Page 84 of A Lesson in Obedience
River laughed, throwing me my shirt. “Jade is with Riley, so clearly Mateo needs to keep an eye on us. I swear those wolves are worse than my overprotective brother, but they’ve been good to our girl. I do like the way you think though.”
I shrugged, watching him walk past me to the bathroom. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
31
Asher
“What do you want?” I barked, slamming my dad’s office door. I didn’t see my mother anywhere when I came inside, telling me he must have sent her out. He treated her to nice things like spa days to keep her occupied, which from the outside looked sweet, but I always knew better.
“A hello is the polite way to greet anyone.” He shook his head as if he was upset by my lack of respect.
Chancellor Fowler sat in my father’s office chair, his hands folded together and planted on the desk. “Lucky for you, my daughter has been compliant enough where I haven’t needed to force your hand.”
I ignored him to focus on my father. “Did you bring me here to gloat about what you’ve been doing?” I walked up to the desk, slamming my hands down on it and staring at Chancellor Fowler. “She is joining Celica, she is inching closer and closer and you still let him fuck with my brother’s head and meddle in Riley’s dreams? She saidyou claimed you would ease up and yet, it seems you can’t keep your fucking word.”
Chancellor Fowler reared his head back, giving my father a menacing look. He pushed back the chair, moving his hand in front of him. My dad was thrown back against the wall while he clawed at his throat. “Oliver, what the fuck is he talking about?”
Gasps of air were coming from my father’s lips, so the chancellor loosened his hold. “It was nothing. I wasn’t harming her.Iwasn’t doing anything.”
“River was right. It wasn’t you. You tasked others to do it for you,” I stated.
Chancellor Fowler walked up to my father, pressing his finger into his chest. My dad winced at the pain, knowing the pressure was digging further into his skin than he would have liked. “I offered you power and what? I’m not moving fast enough for you? My daughter is off limits and I will remind the people working for me that they do not work foryou.” He moved his hand back, my father’s back arching off the wall and then threw his hand to the side. My father’s body was flung to the right, hitting the other wall. “You do whatever you will to your own son, but my daughter, my rules. You infiltrate her mind, you mess with her everyday life without my consent, and I will kill you. I will break every bone in your body without even touching you and I will do it in front of your precious wife and then guess what? I’ll kill her too.”
His words came out casually, but I could hear the venom at the end of every sentence. He sat back down in the office chair as if nothing happened while my father tried to clutch the wall to stand back up. Chancellor Fowler gave him a bright smile. “Are we understood?”
My father glanced at me, his eyes filled with malice, but he nodded.
“Perfect.” Chancellor Fowler placed his attention back on me. “Now, Asher, is there anything else you’d like to inform me of?”
I opened my mouth to speak but clamped it shut. I didn’t actually come here to assist him in anything. “No, not at all.”
“Hmm. You do bring up an interesting concept though.”
I raised an eyebrow at him.
“Let me ask you a question, Professor. Did my daughter immediately think you caused her nightmare?”
I looked down at the floor, not answering him.
He clucked his tongue. “Interesting indeed. Trust is a funny thing. It’s always spoken about and having someone say they trust you is very different then actually believing it. Maybe your magic isn’t truly needed at all. The idea that youcoulddo those things and that your brother’s own mental state is at risk is enough for her to always be on the fence.”
“She doesn’t…”
He kept going. “One foot always out the door, even though on the outside she’ll dote on you and have this supposed connection, but she’ll blame you instantly for things you didn’t do all because she’ll never really trust you…not completely anyway. Not like she does your brother.”
My chest rose and fell, but I tried to control the beat of my heart. The look in her eyes when I’d shaken her out of that nightmare and the way she wanted to get away from me had the things he said hitting me all at once.
“You’re wrong.” I tried to say it with conviction, but the tone of my voice betrayed me.
“I almost think she trusts the shadow wielder more than she trusts you,” my dad’s voice chimed in.
“You shut up!” I yelled.
Chancellor Fowler tsked. “Don’t blame yourself. Riley’s eventual tumble into my arms will be of her own volition. I will always protect my daughter, Asher. Unfortunately, what happens to your brother is not my responsibility as long as Riley keeps moving in the direction she’s headed. A little mental tussle won’t kill the little telepath, so while I don’t completely condone what your father did, I can’t verywell tell him how to discipline his children.” His shoulders moved as he chuckled at my brother’s expense.
“Discipline? River hasn’t done anything to you!”
“Ah, but it just shows what can happen to him. Which has always been my point.” My father got up behind me, knocking his shoulder against mine as he walked past. “You should be happy I had someone else do it. You would hate for me to take over.”
