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“I’ll take another drink.” His glazed eyes found mine. “Get one for my son here.”

“I’m not drinking.”

Julia tried to carefully extricate herself from Bryant’s grasp, but his arm tightened around her waist.

His eyes stayed locked on me. “Still too good for your old man?”

There it was, the familiar twist. The hook designed to make me feel like I was the problem. I looked at him, really looked at him. I didn’t see the man I’d spent my childhood trying to impress, but the man I’d learned to appease to keep myself safe. A man that would do anything to maintain control.

“No,” I said calmly. “I’m just not interested.”

His mouth pulled into a humorless smile. “Always with the attitude.”

Julia looked between us. “Bryant—”

“No.”

My voice stopped both of them. I reached into my pocket, my fingers closing around my keys. This was why I was here: to end this game we were playing.

“I’m not staying for dinner.”

Bryant blinked slowly.

“What?”

I swallowed. “I came to tell you something.”

A laugh escaped him. “You came all the way over here for a dramatic announcement?”

I ignored the comment because that was how it always was with him. He turned everything into a performance until the other person forgot why they were talking. My fingers gripped my keys until the edges dug into my palm.

“I’m done.”

The room went quiet. Julia’s expression faltered as Bryant stared at me.

“Done with what?”

I held his gaze.

“With this.” I motioned around the room.

“The dinners. The pretending. The phone calls. The expectation that I show up and act like everything is normal when it’s never been anything close to normal.”

His expression hardened. “You’re my son.”

I nodded once. “I am.”

“Then act like it.”

The boy who used to measure his worth by Bryant’s approval would have looked away. Would have apologized. Would have searched his face for permission to exist. That version of me was gone.

“I have spent my whole life trying to be enough for you.” The truth sat between us.

“And I’m tired.” The words felt strange leaving my mouth. Not because they weren’t true. Because they were the truth I’d spent years avoiding.

“I’m not doing this anymore.”

For a moment, he just stared. Then Bryant laughed like he couldn’t believe I had the nerve.