Page 14 of Room Service

It was a private ambulance coming up the drive. There was only one reason I could think of for it to be here. Either it was coming to take my father or bringing him back. Whichever one, I didn’t know why the vehicle had to be there. If Dad was feeling unwell, he should have been at the hospital already, and if he was there then he should stay there, not come back home.

I was holding my car door open when the ambulance stopped several feet away, closer to the door. I walked over, my fists clenching at my sides.

Damn it, Dad! Why aren’t you in the hospital?

The back of the ambulance opened up, and I went over to greet my dad. A couple of people in white hospital outfits jumped out, and I could feel my fingers clench a little tighter. No one had told me what exactly had happened to him anyway, and my mind was to the point of making things up on its own.

It had to be bad, right? Or someone would have just told me. I slowed to a stop beside the ambulance. I wanted to move closer and assess the situation, but I also didn’t want to get too close. I didn’t want to see Dad lying down looking helpless if that was the extent of it. I wasn’t sure what I would do if I saw him like that. I thought of all the times I could have come home and refused his invitations.

As much as I didn’t want to be back here, or be part of the new family he’d made, he was still my dad. He was still my family. I might resent his choices, but that wasn’t a good enough excuse to not see my old man when he’d requested it of me. Even if it was more of a demand than a request.

But I couldn’t picture Matthew Thompson lying down looking all helpless, and I didn’t think I could remove the picture from my mind if I did see it.

I didn’t get to because as the two paramedics exited the ambulance, my step-mother, Alice came after them. I was surprised to see her there, though why should I? She was the man’s wife. My nose scrunched up as I stepped back.

She was the one person I didn’t want to see the most. I’d been avoiding thinking about her at all, but with her now in front of me, I couldn’t help myself going on the defensive. My back straightened and I forced my face to be expressionless. If there were one person I would never willingly show any emotion to, it was this woman, because if I did it would be intense dislike.

That would just be rude, wouldn’t it?

“Hello, Trent,” she said, smiling at me. “I’m surprised to see you here. Emily said you were coming back home, but…”

I just stood there, trying very hard not to scowl down at her. She was a small woman, and with my six-foot-five height, I pretty much dwarfed her.

“How’ve you been?” she asked, and I wondered why she was even trying to strike up a conversation.

She and I had barely talked in all the years we’d lived in the same house. When I couldn’t avoid her, she’d start talking to me, and I would either stare at her until she stopped, or I would walk away. There was nothing I had to say to her, anyway. Well, besides one thing.

You stole everything from me.

They were words I’d thought about her since the moment she came into our family. I was sad after my mom’s death, but eventually, I would have been fine. Maybe not got over it, but got used to the heartbreak enough that it didn’t hurt quite as badly every day.

But then my dad met this woman, and she took his love away from me. The day she walked into the mansion, Dad was all smiles while I was still grieving, and afterward, he spent even less time with me than he had before Mom had died. I’d seen him sitting alone in his office a few times, staring off into nothing, so I thought he was grieving the same as me. I didn’t mind that he didn’t make time for me because he was hurting as well.

Alice showing up out of nowhere was like a slap in the face.

He didn’t wait all that long for her to give him offspring. More distractions away from me. To the point he probably had no idea what was going on with me by the time I hit my teens. So I’d just neglected to tell him I was leaving when it came to college. I just packed my things one day and left, only for him to call me a month later wondering where the hell I’d gone.

A fucking month. That was how long it took my dad to remember I still existed after I left the mansion, and even then, only because my brothers were asking for me.

Just how long would he have ignored my absence, too busy with his new family to notice his eldest son had left the nest?

I had distanced myself from my family, from my dad. But it wasn’t like I’d done it all on my own. He didn’t reach out to me much, either. He’d forced me to tell him the day of my graduation, only for him to not be there, for both the end of high school and university. Then he’d told me to let him know when I started working so he could help me, only to call again several months later wondering why I didn’t ask for his help.

He didn’t get it was because I didn’t want it. I’d wanted to build things up on my own, and I did. Having his support would have been enough for me. If only the old bastard had had some faith in me instead of trying to run things behind the scenes.

Even though I’d been young when changes started to happen to him, I was always a smart kid, and I understood. His attention turned to the first baby, then the second, then the third, and there was no room for me. It looked like they didn’t need me anymore, so why would I have gone back anyway?

My father had changed, and I attributed all of it to this woman in front of me.

“I just wanted to check on Dad,” I said, forcing my voice to be polite. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you would be here. I’ll just come back later…”

I tried to look over her shoulder as the paramedics pulled someone out of the ambulance, but she stood firmly in my way. I tried to go around her, only for her to move with me. I felt like I was about to snap, and I glared at the small woman in front of me.

“What are you doing?” I asked. “I need to get into the house too, you know. Unless you want to kick me out now?”

A delicate frown appeared on her forehead. “Trent, I would never try to kick you out of your home.”

I snorted, disbelieving. You did it anyway, didn’t you? Don’t pretend now, step-mother.