Page 41 of A Father's Insistence

“I’m sorry, Father. I was just so glad to get them away from him. Joanna has told me things about what he’s done to her. I couldn’t bear to think of him hurting my sister in that way.”

“No.” My father steps forward toward Victoria. I can see her hands shaking as she struggles to maintain her composure and keep up the web of lies we’re weaving. I hadn’t thought about it until now, but this must be one of the first times she’s seen our father since he gave her away. I’ve always visited her alone because she never wanted to see him. Why didn’t I question everything sooner? I’ve been so blinded by the affection I have for this man who doesn’t deserve it.

“Did he hurt you badly, my little one?” He strokes his hand down Victoria’s face, and she lets out an anguished cry.

“He was horrible, Daddy,” she whimpers, and he pulls her into his arms. “Shush, my darling girl. It’ll be better now. You’ll never have to see him again.”

“Thank you.” Her voice cracks as she replies.

Next, he turns to Tamara.

“And you?”

My father steps toward Tamara, and I say a silent prayer for her to continue our charade until I can figure out a better way to get us to safety. Someone must have heard the gunshot and reported it. Police must be on the way. We just need to buy more time.

“They spin lies and draw you in to the point where you don’t know what the truth is anymore.” Her voice is almost robotic, but the tears trickling down her cheeks tell of the emotions crashing through her body.

“Lies. You’ve been surrounded by lies all your life, haven’t you?” My father is in front of Tamara, now, and he reaches out to touch her cheek.

“Far too many.”

“Hmmm.” My father hums as he strokes down Tamara’s cheek and across her shoulder bone. “Lies about your birth, lies about your friends, and lies about your mother.” The last word is said with such malevolence it freezes even my own blood. It has the opposite effect on Tamara though. It ignites her blood into a fiery tirade directed at our father.

“You bastard, don’t you dare mention my mother. I know what you did. I know just who you are.” She brings her fist up and aims it at him, but he catches it and twists her around, so she’s pulled close against him. “It’s time for Daddy to take what’s his,” he says as he leers at her, and I realize for the first time the true level of his depravity. When Joanna told me William called her Tamara, it’s now obvious to me that it wasn’t William who said it but my father.

“No.” Victoria reacts before I can. She lunges for her friend and sister but is pulled back by one of my father’s men. She punches and kicks out at him until he knocks her over the head with a gun, and she falls as if lifeless into his arms.

“Get them in the car,” my father orders. I try to step forward, but I am prevented from doing so by a gun raised in my face and two men pulling me back. My strength can’t match their numbers. The man holding Victoria drags her to the car. Tamara is handed over to another man and is hauled screaming toward the same vehicle. They are pushed into the backseat, and it speeds away.

My father steps toward me.

“Such a disappointment. You could have ruled at my side, but I won’t have the weak with me. I’ll be the King of Oakfield by the end of the day, and you…” He looks at the man pointing the gun at my temple. “…will be dead. You shouldn’t have fallen for the whore. Mind you, her pussy is wonderful. I’m the one who took her first, and I’ll continue to take her for as long as I allow her to live.”

Despite being held at gunpoint, I lunge for my father but never make it. The men surrounding him stop me and throw me to the ground. A hail of fists thump into my body and face as I watch my father get into a vehicle and depart in a screech of tires. He’s won. I’ve lost my sisters and possibly my wife if my father’s words mean he’s also taken her. I should’ve listened sooner.

Everyone steps back, and the man who originally held the gun to my head then steps forward. He points it down at me, and I know this is the end of my life. I’ve failed in my pledge to my wife. More car tires screech, and the man pointing the gun at my head suddenly flies into the air and lands with a thud on the ground. His body twisted and broken. The two men remaining, set upon the new vehicle, and I see Nicholas and William emerge from it. Both have weapons drawn and make quick work of disposing of the two men. Nicholas throws his phone to William,

“Call Matthew Carter and get him to send in a clean-up squad.”

William nods and flips open the phone.

“Where are Victoria and Tamara?” He looks past me at the car.

“My father took them, a few minutes ago. They went that way,” I respond indicating the direction I saw the vehicles take.

Nicholas curses but still helps me to my feet. I lean forward and cough up a little blood from the beating.

“Get Matthew to trace Victoria,” Nicholas orders William

“He broke their phones,” I inform him.

“My wife is a walking tracker. Do you think I’d let something so precious be left vulnerable? Don’t worry. I’ll have a location for her in a few minutes, and we’ll go and get her. Let’s get back to the house and clean you up. There’s someone waiting to see you there.”

“Who?” Nicholas helps me into his car as several other cars sweep into the section of the road we’ve just committed chaos in. The occupants of the vehicles emerge and eagerly set about cleaning up. This is all alien to me, and it feels like I’ve suddenly become embroiled in a James Bond film.

“Your wife.” Nicholas smiles at me. “She escaped your father and probably saved your life.”

“What?” I stumble into the car, and we drive back to Oakfield Hall with me sitting in a daze of disbelief. My wife survived—we have a chance. We just need to save my sisters to get our happy ending.

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