Page 44 of Together We Burn
“I know.”
“And if Jake does that…”
“He doesn’t.”
Releasing me with an exhale, Alex watched as I walked away and jogged back up to my room.
Downing my beer, I spotted the bottle of Bourbon, deciding I needed a chaser. Taking three long pulls, I hissed as the burn I needed flared up my throat, making my eyes water.
Clutching the side of the dresser, I hung my head, regretting it as soon as my sight landed on the envelope containing the final words from my father. It was a ticking time bomb, taunting me with the block capitals that spelt out my name.
Against my better judgement, I grabbed it from the trash and gripped it in shaking hands, staring at the ink.Stefany,not Stevie, was written in black ink on the dull white envelope.
Lightly, I traced over the indentations of where the pen touched the paper, suddenly wondering if he was drunk when he wrote this. Did he need liquid courage to write whatever he so desperately needed to tell me, that he entrusted a man he never knew to deliver it to me, or was he as sober as a judge?
I must have stared at the letter for at least fifteen minutes. Unsure whether I blinked at all when I thrust my thumb under the seal and tore it open. Pulling out a sheet of lined paper, folded over into neat thirds, I let the envelope flutter to the floor as I began to read what my father wrote.
Dear Stefany,
This letter is not a Dear John letter. I will not start by asking for forgiveness or filling the page with past regrets. You and I both know that would be bullshit.
I won’t even issue an apology. As much as I know you deserve one, you know better than to expect one.
I will say, however, that I failed you as a father. As soon as Emilia walked out that door, she took my soul with her. I guess that is what happens when you fall in love with a succubus, moulded in her father’s image to be ruthless and cold, only caring about power.
That does not excuse the way I treated you or your sister, but it’s something you should know.
As the old cliché goes, “if you’re reading this, it means I’m dead,” and I hope that it was by your hand if this is the case.
I’ve watched you from afar, seen the things you’ve done, the crimes you’ve committed, and perhaps if I’d been a better father to you, your life would have been different. Your life is not what a dad wants for his little girl.
If there was ever a time for me to act like your dad, it would be now. So in my final moments, I will leave you with this one fatherly act.
I thought it was time for you to hear some truths about those boys you call friends.
As you know, Henry Jones, and now William, run our town. For years, Henry had decided who was police commissioner, who could run their business within Carlin Valley–I’d go as far as to say who could shit in the city. He thought he was the big fish in a small pond.
For years, your grandfather was building an empire of his own. An empire that would be greater than the one built by Henry, and would one day belong to Emilia and me. It is safe to say that our family and theirs have not seen eye to eye on several matters.
Henry, upon learning of my wife's leaving, thought that it was some game your grandfather was playing, a ploy to make him believe he wasn’t working on taking over his city, and so decided to plant two of his most loyal soldiers in enemy territory.
Those soldiers were Mackenzie and Alexander.
They are not your friends.
They are not people to be trusted.
They are liars, manipulators,and thieves.
They have turned my daughter into a criminal just like them. William, the kingpin of his quasi-mafia family. Mac, a gang member in a motorcycle club, and Alex, the hacker.
The three Jones heirs who all befriended my daughter, and made her their puppet, murdering and torturing on their behalf.
Had I been paying more attention to you, perhaps I could have prevented this from happening. After all, it was genius. Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer, and they’ve been excelling at that since they met you in eighth grade.
What's done is done.
But I will leave you with this, my Darling Daughter. Watching you, keeping tabs on you when you had no clue, I know with no doubt you have what it takes to best your mother, something I was never able to do myself.
