His jaw tics, his eyes violent and aggressive. “Do you have any idea how dangerous my father is? How big of a psychopath he is? He’s a fucking criminal, okay? A goddamn criminal. And I have done everything in my power to keep you safe from him.”
“Tell me,” I say as I grab onto the opening he’s given me. “Tell me what you’ve done. Tell me everything.”
Reed bends down, his face vicious. “You wanna know, Fae? You wanna know what I’ve done and what my dad can do?”
“Yes.”
“All right. You think he pressed those charges against you because he was trying to punish you, don’t you? Because you stole his precious son’s car. Isn’t that correct, Fae? Isn’t that what you think?”
“Yeah,” I say, fear clutching my heart.
“He didn’t. He doesn’t give a fuck that you stole my car or that you tried to destroy his son’s property. He doesn’t give a fuck,” he snaps, looming even closer. “He doesn’t give a fuck about you. He doesn’t care who you are or what you did. He pressed those charges against you because he wanted to get to me. Because he wanted to punishme, not you. He wanted to punish me for years of defying him, for taunting him with soccer. For taunting him with my scholarship, with my inevitable career in the pros. Yeah, he doesn’t give a fuck about you, Fae.”
He takes a moment to grind his teeth. “When I told him that I wouldn’t do his bidding if he didn’t makeallthe charges disappear and set you free. He, in turn, told me that I had no leg to stand on. Because if I didn’t quit soccer and come work for him, you’d go to juvie and he’d make sure that you stayed buried in there. So he doesn’t care about youoryour little family. All he cares about is me. His rebellious, disobedient son who fucking hates him. Controlling me, making me his bitch, making me do things that I don’t want to do. It’s fun for him. Do you understand that? It’s fun for him to toy with people. He’s done it all his life. Me, my sister, my mother. In business. So he wastoyingwith you to get to me.”
I let him go then.
I unfurl my fingers from his hoodie and ask him with my heart beating in my ears, “And now that I’m pregnant?”
His nostrils flare. “He’ll use that too. He’ll use Halo. He’ll use Juilliard too, your dream, if he has to.”
“Against you.”
His response is a muscle on his cheek that comes to life and throbs.
“So…” I have to take a moment here to gather myself. “So you’ll do his bidding for the rest of your life?”
“Yes, if that’s what it takes to keep you safe. To keep Halo safe.”
That’s what he’s been doing for the past two years. That’s what he’ll keep doing.
I fist my hands. “What about Pete?”
“What about him?”
“Are you going to take his garage from him and give it to your dad?”
His features ripple and I know, Iknow, that it’s pain.
He’s hurting at the thought of harming Pete. His one and only friend, the man who’s been more of a father to Reed than his own.
“He’ll get over it,” Reed says, trying to sound nonchalant, but his rigid body gives him away.
“Will you?”
“What?”
“Will you get over it, Roman? For screwing over your friend. The friend that you love.”
At this, his features scrunch up and he plows his fingers through his hair as he scoffs. “Jesus Christ, you don’t give up, do you? Why does everything have to be love? I don’tloveanything. I don’t have time to love anything. My life is already plenty screwed up without it, you understand? So yeah, I’ll get over it. I got over hurting you, didn’t I?”
No, he didn’t.
Hehasn’t.
He still apologizes to me. He still feels bad about what he did two years ago.
The other day he bought me daisies. Both flowers and dresses with daisies printed on them. Because I told him that I’d buried all the dresses from two years ago somewhere deep in my closet so I never look at them. Because they remind me of him.
