Page 50 of Bound by Family
My father comes in casually and sits in the same chair my brother just vacated.
“Racer just came in here saying I need to become and ol’ lady or a whore. What’s that about?”
He blows out a breath, the hairs on his mustache blowing with it. “Our club rules. You’re my daughter, so you’ve gotten leeway, but you’re twenty-one now and that’s runnin’ out. You either need to be in the club or you’re out. I want you in so I can keep you safe.”
“Do you hear what you’re saying right now?”
“Yes, and it’s how it is.” He’s stoic.
I can’t help wondering what it would take to break my father. He really can’t think this is my only option.
This sudden turn is crippling me. This is not the man that I know.
“I can’t believe you’d want me to be unhappy just to cover your rules.” Pain engulfs me.
I wish my mother was still alive. There’s no way she would allow this.
He leans forward as darkness covers his eyes. It has me sitting back in my chair.
“That’s how this shit works. You don’t like the rules, then you leave.”
“Are you firing me?”
“If I have to.” My father has never talked to me like this in my whole damn life. Surely this isn’t the man that my mother loved, or maybe this is the side I’ve never known. “I’m doing what I know to do to keep you in the fold. You don’t want that, I can’t make you stay. But I can’t change the situation, either.”
“I don’t even know what to say.”
He shrugs, and it hurts. The nonchalance is more than hurting me, it’s searing pain. I can’t see why this is even an option.
I look for some sign on him. The wrinkles around his eyes or lips to see if something is wrong, but he remains his cool and calm self.
“It’s you’re in or out. If you’re out, you’re all the way out. It’s time. We’ll need an answer next week.” He gets up and leaves my office as tears well up in my eyes.
This can’t be happening. It just can’t.
Cooper is the first person who comes to mind. I need him to hold me right now and warm me from the chill I just got from the people I thought would love me until I died. However, this isn’t something I can tell him over the phone. He will be here tomorrow. I just need to hold myself together until then.
* * *
“What’s wrong?”How Cooper got that from me telling him hello, I’ll never know. It doesn’t bode well if he can tell my emotions just by words over a phone hundreds of miles away.
“Just a long day.” I refuse to lie to him, but what I have to say can’t be said over the phone. And it has been a long day, painfully so.
“Same here. We’re leavin’ in the morning. I have business, then you can meet me at my hotel.”
“Sounds good.” I clear my throat, hoping it doesn’t crack again.
“I’d really like it if you told me what’s going on.”
“Really, I’m fine. Just tired. I need some sleep. Resting up before you get here is probably a good thing.” I try to make light with the joke, but it falls flat.
“Get some sleep, and I’ll see you tomorrow night.”
“Night.”
He clicks off the phone, and I toss it onto the bed.
It’s way too soon for me and Cooper to move in together like he suggested. I have money in the bank and some stashed here at my house. Maybe I could get an apartment somewhere up there where Cooper is. The problem is: what job am I going to get? There’s no way my father is going to tell a future employer that I’m great at my job. He’ll be so pissed that I left that he won’t see straight. But his options aren’t really options.
