My hands shook, though it wasn’t just from nerves. Dad always called Scarlett my mom when she was the furthest thing from it.Mymom was working in Japan as an English teacher, something she only had the courage to do after my dad destroyed her heart and our family by secretly pursuing the woman standing next to him. And now I found out that Scarlett had been keeping tabs on me and Bradley while at work? The news made anger mingle with the anxiety in my stomach, and it took me a few seconds to respond.
“He and I are taking a break. It’s not getting in the way of work, I promise.”
“A break?” Scarlett huffed. “I’ve never heard something so childish. Adults don’t do breaks.”
My eyes snapped to hers as the simmering rage in my chest grew. “I’d like to speak to my dad alone, if you don’t mind, please.”
“Serenity,” Dad warned, his voice turning colder while his eyes narrowed on me.
I pressed my lips together and forced my biting words down. The feeling of disdain grew along with Scarlett’s smile. She came up right behind my dad to place her french-tipped fingers on his shoulder, staking claim on him. The message was clear and had been since day one—she was in charge. My father would only hear what she wanted him to. He’d only see what she let him see.
She was more important than me.
It was a fact she’d aimed to establish early on. I still remembered that first day when nine-year old me met her. At the time, I knew Dad and Mom had stopped living together, even if I didn’t understand what thatreallymeant. Mom had moved out, and I was suddenlyvisitingher instead oflivingwith her.
One day, I came home to a house that no longer looked like the one I knew. Mom’s things were piled outside, and the inside had been transformed with all new furniture and decorations. The family photos of me, Dad, and Mom had been swapped with images of Dad and some lady. That same lady had stood in the entryway of the house as Dad ushered me in.
My dad had scooped me into his arms and beamed at me with more affection than a human should’ve been capable of as he’d introduced, “This is my most precious. My sweet Serenity.”
I’d smiled at the stranger, thinking I was getting a new friend around the house, but when she smiled back, I saw what no one else did. I saw the cold, hardened edge in her hateful eyes as she faked her friendliness. Even at nine-years old, I understood the promise she’d silently vowed in that moment—I would never again be Dad’s most precious.
Dad never looked at me that way again.
Dad cleared his throat, drawing me out of the painful memory. That sharp warning look remained as he addressed me. “Did something happen between you and Bradley?”
My fingers locked up in their fidgeting. I wanted to list out all of the issues that had arisen as Bradley and I got older. I wanted to bring up his recently formed drinking habit that had resulted in the bruise on my face that had since faded but not fully healed inside of me. I wanted to tell my dad that Bradley didn’t make me feel the way someone else was starting to.
Instead, I shook my head. “We just grew apart, that’s all. We’ve changed, and I think we’re better people separate than together.”
“Better separate?” Scarlett gasped, staring at me like I’d lost my mind. “Do you understand howluckyyou are to have someone like him? A man of his standing who works so hard and puts his all into everything he does? Meanwhile, you do the bare minimum here while playing make-believe in your head.”
It was always the same. I was always the lucky one to have Bradley. Never was he lucky to have me. No, according to my step-mom—and by extension, my dad—Bradley was doing me a favor by “putting up with me and my quirks.” The star quarterback going for the introverted, artistic nerd? What a blessing that he even gave me the time of day! He could have a girl who wore designer clothes tailored to her slim body, but instead, he had me—a home-body who wrote silly romance stories in her spare time. There was nothing about me to be proud of.
“Don’t look at her like that,” Dad ordered me.
It was only then that I realized I’d been staring at Scarlett with hard eyes and a tight jaw, willing my hatred for the woman to settle down.
“She only says all of this because she’s worried about you and your future,” Dad explained on his wife’s behalf. “We both are.”
Scarlett didn’t give a shit about my future. She didn’t say all she did as some tough love parenting tactic. She said it because she wanted to hurt me with any sort of dig that was subtle enough, no one else would notice the wickedness hiding amid her words.
Dad sighed and reached across my desk to place his hand on top of mine. “Just … Work things out with Bradley. I have big hopes for him. And you. I intend to pass everything I’ve built here to the two of you. He’s the only man I’d want for a son-in-law. So figure things out with him. Okay, honey? You know I wouldn’t ask you to do something if I thought it wasn’t good for you.”
A tight lump filled my throat, and sand coated my tongue. I didn’t know how to talk to Dad anymore. He never understood me when I spoke, deaf to my wants and needs while in tune to the whisperings of Scarlett.
So I’d found over the years that it was easier to answer with, “Yes, sir.”
“Good. Thank you. I believe he’s just getting back after being at Ms. Parkland’s property all day. I’ll send him in, so wait for him here.”
Dad stood from his chair, effectively telling me there was no room to argue about it. Scarlett waited for Dad to round his seat so she could loop her arm through his. She tossed me a final nasty grin before walking with him toward the door. It was a view I was familiar with—Dad’s back. He never saw me like he used to, yet a foolish part of me still clung to the hope that maybe one day he’d turn around and smile at me again. He’d see a daughter he could be proud of.
Desperate for even a flicker of that, I leapt up from my seat just as they reached the doorway. “D-Dad. Are you still coming by the bookstore for my release day signing next month?”
Dad looked over his shoulder and raised a brow. “Release day?”
The confusion written across his face and laced in his voice nearly made my heart deflate. Still, I plowed on. “Yeah. Don’t you remember? My new book releases January 30th, and I’m signing at the store downtown. You told me you’d stop by. I’m even off work for it.”
“Oh.” Dad looked at his wife and assistant. “Is that on my calendar?”
