I scoff when the two of them don’t say a fucking thing or apologize. “I pity you.” Their gazes snap to me, perplexed. “You have such an incredible daughter, and you have no idea. You have no idea how smart she is. The entire team is in awe of her creativity and market analysis. She works as hard as the players there, if not more. On top of that, she still finds it in her heart to be gentle, caring, and understanding of everyone around her. Every room lights up the moment she walks in. God! She’s fuckingmagnetic.”
Kaeli sobs behind me. Infuriated, I rake my hand through my hair, gripping the back of the chair with the other to hold myself in before I start smashing things. “I can’t help but look at herwhen she’s anywhere near me. And you don’t look at her once, no matter how close she’s standing,” I grit.
When they show no sign of movement, I make my decision. “It’syouI’m disappointed in. You should be ashamed to call yourself her parents.” I can’t even hear myself over the blood pounding in my ears.
“And you?” I glare at Roman. “What kind of an older brother are you? How can you stand what they do to her? How have you never protected her, stood up for her?”
Janice attempts to speak. I raise my hand to silence her. “You have to acknowledge how poorly you have treated your daughter all these years. You have to decide if you want to see her again.”
I hear Janice gasp, and Peter’s spoon finally clatters to the floor. “What do you mean?” he asks, his voice heavy.
“If you ever want to see your daughter again, you’ll have to be careful of how you behave with her. You can’t humiliate her at every turn. You need to apologize to her,” I lay it out for them as I feel Kaeli grab my shirt from behind, her body still shaking.
For the first time since my outburst, Roman speaks in an even voice. “What gives you the right to talk on her behalf and make such huge claims and decisions of whether or not her own family can see her or talk to her?”
I feel the vein in my forehead nearly pop at his ridiculous question. Biting my tongue, I try to hold back my bubbling anger.
“Tell me, Ezra. Why?” he taunts, his face tilting to the side.
“Because I love her, damnit!” I slam my fist on the table, while the bastard suddenly smiles.
Immediately, the realization of my proclamation has my eyes widening and then scrunching shut. It was not supposed to be like this. Honestly, before this moment, I don’t think I even acknowledged the vastness of my feelings for her.
Despite the circumstances, the truth resonates with every beat of my wildly thumping heart.
The second I turn around and find my beautiful Kaeli staring at me with wide eyes and a teary face, I know for as long as I breathe, I’ll only ever feel this way about her.
I love Kaeli Reed as surely as the sun rises from the east.
Forty Three
Kaeli
Ilove her, damnit!
He loves me?
Helovesme.
Astonished doesn’t even begin to cover how I feel.
All I can do is gawk at him, my brain working in overdrive to digest what he professed and come up with a coherent response.
Not a single word comes to mind. An onslaught of jumbled emotions wreaking havoc on me as I wander my mind and heart, tryingto decipher each one of them.
Ezra spins on his heels to look at me, his features contorting into regret and then into hard lines as he grabs my hand and drags my mute self out.
“We’re leaving,” Ezra announces.
“Where will you go so late at night?” Roman’s chair screeches as he stands.
“We’ll look for a hotel or something. But I’m not letting her stay another night under the roof where she’s not valued or respected,” Ezra growls, tugging me closer.
Roman throws Ezra a set of keys, which he skillfully catches. “This is the key to my place. I’ll stay here for the night. Go. I’ll text you the address.” They exchange numbers.
Ezra gives a curt nod and takes me away while I’m too caught up in his words to protest.
We’re off to Roman’s house in the rental car.
