Page 32 of A Father's Insistence

“Calm down!” I yell and motion with my eyes to the smashed glass. “I’ll allow you one breakage, but anymore and you start paying for it.”

He looks to the floor and then back up at me.

“That piece is of no value anyway. It’s fake.”

It’s my turn to breathe deeply and control my temper. I turn my back to Earl Linton and focus my attention on Joanna.

“Do you want to go upstairs while we finish this conversation?”

She shakes her head and reaches up to my sore eye. I flinch a little when she touches the sensitive flesh.

“You’re hurt?”

“Nicholas is worse.” I smirk but stop when she steps back horrified.

“This is all my fault.” Joanna’s eyes start to blink rapidly. It’s like she’s trying to understand something that will never make sense. Her breathing accelerates.

“Joanna!” her father barks from behind me, and she looks up at him with so much horror in her face. I’m beginning to wonder whether the fear she feels for the Cavendish brothers isn’t only the result of what they did to her but also due to her father’s treatment of her whilst growing up.

I turn back to him.

“Did you abuse her?”

“What?” he spits at me.

“As a child, did you hurt her?”

“Never. What do you take me for?” The Earl folds his arms across his chest and resolutely stares me down. “I think you owe me an apology. I would never touch my own daughter.”

I back down immediately. My senses tell me something is wrong, but apart from the issue with the alleged rape of the woman who died, I’ve never heard anything to question Earl Linton’s abilities as a father.

“He sold me…” The words come from behind me. They are spoken so fast it takes my brain a few seconds to register them. “For cash, I don’t know the exact amount, but it was thousands. He got thousands for me being sold.”

Joanna slaps her hand over her mouth when she’s finished her accusation. My mind is still struggling to take it all in. It’s like I’m wading through deep water with heavy, bulky clothes, weighted down from the saturation. I open my mouth to speak, but her father beats me to it when he lunges forward and wraps his hands around his daughter’s throat.

“You lying little whore.” He shakes her, and I can only watch on as my brain struggles to catch up with what I’m hearing and witnessing.

“It’s true,” Joanna gasps. Her whimpers of pain penetrate into my subconscious, and I grab the Earl by the back of his collar, and with almighty strength, I send him flying across the room and into the wall.

“Tell me again.” I stand large over Joanna, my breathing quick and my fists clenched hard.

“W-w-what?” she stutters between hitching in gasps of air. Her father had been holding her so tightly around her neck that already a red ring of inflammation has appeared.

“Say…it…again,” I repeat slowly, every syllable pronounced with meticulous precision and definition. I don’t want my meaning to be misconstrued in any way.

“He sold me for money. I wasn’t given away because my father was forced to. He received payment.” Her words are equally as clear. I’ve learned a lot about her since we’ve been together. The way her eyes flick with darkness at the corners when she’s hiding something—a lie hidden within a story. There is none of that this time. She’s being as honest now as she was when she told me she loved me. It’s the truth. My nostrils flair, and Joanna sinks down onto the floor.

“Please,” she whimpers, and I nod once to her before turning rapidly and once again grabbing her father who has only just begun stumbling to his feet.

“You’re never welcome in this house again. If I see you anywhere near my wife, I won’t hesitate to kill you.” I send a fist flying into his face. He’s an older man and not built to withstand my assault. He staggers backward, and his eyes roll in his head before he comes back to his senses. My fury increases, and I send another two punishing blows to his face. His nose cracks, and blood splutters out over me. “You will stay away from everyone we know. You will not move in the same circles as me. You will have Joanna’s inheritance plus any money you received for her put into her account before the month is out, or we will report this to the police. And…”—I pause for dramatic effect—“I will find some way of bringing back the previous rape charges against you, and if I have to, I’ll plant evidence of you murdering the girl as well.”

The Earl who is barely conscious manages to take in what I’m saying.

“There’s no proof,” he responds, spitting blood in my face.

“I’ll make some.”

He starts to laugh and looks over my shoulder to Joanna.

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