Page 46 of Wilderness Daddy

Chapter Ten

Akari

“Where are the insurance papers?” I ask my father, who is sitting in his favorite wingback chair. He’s reading the paper, the curl of newsprint exposing only part of his face to me.

“What are you talking about, Akari?” my mother answers for him as she hands him a glass of water. I clench my fists at my sides. He doesn’t even glance up at me.

“I’m talking to Father.”

My voice is firm enough that my father takes notice with an exaggerated sigh. “Do not speak to your mother that way, Akari.”

“Why not? You let her fuss over you all day like she exists just to serve you,” I deadpan him. I can see my mother’s hand go to her mouth in my peripheral vision.

My father’s expression hardens. “What’s gotten into you?”

“I want the insurance papers.”

He blinks, slams the paper down, and sits forward. “What are you talking about? What insurance papers, Akari?” His tone is both sharp and confused. His hand trembles.

“The ones for Takahashi Sports? You insisted I be on the policy even though I’m not officially working there.”

I see it then, a quick flash of uncertainty and I know I’m right. He falls back in the chair, clutching the armrests and my mother rushes to fuss over him again, asking if he’s okay. “Let’s discuss this in the morning. It’s late,” he says, not even acknowledging my mother.

“There weren’t any insurance papers, were there? It was about this stupid merger. You wanted to make sure Landon was healthy, so in turn you had me checked for his father.” My father crosses his arms, visibly uncomfortable, swallowing a few times as if he’s going to be sick. “Like we’re a pair of breeding animals!”

My father struggles to shoot to his feet, my mother vigilant at his side, but I’m already spinning to leave. Not that I know where I’ll go. I’ll figure it out though. God, all the work I’ve done behind the scenes for the company and he has no clue. And I’ve never been paid a damn cent! Just credit cards to use for whatever girly things I want. A fat lot of good new designer shoes do when you need a place to go to get away.

Besides George, there’s only one person who knows me. The real me. The capable me. And the me who’s vulnerable, emotional, and little girlish. And he’s gone.

My father turned me into this. I’m a woman who needs to prove my strength because he never believed I had any. Landon on the other hand, he’s made me feel more than capable; he makes me feel intelligent, talented, and strong. And by doing that, making me feel like I can do anything I set my mind to, I can relax and let my inner little girl out without fear of being thought of as weak, small, inept.

Landon is a man who will stand beside me, not in front of me. And that’s what I draw on now to bring me strength.

I’m out the door, ignoring my mother’s urgent whispers to come back, to let her explain, and in my car before I grab my cell and dial George. “I’m coming to your place,” I blurt over his hello and immediately hang up. I turn the ignition and the car purrs to life. Even that’s been paid for by my father. I didn’t earn it, not in his eyes, but in mine I did. I damn well did!

I drive to George’s studio-slash-apartment, which has a second bedroom. He’s damn well going to let me stay since I’m the reason he can pay for the place. He, unlike me, has to earn everything he gets from my father, but with that comes his freedom and to me that’s more of a gift than free rein with the credit cards.

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