection. I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t want that.”
Hope slipped through my fingertips. “If you meet him, you’ll feel differently.”
“No, I won’t.”
I sighed loudly, disappointed. I thought Damien would be my biggest hurdle, not my sweet and loving father. “Please try…for me.” I pleaded with him with my eyes, needing this to happen, needing his approval to be happy.
He stared at me with a cold gaze, no longer the man I knew.
“Please…I love him.”
He sighed just the way Damien had, his nostrils flaring. Their features were never more similar than when my father was angry. The vein thickened on his forehead, and his skin tinted red, just the way his son’s did. “I want to talk to him.”
I had no idea if that was a good thing or a bad thing. “He’s outside.”
He leaned back in the chair, crossing his arms over his chest. “Then bring him in.” His body was rigid, the muscles flexed through his layers of clothes. The kindness in his eyes had vanished along with all of his affection. He seemed to fall back in time, back to his youth, back to the time when he intimidated people for a living.
I hadn’t expected this conversation to go this way, so I felt terrible that Heath would be put on the spot without any time to prepare. But he should be able to handle it. He’d probably done worse things than meet a potential father-in-law. “Alright…I’ll be back.”I got into the truck.
“Went that bad, huh?” he asked, barely looking at me.
“Why do you say that?”