Page 84 of The Betrayal
Titus’s eyes find mine again and I give him a lopsided smile. I reach for my house keys and remove my car key before tossing the bunch towards him which he catches with one hand.
“She’s at home, go and see her.” I offer and he stands up, walking towards me and I open my arms ready to embrace him, but he plants a punch right on my jaw and it knocks me for six causing me to fall to the floor.
“That’s for marrying my kid,” he growls, pointing at me angrily before turning and walking away.
“Am I still dead to you?” I call out on a half laugh, half choked sob, but he just flips me off.
Standard.
Kaleb and Nate rush up and help me to my knees, Kaleb is angry as he goes to run after him, but I shake my head. “Leave him, I deserved it.” They look at me with furrowed brows, exchanging looks.
“He’ll be ready for round two in a few hours no doubt.”
“Whys that?” Nate asks.
“No reason,” I sigh, “no reason.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
ARIZONA
Pulling our clean laundry out the dryer, I sit on the floor and fold it into a neat pile and place it into the laundry basket before pulling the last of the clean washing out of the washer and popping it into the dryer, turning it on.
Standing, I carry the dry laundry up to our bedroom and put it into piles.
Our bedroom.
It’s not ours. It’s Keaton’s.
I just sleep in here and have done since before Vegas. Leaving Keaton’s clothes out, I take mine and start putting it away when I hear the front door go. My brows pinch when I look at the time, it’s just past eleven.
“Babe?” I call out, walking out into the hallway then get halfway down the stairs when I see my dad standing there looking a mix of angry, sad and defeated. “Dad… I…”
“Ari… Sunshine,” he chokes, stepping forward and I slowly begin to walk towards him and off the bottom step. “Can we talk?”
“Depends… are you going to shout at me?”
And he sighs, dropping his head for a moment and after what feels like a lifetime, he shakes his head from side to side slowly.
“Then yes, we can talk,” I keep my head high, nose slightly lifted as I walk past him, ignoring the urge to throw myself into his arms and let him cuddle me. But I continue forward, moving towards the living area. “Take a seat, can I get you anything? Tea, coffee, water, a dash of betrayal.”
“Ari…”
I sigh, sitting down in the one seat armchair, crossing my legs under myself and wait for him to speak.
He doesn’t. Silence fills the room, and the tension grows until I can’t take it anymore and I hate it.
“What did you want dad, you obviously came here for a reason so just speak or if you can’t find the courage to talk, then you might as well go back to work,” I cross my arms against my chest and eye him.
“Keaton told me…”
My heart races in my chest, eyes widening as I sit and wait for him to explain further because I do not want to trip myself up. But the explanation never comes.
“Told you what?” I finally give in and ask him.
“That you feel like I don’t love you… that you think I am going to leave you just like your…” and he pauses, closing his eyes for just a moment before he swallows and I watch as his throat bobs. “Mom did,” he finally says, and I feel a small pain sear through my heart. Not at the thought of my mom, I don’t remember her at all, and she is irrelevant in my life to be honest, but at how much that must have hurt him to hear from his best friend.
“Ari, I will never replace you, I will never leave you… you are my daughter, and you will always be my daughter. Just because I am having a baby with Amora doesn’t mean that I am going to replace you with that baby…”