“Why didn’t you answer the first time?” My father’s voice booms through the speaker. “I am too busy to keep trying to chase you around,”
I snort. Yeah right. The board makes sure he has very little input into anything these days.
“Apologies Father, I was in the gym,”
“Why are you avoiding Darcy?”
I bite my tongue before taking another drag. Of course the whiney bitch ratted me out.
“You know the partnership we have with her father comes with certain stipulations. I won’t have you messing up this deal because you can’t keep one girl happy!”
The one and only deal my father has successfully put in place for the company is unsurprisingly only in place because of me. He sold me out.
“I’m not avoiding her. I have classes that I need to attend and assignments that take up time. I can’t be with her every second of the day like she expects,” I grit out between clenched teeth.
My father laughs. “Honestly son, if you can’t keep a girl happy enough to keep her mouth from running to her father, then I don’t expect you can handle the responsibility to run the family company,” My fist holding the phone to my ear clenches so hard I am surprised I don’t crack the screen.
“Fix this!” He snaps before ending the call.
I have the urge to throw my phone at the gravel floor, but then I will be causing myself an inconvenience of having to go and get a replacement.
“Bide your time,” I whisper to myself as I close my eyes and take a deep breath. “He will get what’s coming to him”.
I can’t wait to see his face when I get him thrown out the company for good. With not a penny to his name and no family around him to help. That day I will finally be able to relax. To breath. That will be the day my life officially starts.
ELEVEN
RUELLA
Iam sitting on my bed, half dressed for the night’s activities, dreading what I am about to do. I have my phone in my hand, re-reading the message I received, over and over. Willing myself to put on my big girl pants and call him. I don’t know why I feel this dread. Marrowton Academy was meant to be a job, but even after such a short time and being away from that awful house, I feel somewhat free, like I am finally living. And when I make this call, it will pop the bubble I have tried to create.
Nothing else.
No sentiments from a father to a daughter, no questions about how I am or how the academy is. But I shouldn’t be surprised, or disappointed, no…. I am Ruella. Even without Marlowe in the picture, I will never be a daughter to him. Just a regret.
After a calming breath I press the dial button and wait.
“Speak,” Empty like my heart, his voice is void of emotion.
“No one is speaking about Marlowe. As if she never even existed here,”
“We already knew that,” He growls. “That’s why I sent you in the first place,”
“I am going to get my hands on her file tonight. The plan is already in motion,” I keep it short and sweet.
“Good,” I hear the liquid going down his throat as he takes a sip of what I guess is whiskey at this hour. “Don’t disappoint me, Ruella. You won’t get a penny out of me if you don’t get me answers soon,”
“There’s something else,” I clear my throat.
“What?” He sounds aggravated that he has to continue the conversation.
Yeah, me to arsehole.
“Someone attacked me while I was on a run,” I keep going before he can interrupt. “I didn’t see his face, but he said he knows who I am… he said to go home,”
“So, you have already blown your cover,” He scoffs. No concern for the attack. Typical.
“We don’t know that for sure,” I stand up from the bed. “But it does mean that I am on the right path and in the right place for answers. If I am spooking someone within the first week of being here, enough for them to try and scare me off, then we are doing the right things,”
