Page 25 of Forever My Soldier

“Don’t worry about it.”

She merely nodded and walked away with my stuff. When she was out of sight, I walked in the opposite direction to my father’s study.

I knocked before entering and when I heard him grumble, “Come in,” I opened the door and walked in, pushing it closed behind me.

He motioned for me to sit in one of the leather seats in front of his desk, so I did. “You wanted to see me?” he asked, removing his reading glasses and shutting the lid on his laptop.

Right down to it, I should’ve guessed. My father never was one for chit-chat. He always said time was money, so every second counted.

I pushed my hair behind my ear and told him what was going on at the office. “I’ll take care of it,” was all he said once I was done reciting what I’d heard.

My mouth fell open. “That’s it? Aren’t you going to tell me what you’re going to do about it?”

He shook his head. “No, I am not.” He slid his reading glasses back on and opened the laptop back up. “Please let Greta know I’ve been waiting for my lunch for the past thirty minutes. I’m starved.”

I rolled my eyes and stood up. “Unbelievable,” I pushed back on the chair, before tucking it back in where it belonged.

He peered up for a second and looked at me. “It would behoove you to remember whose law firm it is that you work at.”

“How can I forget?” I crossed my arms over my chest and sighed. “You remind me every chance you get that it’s yours.”

“And it will be until the day I decide to hand things over to you, but until then, stay in line. I don’t have much tolerance for people who step out of line.”

See, the thing was, I wasn’t people. I was his daughter. The funny thing was, he was the one who practically forced me into working for him, insisted it would never do if I worked anywhere else. Frustrated, I blew bubbles and rubbed my forehead. Before saying anything I’d regret, I fixed the hem on my dress and turned around to leave.

“Close the door behind you, please,” he ordered.

“Of course, Father. Thank you for seeing me on such short notice.”

Once I was outside his office, I leaned my back on a wall nearby and sighed. I didn’t know why I expected anything more from these people. My parents were the least bit caring. They were ruthless and passionate about only a few things in this world—status, money, and power, and in that order.

I headed to the kitchen to tell Greta about his lunch and grab my stuff so I could hightail it out of here. This house was as toxic as they came and I couldn’t take it for longer than I had to.

It wasn’t Greta that was in the kitchen, though. It was my mother. She was holding the fridge open, her head inside, searching for something. I was just about to turn on my heel as quietly as possible so she didn’t hear me when she closed the fridge, mumbled something under her breath, and turned around. Her eyes met mine. It was clear she was wearing her usual cloak of disgust.

“Oh, Jenna, didn’t anyone teach you it’s not nice to sneak up on people like that?”

“Sorry, Mother.”I apologized way too much to my own parents.

She arched a brow and folded her arms over her chest. “Why are you here, Jenna?” Every time she said my name chills ran down my spine, like I was a little girl in trouble.

“Dad wants his lunch,” I blurted out. “I was looking for Greta to let her know and to get my stuff.”That reminded me.“I was just on my way out.”Thankfully.

“Not so fast,” she said as I turned on my heel.

I didn’t look back, just stayed still where I was. She came around to where I was and stood in front of me, eyeing me up and down. “Where did you get this dress?”

I looked down and cleared my throat. “What’s wrong with it?”

She tilted her head. “It’s so,” she paused, as if she couldn’t quite put her finger on it, “juvenile. You wear this to the office?”

“Yes.”

She gave me a pointed look. “Why don’t we go shopping? We can get you a new wardrobe? Clearly we need to get you back on track.”

Those words “back on track” had my skin crawling. It reminded me of the last time my mother had said those words to me. I’d just lost my baby and she insisted she’d help me get my life back on track by controlling me and my every move. And sadly, I’d let her for far longer than I should have.

It all come with a high price and I paid it. Until Deacon returned. In the few short days he’d been back, as much as I knew it was a mistake, I was finally happy again, even confident and calm. Too bad he’d be nothing more than a desire to me now, one that I could never give into.

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