Deep trenches had overtaken the weathered skin of this working man. His face had lengthened, mouth furrowed down. Watching his nostrils flare, the lids around his eyes had thinned, the pupils looking as though they were floating on a sea of white.
Everything was moving in slow motion, my body was stepping forward but the distance between us appeared to grow. The room was extending out, running away in front of me. My dad still had some people around him, the fuzzy forms were trying to calm him down.
Their arms were rested on his shoulders, opaque faces leaned in to whisper in his ear. But he didn't react, didn't shake his head or acknowledge the words pushed into his head.
He watched me coming, fingers curling up into tight balls by his waist.
Fuck this shit! It ends now! I was already sick of everything he had put on me since fucking birth. There was nothing I ever did right, until now.
I was going to make him wish he hadn't screwed with Noella. Every piece of him was going to know how I really felt, what I was thinking, and if I had to...
Fuck, it didn't matter anymore. That woman had finally breathed life into me. And she deserved to be treated with respect, nothing about her past, her present, or even her fucking future, was any concern of his.
Quickening my pace, my feet hit the marble tiles. I didn't move around the others in the room, I walked through them. Clearing a path with my shoulders, my hands, and my fucking glare.
No one was standing in my way, not this time.
Stopping at the toes of his fancy black shoes, my lip snarled up. “You're a real fucking asshole.” The words road off my tongue effortlessly. “Noella didn't deserve that, you don't know shit about her.”
My father was exactly my height, his nose a fucking hair from touching mine. “Back up, Son,” he said under his breath. “You will not disrespect me in front of these people, do you understand?”
“I'm not a child anymore, and you can't talk to people the way you do. She isn't below us, she isn't below you. Noella, she's going to be around for a while. So you better get used to it.” I could feel my arms starting to shake, explosions firing off in the sinew. The burning was seeping into my bones, filling my body with rage.
An evil smile peeled up one corner of his lip. “Your girlfriend is a whore, Hegan. And she will never be good enough for this family.” The air he exhaled, filled my nostrils. A mix of champagne and caviar.
My stomach had turned, boiling in the acid. I couldn't stop myself at that point. He had just said the worst thing to me he ever could.
Calling her a whore? He didn't fucking know her, who was he to judge? The man who had called himself the savior of the smallest state, with a billboard that read— 'I'm a man who takes pride in what all men do.'
My dad was a fucking fake.
Before I could stop myself, or even process what I was about to do; my arm pulled back, the muscles retracting on pure instinct, and raw emotion. In one heavy swoop, my fist crashed into his jaw.
My father's body fell back, straight as a board. I heard the entire room inhale a loud gasp. Short screams pulsed at me from different directions, hands fell over mouths and grabbed forearms in disbelief.
Hovering over him, his lids flashed to life. Blinking wildly, he rubbed his chin. Leaning down over his face, my shadow crawled over his pale skin. “You deserved that, and you know it.” My chest was rising and falling rapidly, I had regained some control. “And just so you know, I don't care about your fucking offer. You can take your money and shove it up your ass. I don't want it anymore.”
I wasn't sure what had just come over me. Before, all I cared about was keeping my share of the business, having my hand dipped in the pot. But after what he said and how he treated Noella, that all washed away.
The money, the baby, him threatening to yank it out from beneath me; none of that bothered me anymore.
I knew what I wanted, what I needed. It was her, Noella.
She needs to be in my life, I can feel that. I don't want to be without her, ever. All of my life had been dictated by my father and his thoughts. But not this, this wasn't his choice, it was mine.
And without her, nothing else would matter.
Turning around, I walked with hard strides away from his downed form. A surge of people had surrounded him, helping him up off the floor. I could hear the faint yell of my mother from the back of the room.
Glancing over my shoulder, she had crouched down next to her husband and was angrily yelling at me to come back. Holding my head down, I just shook a silent no.
Not this time.
Throwing my arm out in front of me, I shoved the door open that Noella and Stefan had gone through. There were several different phones in the house, which one did he take her to? I had no clue. It was going to be a matter of hunting them down.