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ISABELLA
I had been studyingfor the past three hours, with my head buried inside a marketing textbook. Ever since I was in grade school, I’d enjoyed learning and was determined to soak up as much knowledge as possible. English, history, math, and science had always come easy to me. My friends usually had to persuade me to go outside.
A quick look through my window in the sorority house that day, though, made me wish I were a kid again. Between the sun shining and dozens of other students taking advantage of the beautiful day, I’d have gladly traded in my marketing book for a few rounds of frisbee on the grass.
I sighed and went back to studying, reminding myself that it was a temporary situation. No sooner had I forgotten about the outside world than my father called me.
I stared at the number on the screen, wondering what the hell he could want now. Neither of my parents had contacted me since our falling out a few weeks ago.
Instead of leaving me a voicemail, though, my father called right back.
Realizing that I didn’t have a choice, I answered the phone. “Hello?”
His heavy, disappointed sigh was all too familiar. “Isabella, it’s your father. You’re probably surprised to hear from me.”
“You could say that.”
From the sound of the ticking grandfather clock and my father’s tapping fingers, he was calling me from his home office. I pictured him sitting behind his colossal desk, reclined in his mahogany chair as my mother sat across from him with pursed lips. “You’re not the only one who’s surprised.”
I remained silent as my body tensed up.
He continued, “We assumed you’d either be back home or begging us to pick up the tab again by now.”
“I’m doing just fine, Dad.”
It made me so fucking happy to be able to say those words. Of course, it wasn’t exactly the truth, but I was hellbent on not giving him the satisfaction of believing that I needed his support to make it through college.
His chair creaked as he seemed to lean forward. “We’re willing to pay for it again, though, under one condition.”
“The answer is no,” I said swiftly, without needing to hear what he had to say before making my decision. God, how I wanted to hang up on him but at the same time, I needed to hear the words come out of his mouth.
“Isabella, you haven’t even heard our offer.”
Everything with him was a business arrangement. Even his marriage to my mother was a transaction of sorts. He was the kind of man that made handshake deals when it came to bettering the lives of his own family.
“Just say what you want me to do.”
I heard my mother clear her throat in the background, which I’m sure was preceded by one of her famous eye rolls. “We want you to get back with Jason.”
I let out a stifled laugh. “There is literally no way in hell I would ever consider getting back with that asshole.”
My mother’s wrath was palpable even through the phone. “Isabella Dayton, don’t you ever speak that way about Jason! Do you realize how many women he could have chosen from?”
Of course, I knew. Jason told me about them all the damn time, showing me pictures from their social media profiles and comparing our bodies. The second I reached for anything other than a fucking vegetable, he’d remark that my waist could be slimmer just like so-and-so.
But in my parents’ eyes, he was the son they never had, the son they’d have at any cost, even if it was only through marriage. I was nothing more than a commodity for trade to get what they craved.
It amused me to taunt them. “Well, now he can have his pick of the fucking litter.”
“Watch your language, young lady,” my father practically hissed into the phone.
I paused for a brief moment, considering if they’d even care about Jason’s extracurricular activities, but I was too curious to forego the chance to ask. “Do you guys know that Jason had people spying on me and reporting back to him?”
The silence on their end of the phone call was deafening and telling.
“Please tell me neither of you two knew,” I begged of them, but I already knew the truth. It was the lowest of the lows, yet somehow unexpected. I just needed to hear them confirm it.
“Isabella,” my father said, “You’re a young, beautiful woman who men are instantly drawn to.”
