Page 106 of Against the Autumn Pines
We lay there together, breathless and panting as his softening cock slipped from my ass.
“God damn woman, are you trying to kill me? That’s when you choose to be a brat?” he asked with a laugh.
I nodded. “Have to keep you on your toes, my handsome fiancé.”
He leaned down, pressing a deep kiss to my lips and smiling. “That you do, my beautiful fiancé.”
44
ENJOY YOUR LIFE
Ember
I shifted uneasilyon the cold metal chair beneath me. I wasn’t even sure why I was here doing this—what I expected to gain from this little outing. But I knew Wyatt pulled some strings to make this happen, and I wasn’t going to let it go to waste.
He was right outside the window if I needed him, and he’d even offered to come inside with me, but I told him no.
I needed to do this on my own, and I would.
The door across the room from me clicked open, and in walked the man who donated half of my genetics. His eyes raked over me in a cold and indifferent way. By this point, he knew the case the state had against him. He knew all of his children turned against him and his wife up and left town without him. Prior to showing up, I didn’t expect him to be in the best of mental spaces, but he looked…fine.
As if nothing here would or even could touch him.
He sat down in the chair across from me, an orange jumpsuit against his pale skin and dark brown hair. The same set of brown eyes I saw in the mirror every day staring back at me.
“Ember.” His voice was flat and just as emotionless as his face.
“Bennett,” I threw back.
He rolled his eyes at the use of his first name. I hadn’t called him Dad to his face since the night I’d asked Mom about the dance. It had been my small piece of defiance towards him—something I could control and not deal with the massive fallout. Mom hated it, but he always just ignored it, as if it wasn’t even worth his time to yell at me for.
“What did you want? Come here to gloat? Or whine?”
My eyes flicked to the door where an armed officer stood, eyes glued to the back of my father’s head.
I cleared my throat, my hands dropping to my lap as I sat straight up and stared at him for the first time in years. “I want to know why.”
“Why what?”
“Why you stole so much from me? Why you purposefully contributed to a shitty childhood? Why you never wanted me? Why you were never around? Why you decided to become a fucking criminal instead of a decent man? I don’t know, take your pick,” I shot back, my chest heaving by the time I finished and my fingers wringing together as I tried to hide the nervous energy.
He just stared, lips in a grim line. Maybe I was bothering him. Interrupting the time of day all the inmates gathered to watch soap operas or some shit.
“There was this moment, after your brothers were born,when I saw this flicker in your eyes…I knew then you’d be complicated.” He trailed off, staring just over my shoulder.
I waited.
Waited for him to further explain.
Waited for him to tell me what that even meant, but he said nothing.
“You knew I’d be complicated? What the fuck does that even mean?” I snapped, my nails digging half-moons into my palms as I stared across the table at him.
He shook his head, slowly and thoughtfully, as his eyes returned to me. “You said something smart, something so unlike your mother, I knew you’d be like me. Snarky, against the grain, and I hated it. I didn’t want to deal with it, so I chose not to.”
“You…chose not to deal with me at the age of two because you felt I may have what? Opinions? Thoughts of my own? At two?” My mouth felt dry, and I was finding it hard to swallow down this level of bullshit spouting from his lips. “That’s the most insane bullshit I ever could’ve—no, I couldn’t even imagine that. You’re insane, Bennett, and I hope you get everything you deserve while you spend the rest of your miserable life in prison.”
I stood from the table and started for the door.
