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“I’m thinking about art school,” I announced to him on the edge of our block.
He nodded, taking a long sip of his water bottle. “Do you need school for that? Did your mother go? Or could you…”
His voice trailed off, and I followed his gaze to see where he looked. A black car parked in front of the house, and my father stepped out of it, followed fast by Michael Li. I gasped. “My dad.”
“Yes, I see that.” Zeke’s eyes hardened. Gone was my easy-going lover, and in his place, a man ready to go to battle against an enemy. I hung back behind him, instinct making me behave that way more than anything else.
My father didn’t move, just stood there waiting for us, in his expensive suit and shiny shoes. Zeke stalked toward him like he wasn’t the least bit intimidated, and maybe he wasn’t.
But I was.
What was it about my father that could take all my confidence and shatter it just by being in the same air space as me?
My father pointed at Zeke. “You have ruined everything.”
“I’ve ruined nothing. We were separating for years. You and I both knew it. You even said it yourself on occasion. We had run our course.”
My father shook his head. “The Allards will never come through now. Do you know what you’ve done?”
“Used my out clause to prevent you from money laundering?” I came up on his side just as Zeke raised an eyebrow. “Go drown in that ocean by yourself. It’s not my fault you destroyed your abilities and are only a mediocre trader now, a shell of who you used to be.”
My father rounded on me. “You. You’re the one who told him. It has to be you. That wasn’t information that was yours to share. It was private and none of your goddamned business. It was a family matter.”
He was all over the place. It wasn’t a family matter if he dragged the company and Zeke through it with him. It was all of us. Everyone associated with the mess he was going to create. “You were done with me. I didn’t know I was still family.”
He raised his hand like he was going to strike me. Zeke and Michael both reacted, Zeke being closer and able to stay my father’s hand. Still, my heart raced, and I reared back like I was about to be hit.
“You’re going to want to keep your hands to yourself. Lay a hand on her, and you’ll regret it before you lower your fist to your side.”
My father pulled away from him. “You were always such a waste, Layla. Not smart like your sisters or talented like your brother. And now you’ve ruined everything. That is what you are. A ruiner.” He rounded on Zeke. “But that’s fine. You think you won? You’re nothing without me. I’m the only reason you mattered at all. You had nothing to sell, no deal to make until you had me. You’d still be trying to make it as a nothing, supporting ten-dollar bond traders on the streets, not able to pay your rent if you hadn’t met me.”
I saw the flinch Zeke gave, but it was so fast, only I would notice it. “That might be true. But you’d be a nothing grunt on the floor of a two-bit stock trader. You’re fifth in five years because no one could stand you, and you can’t make a deal tosave your life. You’d be nothing but a man who couldn’t ever make it. So much potential but such a terrible person to talk to, they’d say. Who wants to work with him? I made you. The only reason anyone ever gave you any money is because they liked me.”
“Gentlemen,” Michael called out. “We’re out on the street. It isn’t safe and, Andrew, we have to get to Justin. Now.”
“Why?” I asked Michael. “What did you find?” “He’s in trouble, Layla,” Michael said simply.
“Oh yes, another worthless child.” My father laughed. “I have to go get him now. All my worthless offspring. I should never have had you. Never.” He got in Zeke’s face. “So you keep her. You’re fucking her? Fine. Make her another one of your sluts. I don’t care. But know this, Layla. When he’s done with you, there’ll be no place at home for you. None. And he will be done with you because he’s dead inside. Always has been. Even his own mother couldn’t love him.”
I’d had enough. I slapped my father. Hard. The same way I had Zeke all those weeks ago. But this time I wasn’t terrified and out of my mind. No, I knew what I was doing, and never had there been a person who deserved to be hit as much as my father did right in that moment. “Don’t talk about him that way.”
“Oh how ridiculous. You’re in love with him. That makes this even sadder. Another one for the book, Zeke. How many of them fell for you now? Do you even know?” My father stormed toward the car and got in.
Michael visibly steeled his shoulders. “After I find Justin, I’m done,” he told Zeke. “I can’t do this with him anymore.”
Zeke nodded once before he stormed to the house, leaving me there on the street.
I wiped at my cheeks. When had I started to cry?
I waited as long as I could to see him. I didn’t shower. How could I when my heart was racing from needing to talk to him?The things my father said, I didn’t believe him. I’d seen Zeke’s soul. I needed to hold him and tell him that my dad was a piece of trash, and he should have been done with him years ago.
Ten minutes had to be enough space for him. He was always glad to see me when I came in, so I did just that. Besides, the door was open. He’d have closed it if he wanted me to go away. I was good at understanding at least that much of a signal.
I walked through.
He sat in a chair I’d never seen him in before, staring out the window. “Zeke?”
Turning toward me, I couldn’t read his expression. It was blank. “What?”
