Page 82 of Bound By My Father's Best Friend

“What the fuck are you doing here, Heather?!” Dad exclaimed.

“Dad, I …” I whispered, struggling to come up with some explanation.

He stepped toward us. “Are you fucking seri?—”

Hector placed a hand on Dad’s chest. “Don’t talk to her like that.”

My eyes widened, and I flickered my gaze up to Hector, who shoved Dad away so he couldn’t get any closer. Fuming in anger, Dad furrowed his brows and finally shifted his gaze away from me and to Hector.

“You’re supposed to be my best fucking friend,” Dad spat, his words dripping with venom. “My business partner that I trust. And you go on, fucking my daughter in a fucking sex club?! How long has this been going on?”

“Dad,” I whispered.

Dad pointed a finger at me. “I’ll scoldyoulat?—”

Hector seized Dad’s finger and broke it right in half, the crack echoing through the bar, the music so dull compared to Dad’s scream. Hector grabbed Dad by the jacket and dragged him out into the hallway. “I told you not to talk to her that way.”

As soon as they were out of earshot, I ran around the bar like a madwoman, looking for my clothes, which I couldn’t seem to find anywhere. Michelle, Hector’s sister, appeared beside me, ushering me into another room and handing me some spare clothes.

“Why don’t you wait here for a bit?” she offered.

But I was already out the door and running through the hallway toward a back door, where a couple of security guards were standing around, which meant that Hector and Dad had to be out there, right?

Once I pushed through them, I slammed open the door and spotted Dad and Hector glaring at each other in the alleyway. Hector held his gaze steady, his jaw clenched, as if he were preparing for Dad to hit him.

Dad clenched his fists. “How fucking dare you betray my trust like this!”

“This isn’t about you,” Hector growled, seemingly not having noticed me yet. “I love her.”

Dad flared his nostrils. “She’s my daughter! You’ve been a part of our lives for years, Hector. And I trusted you. This is how you repay me? By sneaking around with my daughter? Using her to get off? Telling me that nothing was going on?”

“Dad, please, just listen,” I pleaded from the door, tears welling up in my eyes. “It’s not like that. He’s not using me. I … we …” I started, losing my voice somehow halfway through my sentence. “I love him too.”

“He’s twice your fucking age, Heather.”

“Yeah, and you’re twice Evelyn’s age!” I exclaimed, walking down the steps. “Why does it even matter?! He’s not using me, and Mom accepts us. Why can’t you ever just be happy for me?!” I hiccuped. “You never can.”

Releasing his clenched fists, Dad cradled his finger and pursed his lips together. Instead of saying another word, he turned on his heel and stormed down the alleyway to the street, then turned a corner and disappeared.

I flared my nostrils and ran after him. “Where are you going?! I’m not done!”

This wasn’t fair. He didn’t get to just leave. He didn’t get to just be disappointed in me anymore. Just because I was his daughter didn’t mean that he could disrespect me or push me into a career that I didn’t want. Sure, Mom had talked some sense into him. But she shouldn’t have had to do anything.

Why couldn’t he have accepted me from the beginning, like he had with my brother? Why was his disappointment constantly aimed at me?

And I knew, deep down, that I would never hear the fucking end of this.

When I made it to the street, Hector grabbed my elbow. “Let him go.”

“No!” I shouted. “This isn’t …” Tears burned my eyes, and I suddenly felt the weight of the world crushing my shoulders. “This isn’t fair.” I buried my face into his chest and gripped on to his shirt. “This isn’t fair! He’s so hypocritical.”

Hector wrapped his arms around my shoulders and pulled me closer to him, my heart thumping heavily inside my chest. I rested my forehead against him and cried so loudly because I didn’t care to keep us a secret anymore.

It was over.

The secret was out.

Dad was disappointed.

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