My life has changed. The things I care about have shifted. His approval, while I haven’t longed for it for years, is now as inconsequential as his insults.
“Just sign the damn document,” I sigh.
“Or what?” he challenges.
I step closer, towering over him. I’m done being subtle.
“Or I tear everything you own to the ground. I take my warehouses back. I destroy your reputation. I pull you apart piece by piece until there is nothing left. If you survive it, you will live on the streets, in the gutters, where you belong,” I say darkly.
“You pathetic piece of shit. Do you have any idea how much I’ve given you? You are nothing without me. Without myname. You have no power without me. You and that bitch sister of yours. You turned your back on the one good thing you had going for you. She betrayed me by marrying that asshole, Emmanuil, and now she will never again hold the status of my name.My name,” he screams, his voice echoing against the cement walls of the underground parking lot.
“Please, stop,” I roll my eyes. “This is pointless. Just sign the damn paper.”
He grabs the front of my shirt and tugs me close to him, snarling and hissing in my face.
“You think you’re better than me? You think you can control me? I will be the one destroying you. No one can touch me. This city is mine. Do you hear me, boy? You might have played on the throne for a moment, I might have allowed you to taste that power, but the second you tried to use it against me, you were already dead to me.”
I grab his wrist and twist his fingers free from my shirt.
“You are running out of chances, father. Sign it,” I snarl.
He pushes away from me and staggers back before stooping low and grabbing the discarded envelope. “This?” he laughs. “This is what you want me to sign?”
I clench my jaw, seeing the mania flickering over his face. He’s losing his mind, his sanity slipping away, his careful mask disintegrated.
“Faiz. It’s over. You have no other choice.”
“Hah,” he spits, sneering. He grabs the envelope in both hands and rips it and the document inside it in half.
“Fuck’s sake,” I mutter. “I should have known you wouldn’t see reason. You have never had the ability to be tactful. Everything you ever did was in violence.”
My father pulls his Glock from the holster at his hip.
“What are you going to do? Shoot me?” I laugh.
“You have no idea who you’re messing with,” he shouts.
“Put the fucking gun away, Faiz.”
He’s walking backwards, slowly raising it towards me.
I shake my head in disbelief.
Faiz spins on his heel and runs. Even though he has nowhere to go, he runs.
I fold my arms across my chest and sigh loudly. “I guess we’re doing this the hard way, then,” I call out into the parking lot.
My father is gone.
Into the wind.
I gather the torn document from the ground.
Tugging my car door open, I climb back into it.
I gave him the only chance he was going to get to be diplomatic about this. Now, I’m going to do what I promised.
I’m going to tear everything he’s built to the ground and leave him with nothing.
