LAKE
All the rage that filled my chest evaporated like molten lava. Even my breathing changed as I finally had a chance to get a face-to-face with my father.
My eyes narrowed and steady as I glared down at him. “If you ever threaten me and my wife again, her family, and my mother, I swear I don’t care. Even if I go to jail, I will drag you down with me. This is the last time I ever see your face again, or I file a restraining order against you.”
He just lifted his gaze at me in his chair in his massive office. What happened to the manipulative father I knew? Was he succumbing to his downfall?
“Wow. Now, this is new.” I snorted. “What happened to the narcissistic father who controlled me all my life?”
“I did it for your own good. You wouldn’t be-”
“Really? So you admitted your narcissism? Do you think you made me stronger, fiercer, smarter? No. You made me madder. You traumatized my entire existence. You made me your mockery. You are the first person who broke my heart, Dad. Now that I wanted to have a good life, you scared away the people I loved. You threatened everyone, including my wife and my friend.”
“I think you already made a point, Lake.”
I snapped my head to Aurelia, who was already standing beside me. She looked different than the last time she insulted my wife.
“Stay out of this. You’re just my father’s mistress.” I snorted, throwing her a disgusted look. “What a downgrade, huh?”
She looked away, seemingly ashamed, yet I saw something else in her eyes. I found out her family company just filed for bankruptcy last month.
“You can’t just accept that your family has fallen, and you still have to snatch another rich guy, even as old as my father. Wow, Aurelia. You’re really something, aren’t you?”
“Enough. I get it. Insult me all you want if that makes you feel better. If your wife is only here-”
“But she’s not. She’s scared her life out of the threat my father had orchestrated. Why can’t you all just accept the fact that she loves me for who I am, and I love her the way she is? I don’t give a damn, even if she was a whore. That’s not what matters to me.” I turned to my father, who was still in the same position.
“Lake, there’s something you should know.”
“Let her go, Aurelia,” my father said.
“No. He needs to know,” she insisted.
“There’s nothing in this world that can convince me to listen to your bullshit. But here are my last words before I go. Leave me alone. If you ever mentioned her family to anyone, even a single soul, maybe I can go to jail, she can go to jail, but before it all happens, I will transfer every last penny of my assets to my mother. I’m tired of playing your games, but I will make sure Terzo and his militia will come to retaliate.” I walked away and did not hear any word from my father again.
“Lake!” Aurelia called me before I made it out of the long hallway. “Lake, please?”
“Fuck off!”
“Lake, tell her I’m sorry!”
“Too fucking late!”
I reached the open living area when she grabbed me by my elbow. My blood boiled as I jerked it off her grip. Her hand slipped off. I turned to her and gave her warning, “Don’t ever fucking touch me again.”
“Your father is sick!” she exclaimed. What did she just say?
Shell-shocked, I halted hastily. I thought my world stopped at a momentum. Even though I fucking hated that man, something painfully twisted inside me- an irrational fear settled in my chest. Maybe it was not irrational because maybe, for once, she was telling the truth.
I realized I’d been holding my breath until I felt lightheaded. “You think I believe you? Whatever lies you cooked up with my father, I don’t give a shit. If he’s sick, why couldn’t he be fucking good for a second? Why did he have to hurt the people I love? Does he have to be so fucking evil all my life?”
“You don’t have to believe me, but I highly suggest you can ask your mother.”
I clenched my jaw hard to not react as I turned around and walked away. I rushed inside the car and ordered Owen to drive fast away from my father’s home, where she and my mother passed on two houses for years until I turned eighteen. Deep inside, I believed Aurelia even without proof, and it was fucking aggravating.
I dialed my mother. I didn’t know why, but maybe deep inside me, I wanted to see the truth from her. My mother would never lie to me. I looked at my free hand, and it was trembling from anger and shock.
“Bunny, did you talk to Maverick?”
“No.” I swallowed down my emotions. Owen and Homer might have sensed something went wrong inside my father’s office.
“That’s sad. I missed her, honey. You should go and take her home.”
“She chose to stay. Why would I?”
“What’s upsetting you, Lake?” she asked and must have sensed the heaviness of anger in my voice.
I squeezed my eyes shut when it began to burn and pressed my fingers against my aching temple. “Is Dad sick? Is it true? Aurelia just told me, and I don’t believe a word coming from that woman’s mouth.”
When I heard her sigh, she didn’t have to say yes.
I blinked off the tears behind my lids. “How long have you known?”
She went quiet momentarily before she spoke, “Your father tried to conceal it from anyone until you came back to take over the seat. If Aurelia told you, then this is not good.”
“So, it’s been fuck- it’s been months, and he didn’t even tell me. Instead, he chose to hurt my wife. He chose the hardest fucking way to convince me to turn away from my wife. What kind of man did that to his son? Is it really the biggest sin and mistake to fall in love with someone like Maverick? If he ever wanted me back, then he had to grovel. Otherwise. I’m not doing shit to save his company.”
“It’s your company, too. I don’t think he will ever leave it to his mistress.” That bad, huh?
“I don’t want anything from that man.” The more I talked, the more it broke me. I didn’t realize this was what tough love was all about. I didn’t realize that my outrage and pain were what clouded my love for him.
“Rest. Sleep on it, and then find my daughter-in-law, Lake. Please?”
“If she loves me, Mom. She always knows where to find me. I’m sure her brother told her there’s no more threat to our lives.”
I told Mom everything- about what happened in Italy, her father, everything, and she cried her eyes out before me.
I went home and wasted my two hours in the gym, hitting the punching bag until I could barely stand on my feet. I was so exhausted but still furious, and my mind and emotions were in turmoil. I didn’t know where to put them or how to suppress them. I felt like my chest was going to explode if I couldn’t scream it out.
I took a quick shower after. I didn’t even want to come to the penthouse. Everywhere I went, all I saw was Maverick. I missed her fucking much, even if she didn’t care about me anymore. It had been almost a month. There were no calls, no texts, not even a hello her brother relayed to me. It fucking hurt me that I was the only one who felt this way.
I still had the key Terzo gave me, and I didn’t have the courage to go to the bank and check what she had in her safe deposit box.
I put on my sweatpants, pulled the drawstring, and rushed downstairs to get water. I had been parched from the mini gym until I heard someone talking from the entrance.
“Who’s there, OB?” God, I hoped not Aurelia or my father, or I swore to God I would throw them off the building.
For a moment, I stilled like a statue. My heart galloped like Alaska running freely in my land. I tried to absorb the image before me to see if it was real or if my brain tried to see things I longed to see.
Those fucking olive green stared at me before she spoke softly, “Hi, Lake.”
After almost a fucking month, and that was all she got to say to me? My blood ran cold. My chest instantly heaved. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
Her eyes widened in shock. She clearly didn’t see it coming.
“Did you not receive the divorce notice? You must have been so unreachable that you haven’t gotten it in a week.”
She paled. Her look of shock as she tried to blink off the pain and regret made my heart break a million times. But I deserved to say those unsaid words out loud. They had been driving me insane.
She swallowed hard before she spoke again. Her voice just trembled. “You sent me?”
I snorted, shaking my head. “You expect me to wait for you? It’s been a fucking month, Maverick? I’m not pathetic and don’t have patience when I can get a good lay waiting for me every night.”
She looked at my naked chest, water still dripping from my wet hair. “You-”
“Next time, don’t barge into my house like you own this place so that you won’t see what you’re not supposed to see. Now, if you don’t have something to say, get out of my penthouse and never show your face here again. If you’ll excuse me, I have a woman waiting in my bed.”