Page 21 of Lovestruck at Sundown
I shook my head, rampant denial pulsing through my veins.
“We had an agreement when we moved back to New York, didn’t we?” His words burned the space between us. This was going to cost more than I expected it to. “Was it worth it?” He asked, narrowing his eyes at me. “To go after him and lose the freedom you’d already gained?”
“Freedom?” I scoffed, blasting off my seat. “I’m choking here!”
He looked up at me, unmoved. Hot tears rushed down my face. The indignation and helplessness were taking over my senses. The room was spinning around me. I hadn’t slept for hours. I wasn’t physically or emotionally equipped for this.
But he knew it. He knew this wasn’t a conversation meant to be had in the early morning when I had landed an hour ago. He wanted me to break, to snap like I just had.
“You’ve been provided with sufficient comforts throughout your life. You’ve lived agoodlife,” he said, undoubtedly trying to make me feel guilty for wanting a good life, according tomywants and needs, instead of his. “But you’ve abused my trust, and I’ve been too careless. Too lenient.”
My blood boiled inside me. I could feel my cheeks and my neck flushing with anger.
“Don’t you dare talk about trust.” I pointed a finger at him and saw him flinch almost undetectably. I was losing it. I couldn’t even recognize myself as I spit the words back at him.
But even iron melts at the right temperature.
Brushing the tears away, I sat down to calm myself. So I took a deep breath and swallowed back the tears.
“You’ve been lying to me for years,” I said, my voice trembling but trying my best to keep my tone in check. “Caleb left a letter. He told me everything. So don’t talk to me about abusing your trust when you’ve been doing that every single day since Mom was killed.”
His gaze widened as he straightened in his seat. Sheer terror flooded his green eyes as he processed what I’d said to him. But his features hardened, and his lips puckered.
“That’s not—”
“True?” I cut him short, angling my head with curiosity. It was my turn to lift my hand. “I’m not done yet. And please save yourself the trouble of trying to convince me that the things Caleb said in that letter are false. I know you fired him in Paris. You made him sign another NDA that prevented him from expressing his feelings or pursuing me romantically. But I wonder …” I eyed him up and down with contempt. “What leverage did he have over you to make you hire him again?”
This bit about my father not offering Caleb a job in New York wasn’t in the letter, but when Aaron told me on the plane, I knew I had to bring it up. There was no way for him to know that Aaron was the one who told me this.
“You weren’t meant to be with Caleb,” he said simply, almost dismissively, as if it weren’tmy lifehe was talking about. Being my father didn’t give him the power to decide every little thing I did or who I chose to be with. I was an adult. “Or someone like him, for that matter.”
“Who are you?” I shook my head at him, unable to recognize the man before me as my father. “Well, he’s dead now, so I guess we’ll never know if we were meant to be or not. I’m sure you’re thrilled that he’s gone.”
“No, sweetheart,” he said, the words anything but sweet. “His death affected me. He died protecting what I love most. You. And I respected Caleb, still do. But we made a gentleman’s deal in Paris, and I knew he loved and cared about you too much to mess up and be sent away. I’m sure you can understand that. It was business.”
“My life is not a business deal for you to settle on my behalf.”
“He was only going to break your heart!” He pinched the bridge of his nose as if trying to regain the composure he’d been so good at maintaining up to this point. “I was trying to protect you. It would’ve been fun and exciting for a while. But you were doomed to face the reality that he wouldn’t have been able to give you the life you are used to living. The one you deserve to live. The one I’ve worked so hard my entire life to offer you.”
“And I’ll be forever thankful for all the things you’ve done for me. But you have to let me live and love and cry and make mistakes.” I raked a hand through my hair to get it off my face. “You like to keep me inside a cage and pretend you’re not deciding everything for me without me noticing. But I’ve noticed. And I’m ready to step out.”
“You call it a cage,” he retorted, “but you’ve lived a life surrounded by more safety, opportunities, luxuries, and comforts than most people will ever dream of.”
I sighed, but the breath came out as a tremble through my lips. “A cage is still a cage no matter how comfortable, pink, sparkly and gilded it may be.”
“I know it’s hard for you to see it, but I’m trying to give you the best life possible.” He said that as if his words were final and he possessed the ultimate truth. And I was the idiot who had to accept that? “I thought you’d learned to appreciate that by now.”
“You’re trying to control me.” I leveled his gaze, hoping to catch a glimpse of surrender in his eyes, but he wouldn’t budge. He was stubborn as an ox; making him see things my way wasn’t a menial task. “But you’ve been squeezing a bit too hard, and I’m not sure I can take it anymore.”
He stared at me in silence. What was he to say to that? He was too proud to admit that he’d been wrong or gone too far in his attempt to “give me a good life,” when deep down, I knew he was projecting his insecurities onto me.
“I think it’s time to renegotiate the terms you established when we moved back from Paris.”
He looked away with a mocking laugh. “You’re in no position to negotiate,” he said firmly. “You humiliated and disrespected me when you fled the country. And Aaron, too, as your head of security. Something could’ve happened to you. And I wouldn’t have—”
“Stop trying to make this about yourself when you know it’s not!” I threw up my hands. “I didn’t escape the way I did to get back at you, or as an act of rebellion. It was somethingIneeded to do, and I knew that was the only way of making it happen.”
“What do you want?” He tilted his head. “Do tell. I’m curious.”
