“Not at Harold Enterprises, it’s not,” he snapped, his eyes looking sharply at me.
“Dad, times have changed…” I said with a shrug, making my way to the kitchen to get out of this awkward conversation temporarily. “Youshould know that better than anyone,” I added.
“What’sthatsupposed to mean?”
“You stepped down. Hired someone new. Young.”
Someone that wasn’t me.
I opened the microwave and pulled out the mug of tea, blowing on the steam that raised toward my face. My father was pacing my living room still, his usual move when there was something on his mind. From the look on his face, it didn’t look like something good.
“Tea?” I called from the kitchen, holding up my mug, trying to use it as some sort of peace offering.
He shook his head and continued pacing. I approached him cautiously.
“Look, I’m sorry I haven’t called you back,” I said before taking a sip of tea, the mint soothing its way down my throat as I looked at my father warily. “I got sick last week and found I liked it better working from home.”
“Is that when you left the charity golf event?” he asked, raising a brow, only pausing his pacing a moment to look at me.
“Yes,” I said softly.
“I needed you there, Gabriella,” he said firmly.
I bit back my annoyance at the fact that he hired someone else to take his place,notme. If he wanted something done a certain way, he knew where to find me.
“Chandler had it handled,” I said coolly.
He sighed frustratedly.
“Tell me it isn’t true,” he said, turning to face me, a look of pure fear on his face.
My stomach sunk and dread filled my entire body as I tried to figure out what he meant, hoping it wasn’t what I feared it was. The one thing I had been keeping from him, from really everybody. The one thing I knew would disappoint him and destroy me.
Please. Let it be anything else.
“Wh-what are you talking about?” I asked, trying to keep the shakiness from my voice.
“That you two haven’t been sleeping around the office like a couple of irresponsible teenagers thinking you could get away with it,” he said, disgust dripping in his voice. “That you aren’t pregnant with that man’s baby.”
As his words hit me, I thought my legs were going to give out on me. My apartment seemed to have turned on its axis, everything blurring out, except for the look on my father’s face. I had never seen anything like it before, and I would never forget it. I would never forgive myself for being the one to put it there.
I clutched my mug of tea tightly as if that would steady me, and looked at the floor, unable to look at him any longer. His stare still bored into me as he waited for my answer. An answer that I was terrified to give.
“Gabriella,” he said, his voice cracking, and making my heart crack.
I finally looked up at him with tears in my eyes. I hated showing weakness in front of him, but there was no holding back the salty streams running down my cheeks.
“How did you find out?” I managed to whisper.
He sucked in a breath as his eyes fell to my stomach, even though it was swimming in stupid rubber duckies. He sunk into the couch behind him and put his head in his hands, shaking it slightly as he stared at the ground. I hesitated before going to sit beside him, the silence between us deafening.
“Dad…” I said, reaching for his hand, but he pulled it away.
“A board member overheard your conversation at the golf event…”
Shit.
“He called me this morning to congratulate me on becoming a grandfather.”
