Page 195 of Dare To Break

My dad skirts his desk and sits down. “That’s one of the things I wanted to talk to you about.”

“One of them?”

“I know you drink, son. I was eighteen once, too. And I know the last four years have meant you needed to grow up faster. I’m sorry about that. Sorry, you had to take on so much after your mom died, but it doesn’t excuse what you’re doing. What you’ve done.”

I yawn, scratching my jaw, acting like I have nothing to hide. “And what have I done?” Fuck. Did he hear us last night? Arabella had been loud, screaming at me.

I dismiss that immediately. If he thought I was hurting her, he’d have come into the room.

“If drinking an entire bottle of vodka isn’t bad enough—” He breaks off when the door to his study opens and Elena walks in.

She’s pale, makeup-less, her hair unbrushed, and wrapped in a silk robe. She looks more natural, less plastic, and much more similar looking to Arabella like this.

“I knew you hated me, Eli. I expected it.” Her voice is soft, and there’s a sheen to her eyes that makes me frown. “But Arabella? Why would you do something like that to her?”

So, they know we fucked last night. Or at least think we did. But unless Arabella says something, I can bluff my way through this.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I barely speak to your daughter.”

“Arabella is a good girl.”

My dick stirs at that. The words bringing back the memory of me whispering what a good girl she was while her body pulsed around me as she came.

I shift on my seat, dropping my hands onto my lap to try and hide the hard-on I’m sporting. My dad pats Elena’s hand as she moves to stand beside him.

“Let me deal with this, honey.” His face is stern when he looks back at me. “Who did you get to seduce her?”

“I— What?” That isn’t the question I’m expecting to hear.

“Don’t do this, Eli. At least be man enough to admit to what you’ve done.”

“I have no fucking idea what you’re talking about.”

My dad shoots to his feet. “I am your father, Eli. You will show respect when you speak to me!” The shouted words echo around the room.

I stare at him. I can’t remember the last time he yelled at me. After six months of having to do everything to keep our home from falling apart while my dad grieved the death of my mom, he’d taken back the reins of the household but remained distant. There but not really interested in my day-to-day existence.

I tried for years after Mom died to get his attention. When all the good things didn’t work—working hard at school, being the perfect son at home—I went in the other direction. I turned the water in the fountain in front of the house yellow. I got into fights. And when he still didn’t react, I crashed his favorite car into a tree. Not even that made him shout at me.

Anger unfurls in the pit of my stomach. But now that he thinks I’ve done something to his new wife’s daughter … Now he wants respect?

“Where was my fucking father when I was fourteen and just lost my mom? Any respect I had for you disappeared then. Don’t you fucking dare demand respect from me when you don’t deserve it.”

“Just tell me why. Why did you do this? What did Arabella do to make you want to humiliate her like this?”

He tosses his cell onto the desk between us. I frown down at it. There’s a video on the screen.

“Press play, Eli.” My dad’s voice is grim.

What the fuck is going on here?

Reaching out, I tap the screen and go cold when my voice fills the room.

“You’re doing so good, Kitten. If you could see how you look, you’d be proud of yourself. Just a little more to go. I’m going to pull out and then go deep. You can take it for me, can’t you?”

Oh fuck.

“Who is he?”

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