Page 121 of Addiction

“Well?”

“Well, what?” I reply, sitting back in my seat.

“Give me one good reason why you had to try and humiliate me in front of that man.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Daddy,” I say sarcastically. “Would you have preferred we’d hug it out and have me preach about what a wonderful father you are when we both know it’s bullshit?”

“I see your attitude hasn’t changed.”

“Neither has my sexuality. Sorry to disappoint.” I glare at him.

I may be acting like a pissed teenager, but what does he expect when all I’ve ever gotten from him is nothing but disrespect and loveless lies. Every time I look at him, it angers me. It angers me that the family morals are all wrong. We had always been brought up to believe in who we were, what we can achieve and more importantly to be ourselves. However, there was no room for being gay in those family values. I had been treated like a disease—like something toxic was growing inside their family household and they couldn’t do anything to get rid of it—so they got rid of me.

I was driven out of my own home and forced to move states because everywhere I turned my family name was everywhere. I had nothing and no one because the one person who had kept me going and pushing myself forward was the very person who is no longer here. My true blood. And my god do I miss Jonny more than anything right now.

As I pick at the wood on the table, I can see my dad looking around the building, no doubt taking in all the things he doesn’t approve of and inspecting it within an inch of its life.

This place is not his sort of place.

Wine bars, whiskey, and wealth are his style. He prefers places where he can sit with his associates to discuss who is further up the leaderboard while puffing on cigars. His disapproval and degrading comments about my life and Resilience are likely to fall out of his mouth any second.

“So, Virginia Beach. Of all the places you could have gone, you came… here.”

“Why are you here, Raymond?” I snap, wanting to get this conversation over with. His slide glance and smirk sicken me.

“Oh, I was in Virginia on business. A member of the board has family out here and they wanted a second opinion on the health of their grandbaby, who is currently in Children’s Hospital for King’s Daughters. So, no. I haven’t come to see you if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“Yet here you are.”

He huffs out a laugh and turns to face me. I’m not buying this ‘I’m here on business bullshit.’

He scrapes a chair along the floor and takes a seat, clasping his hands together on the table and looking at me like I’m a project. It’s always been the same. Needing comfort, I search the gym to find Asher, and when I spot him sitting on the bench of the boxing area, his eyes are already on me, he nods his head and I know the gesture is him asking me if I’m okay, so I do the same back.

Only the truth is, I’m far from okay right now.

“How did you know I was in this part of town?”

“Do you know when I was at the hospital, I met some remarkable people? Surgeons, Nurses, patients.”

“Well, believe it or not, people like that do exist outside of Minnesota.”

“Fascinating hospital. Could do with a little upgrade, though, if you ask me.”

His small talk irritates me, and the more he rambles on the more frustrated I’m getting.

“And the food could also—”

“Why are you here?” I raise my voice over him, but his expression doesn’t falter.

He sits forward and that famous smirk is back—a smirk I’d like to wipe off that face one day. “I had an interesting conversation with a nurse while I was there. Apparently, you come highly recommended in your line of work. Who knew.”

Not you that’s for sure.

“Now. What was her name again?” He points to his temple and pretends to wrack his brains for a name he so obviously has remembered. “Francesca… Florence…” He clicks his fingers and points at me. “Fiona. Fiona Nelson. Now there’s a woman with information.”

My stomach twists with anxiety. I’m not at all worried about what Fiona might have said to my dad, it’s more the other way around. He has this way of making people believe his lies, and my only hope is that Fiona has seen right through him because she’s still vulnerable herself when it comes to her depression and knowing whom she can trust.

The look in my father’s eyes tells me I’m right to be concerned.