“Hell yeah, I am,” he shoots back without hesitation. “I love your mom’s cooking. I’ll come any time she asks.”
Emmett and I have decided not to tell them everything for now. We know we need to, but we decided we needed time to process it all ourselves first. Plus, we don’t want anything else to change right now. We want to get through the holidays with a sense of calm, and plan to catch them up to speed in the new year.
“Mom?” I answer, still shivering as the car heats up.
“Ophelia,” she huffs back, sounding worried. “Are you on your way home?”
“Yeah, Emmett’s driving me,” I tell her. “Everything okay?”
“I need to talk to you,” she says sternly.
“Okay, sure,” I answer pensively, afraid of what this could be about. “What about? Care to give me a hint?”
“It’s your father,” she replies grimly, stopping my heart cold. “He called me today. I haven’t talked to him since I left him when you were just a baby.”
“Uh-huh,” I stammer, unable to breathe. “What did he want?”
“Just come home,” she says again. “I need to talk to you before he gets here.”
“Gets there?” I demand. “What do you mean ‘gets there’?”
“He’s joining us for dinner,” she says plainly, but with an obvious tinge of anxiety.
I hang up and stare straight ahead, wishing the afternoon hadn’t taken this unexpected turn. I want to go back to how I felt just minutes ago, when everything was going well for once. I don’t want my dad in any part of my life, even the dark, distant part my mom doesn’t know about. I can’t stand the thought of those two worlds merging. My mother, who I love. and the man who beat and left her. I hate him enough as it is. I can’t bear to see him with her and let the rest of it slide so easily.
“What was that all about?” Emmett asks.
“My father,” I reply breathlessly. “It seems he’s coming over for dinner tonight.”
My blood boils. I grew up hearing my mom refer to him as the scum of the earth, and now he is coming over for dinner. He was completely absent for most of my life, and then became responsible for the torment I had to endure at the hands of the Elites.
“I forgot to tell you,” I remember suddenly. “I got pulled over. The night Lily got arrested. The cops were asking me about him again.”
“Did you tell them anything?” He looks at me questioningly.
“No,” I reply. “I didn’t know what to say. I wish you had never made that deal with him Emmett. Now I feel like he’s never going to go away.”
His face contorts. “You know what would have happened if I hadn’t made that deal. One of our fathers would have killed you, and my dad would still be reigning over everything.”
“I know you were desperate to get rid of him.” I sigh in acceptance. “But it’s like making a deal with the devil. I’m not convinced my father would have been any better than yours…if he had been around.”
“Well, it sounds like you’re about to find out,” he says ominously.
I remember my father defending his decision to kidnap me if Emmett hadn’t stepped in. He claimed he just needed to ‘remove me from the game.’ Like I was just some kind of gambling chip in his mind, one that was swinging the odds out of his favor. At the time, I didn’t know if I was better off with Emmett or my dad. Now it seems I’m getting both, whether I like it or not.
We’ve come so far since then. When everything about Emmett and my dad came out, I couldn’t imagine ever trusting Emmett again after everything he had put me through. I certainly never thought we’d be where we are today. But I can’t help but feel like the lingering presence of my father threatens what we have. I don’t know how, but I know it’s not good.
“Do you think he still keeps tabs on my mom and me?” I ask Emmett nervously. “You remember what he said after everything happened with your father. About my mother belonging to him before anybody else. You don’t think he’s...trying to get her back or something…He wouldn’t, right? Not with Brendan around.”
“Despite what you think…your dad and I aren’t buddies, you know,” he reminds me. “My guesses about this whole thing are as good as yours.”
“I don’t understand why he’s still around!” I lament. “He said he was going to leave me alone now that Thomas is dead.”
Suddenly, I wish I had told Mom everything. Then maybe she would have known better than to let Dad join us for dinner. I’d like to know how he talked his way into this one, anyway, especially since my mom hates him. Not to mention how Brendan must feel about it. I cringe to imagine what kind of smooth talk he must have laid on them to make this happen.
“What do you think he wants?” I ask as Emmett continues driving.
“Maybe he just wants to be closer to you,” he suggests innocently.
“Oh, come on,” I scoff. “You know better than that.”
“Well, there’s only way to find out,” he says. “I guess we’re going to have dinner with your dad. And Mom. And stepdad. All at the same time.”
I swallow hard, wishing there was some way out of it. Maybe if we can get there in time, we can talk some sense into my mom. But I don’t see how we can do that without telling her everything.
“I guess we need to start working on our story.” My voice cracks. “Decide on a version of it my mom can handle.”
“Your house is only fifteen minutes away,” he retorts. “I think it’s going to take a lot longer than that.”
I press my head to the window and look out longingly. I knew things couldn’t stay simple and easy for long, I had just hoped that we could have until the new year before everything went haywire again. But I guess that’s just life in Jameson.