Page 107 of Privilege

It didn’t matter, it seemed.

That anger and her contempt for the things her father kept doing to her and Renzo were now bred deep into her bones. The more she tried to ignore it, the worse it festered. Growing, and infecting.

“Go in,” the enforcer murmured behind her, “they’re expecting you.”

Lucia scoffed. “I’m sure.”

But she didn’t have any desire to stand out there with the enforcer any longer, so she headed inside the private dining room. She was entirely unsurprised to find all her aunts, uncles, and her mother and father sitting at their usual table. Or rather, two tables pushed together and set up close to the window where they could watch the people outside, but the people couldn’t see them because of the mirrored glass. She swore it was the only time these people put their backs to a window, really.

Instantly, her father’s gaze landed on her in the doorway. Lucia didn’t move even when her father fixed two buttons on his suit jacket, and nodded as if to silently welcome her to the table with the rest of them.

Nope.

She wasn’t going over there at all.

“Lucia,” her father said quietly.

Calmly, too.

Too calm, maybe.

Maybe it was his calm state that really pushed her over the edge. The kindness that stared back from her father like he didn’t think he had done anything at all. Like he wasn’t hurting her. All that anger she’d been trying to hold in felt like it was bubbling to her surface all over again. Violent, and raging. Like a soda bottle that had been shaken and shaken before the top just blew. No one would be safe when she finally let go.

It surprised her as much as it scared her. Lucia was not angry. Not like this. She wasn’t this person, and yet, the man across the room made her exactly that. Whether he wanted to or not, this was what he had made her into, and he probably didn’t even realize it. That, or he just didn’t care because he was getting what he wanted.

How fucking nice.

“Do you want something from me?” Lucia asked her father. “Or am I free to leave?”

Lucian stood from the table, and gave Jordyn a look when Lucia’s mother was about to stand, too. “I thought you might like to join your family for dinner. Or have you forgotten that you are a part of this family, Lucia?”

The silence echoed—weighted, and hard to swallow. Like the ache in her heart that just wouldn’t let up. She adored her father. More than he could ever possibly know, but he was ruining that each time he did something to hurt her regarding Renzo. Every step he took against them only pushed her further away. But he probably didn’t even realize it.

She didn’t care to look at the other people sitting at the table. She loved them, sure, but this was no longer about them. This was between her and her father. This was them, and his ridiculous need to keep interfering in her life. Something he had never done before now, but she still wasn’t going to stand for it.

“If being a part of this family means every choice I make is chosen by you,” Lucia said, shrugging, “then no, I’m good over on this side of the room.”

That hit a nerve.

“Lucia!”

Her father’s shout barely even stung.

“Sucks, doesn’t it?” she asked, arching a brow in challenge.

Lucian stiffened on the stop. “Excuse me?”

“It sucks when someone you love does things to purposely hurt you. In this case, I said something I knew would hurt you. In your case, you keep trying to take away someone I—”

“We’re not discussing that young man here. That is not why I had you brought here, Lucia.”

She nodded, glanced to the windows at the side of the room, and let out a bitter laugh. “So, you’re saying you purposely dragged me away from Renzo today just because I went with him this morning, and you don’t approve, but I can’t ask you why you did that or bring it up. That’s really what you’re telling me right now?”

“We can talk about it later.”

“I’d rather talk now, Daddy.”

“Fine.”