That’s mine.
I straighten in my chair. My father notices immediately, his eyes narrowing. Preparing for a fight.
“You’re right,” I say finally. “It doesn’t look responsible.”
He smirks, already certain he’s won.
“It looks human,” I add.
The smirk vanishes. “What did you just say?”
“I said,” I repeat, sharper now, “it looks human. You should try it sometime.”
The silence hangs for all of two seconds before my father shoots to his feet, hands braced on the desk, about to launch across it.
“Don’t you dare take that tone with me, boy,” he snarls. “You think you’re clever? You think you’re some kind of rebel because you mouth off once in your life? You’re nothing without your job. Without me. Don’t you dare forget that.”
My pulse hammers, but I don’t flinch. Not this time. “Maybe I don’t want to be judged by my job anymore.”
His face reddens so fast I almost hear it, the tightening of his skin in shock. “Excuse me?”
“Isaid,” I bite out, louder now, “maybe I don’t want the lifeyouchose for me.”
“You don’t get to decide that!” he explodes as he slams his fists into his desk, knocking over one of his precious pictures. “You’re my son. You carrymyname. You don’t get to walk away because you’re chasing after some pathetic little fantasy with a disgraced Omega and her strays?—”
It’s my turn to shoot to my feet. “Don’t youdaretalk about them like that.”
The words snap out of me before I can stop them, sharp as glass. His eyes widen a fraction, shock that I interrupted him at all, but then the fury doubles.
“They’re nothing,” he spits. “Do you understand? Nothing. Parasites. Dead weight. They will drag you down until you’re nothing, too. You think the town respects you now? They don’t. Theylaughat you. They see you slumming it, and they laugh.”
My nails dig crescents into my palms. “You don’t know a damn thing about them.”
“I know enough,” he sneers. “The whole town does. And you want to ruin your future for what? For them? Forher?”
And that’s it. The dam cracks.
I move so fast that the chair topples behind me. The slam of my hands into the other side of his desk as I mock his posture makes him flinch, and for once, I don’t care. In fact, I take pride in it, in being able to rattle my father this way. My voice shakes, not from fear but from the force of everything I’ve shoved down for years, finally ripping its way out.
“My future?” I say. My voice is deathly quiet. “You meanyourfuture.Yourreputation.Yourimage. Every choice I’ve ever made, you’ve twisted into something to benefit you. You never gave a damn what I wanted. Not once. And that stops today. I’m done pleasing a man that can’t be pleased.”
“Because what you want doesn’t matter!” he roars back. His face is red, veins standing out in his neck. “You arenothingwithout discipline, without duty, without this family name! Without me, you’re just another nobody in this town. Don’t fool yourself into thinking otherwise.”
My chest is heaving now, adrenaline burning hot through every vein. I won’t let him get the better of me. I keep my voiceeven. “Good,” I say slowly, so that he can digest every letter. “Then I’d rather be a nobody. At least then it would be mine.”
He falters. Just for a breath. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him falter before. I relish it.
Then his fury surges again, louder, uglier. “You ungrateful little?—”
“No.” I shake my head as I raise up and slide my hands down the front of my shirt. “I’m done.”
The word rings in the air, heavier than any speech he’s ever given.
“You wouldn’t dare,” he hisses.
“I’ll quit,” I tell him as my gaze finds his. “I’ll do it in a heartbeat because I’m done being your connection, your mouthpiece to this town. I’m not going to spend one more second living your life instead of mine.”
His face goes slack. Shock. Rage. Disbelief, all fighting for space. “You can’t just?—”
