Page 89 of If You Fight

My father looked up at me and said nothing for a long moment. “I sent him on an errand I needed him to do for me.”

“What does that mean? Did you need milk? Want a pack of cigarettes? Does your car need the oil changed? What errand did he have to do for you?”

Chuckling, he shook his head. “You sound frantic, Serena. Don’t you trust our Ryder?”

My blood boiled at the way he referred to him. “He’s not our Ryder. Why are you so obsessed with him? If you care that much about him, why can’t you let him be happy? Why do you have to make him miserable?”

“He gets from me what he’s given me. He understands there are consequences to his actions. Why haven’t you ever been able to understand that?”

“So that’s why you’re like this with him? You feel he’s done something to deserve you making him miserable? What? What did he ever do except fall in love with Robert Erickson’s daughter and treat her like a queen, like you always said I should be treated?”

I waited for him to answer me, but then a terrible thought entered my mind. “What did you make him do, Daddy?”

“Ryder understands sometimes choices have to be made.”

“Please, tell me you didn’t make him do what I think you did!” I screamed as tears streamed down my cheeks.

He simply smiled that crocodile smile I knew meant he’d done exactly as I’d feared. I didn’t give him a chance to answer me before I ran to the garage and grabbed the Jeep keys from the box.

My hands shook and my tears made seeing the road nearly impossible, but I pressed the gas pedal to the floor and drove as fast as I could to get to my mother’s before Ryder did something I knew neither one of us would be able to forgive.

The miles raced by as I convinced myself he wouldn’t do that to her. He couldn’t. He loved me too much to hurt her, even if my father ordered him to. He’d find a way to make sure I wasn’t hurt, and he’d protect my mother just like he protected me.

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