Page 46 of The Baby Twist
He stared directly into my eyes, trying to tell if I was lying or not.
“I cannot believe you let this happen. You obviously didn’t learn from the last mistake you made.”
I could feel the anger rising inside me.
“Accidents happen. You, of all people, should know that,” I spoke in a smug tone.
“Don’t get smart with me, boy.” He pointed at me. “What are your feelings for Jenna?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I don’t have feelings for her.”
“I highly doubt that. You took her in and let her stay with you when she broke her foot. Then you gave her a good job here and let her rent your apartment.”
“She fell because of me, so I needed to do what was right. As for working here, I did it for this company because she’s the best and we need someone like her on our team. As for the apartment, she needed somewhere to stay. What did you want me to do? Just let her loose on the street with a broken foot and nowhere to go?”
“Yeah. Why not? She’s not your problem.”
“She is my problem if she went to work for our biggest competitor. I was thinking about the company, Dad, and that’s it.”
He leaned across his desk and pointed his finger at me.
“You remember what I’ve taught you. When you feel, you stop thinking, and when you stop thinking, everything goes to hell.”
“I know.” I looked down.
“You damn well better. I’m leaving tomorrow. Can I trust you’ll be able to continue running this company without any distractions? I didn’t keep you for you to fail me.”
It took everything I had not to reach out and punch him in the face, father or not.
“Yes. You can trust me.”
“Good.”
“Are we finished here? I have a lot of work to do.”
“Yeah. We’re finished.”
I got up from my seat and headed to my office. Shutting the door, I sat behind my desk and let out a long sigh. Jenna was right. I could feel him pulling the strings he had attached to me. I needed to be alone for a while and away from the company and the city to think.
“Hey,” Jenna spoke as she poked her head through the door.
“Hey. Come in.”
“I need you to sign off on this,” she spoke as she handed me a file folder. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I’m fine.”
“It kind of looked like you were in a deep thought.”
“My father called me into his office to tell me he knew about the baby.”
“And?”
“He spewed his usual bullshit.”
“Did you say anything back?” she asked.
“Not really. He’s leaving tomorrow, and so am I.”
