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“Is this the best thing for my reputation, Dad, or the best thing for your Machiavellian plan?”
My father looks more surprised that I’m finally pushing back than about what I said.
“What do you mean?” Blake walks over so he can see my face directly.
I gulp. I would have never thought in a million years that I would confront him. But I’m in no mood to stop, either.
“Dad has a deal with the Furmans,” I say, my gaze not leaving our father. “He wants me to marry Theodore. He’s got Andy Furman to approve of the marriage. He’s also got Theodore on board.”
Blake’s eyes widen. He turns his gaze from me to our father, looking more shocked than I’ve ever seen him.
“No,” he whispers. “Don’t freaking tell me this is true.”
My dad doesn’t respond. He’s looking straight at me, hisface a blank mask. I can tell he’s currently thinking up explanations in his head, adding and subtracting things for his defense.
Blake turns to me. “How did you find out?”
“At the Furmans’ party,” I feel strong enough now, and I pull myself to my feet, “I overheard him talking with Andy. And when I heard it—”
Blake lets out an excited sound. “That’s why you agreed to date Alex,” he says. “And why you kissed him in front of the cameras. To throw Theodore off?”
My two worlds are colliding for the first time in a mess of my own making, overwhelming me all over again. And so, I merely nod.
Blake does not seem to care about my loss of words. He turns to our father, his fists clenched and trembling. “How could you? You were actually going to push Brit over to those assholes?”
“Not push,” my father says, finally speaking. He turns to look Blake straight in the face. “Encourage is a better word. I was doing what I thought was best to secure Brit’s future.”
“What is best is not freaking giving her to the highest bidder!” Blake screams at him.
“You don’t understand,” my father says, not backing down. “In a few years or a couple more decades, I’m not going to be here anymore. You’re already a successful hockey player, and I consider you well-off enough. I needed to find something for Britney.”
“That something doesn’t need to involve her getting involved with the biggest jackass on the planet,” Blake grinds through gritted teeth. “And to think you didn’t tell her directly, and she had to find out by overhearing you!”
“I was going to tell her.” There’s an edge in his voice. “I just needed to sort things out.”
“Whenwereyou going to tell her?”
My father’s eyes are blazing now. “You have no idea,” he says after a pause. “Neither of you do. But things were different when your mother and I first got married. We had nothing to our name. Before she passed, she made me promise that I was going to make sure you were well provided for, even after I was gone.”
I stare at him, realizing that this could be the first time he is not just bringing up our mother to manipulate us into doing what he wants. For once, he’s telling the whole truth.
“Do you think it was easy, waking up all of those mornings and driving you and Alex to your hockey games?” His gaze is on Blake. “How hard do you think I had to work to even get a job here? And then, once you boys signed, I couldn’t relax. There was Britney to think of, securing her future, something better than being a massage therapist—”
“You got her the therapist job,” Blake interrupts.
“Because I had to!” Our father is practically screaming now. “Don’t you get it? I would have done everything in my power to make sure both of you turned out as fine as you could. And if it involved getting a job in a place where the both of you would be closer to opulence, then I did it. I did everything for you.”
Blake stares back for a few seconds. But then, he lowers his gaze, silent.
I clear my throat, getting both of their attentions. I don’t let myself doubt. No amount of mental preparedness is going to change how my father sees me from today onwards.
“I know you wanted to honor Mom.” I’m surprised at how firm my voice sounds, given the fact that I’m telling my dad the truth to his face for the first time in my life. “But you should have also thought of the fact that we’re people too. Me and Blake. We’re humans with needs and wants that might be completely different from what you planned for us.Blake didn’t even like hockey growing up. He loved football. Until you changed that for him.”
“Hockey was an easier sport to get into,” my dad says, taking my sudden loquaciousness in stride. “If we’d worked on football, it would have been much harder to get him to play professionally.”
“Yes, maybe,” I say. “But he would be much happier.” I glance at Blake, wondering if he’s going to disprove my statement. But he doesn’t. He’s gazing into the distance, and I can tell he’s starting to remember the days when he only loved football. “And I have to believe us being happy would matter more to Mom than being rich. Would you rather I spent the rest of my life miserable or stick to a job that made me less than a hundred grand a year? Because I know what I’d choose.”
“You tend to overrate happiness.” My father chuckles. “Both of you. You can find happiness anywhere, as long as you spend time building a stable structure first. Your mom and I didn’t like each other much when we first met. But we recognized that we had what it took to get out of the dump we found ourselves in, and we stuck to it.”
