Page 122 of Serpentine
Too bad he won’t come topside. I could use his fucking help.
THIRTY-EIGHT
AELLA
Peeking out of the blinds, I can see a Cobra below slink back into the shadows. I don’t know which one, but they’ve unflaggingly watched after me. Even while I’ve been distant. The shit my dad dropped on me in his office was just too much. I called HR the very next morning and quit my job. I’ve shut off both of my phones.
I don’t think I’ve ever understood Braxton more than I do now. I can’t even fathom seeing and speaking to anyone right now. Part of it has me feeling so guilty because of what I know and what they don’t. I know I should’ve run to them and spilled the news immediately.
But I was reeling. Confused and a little broken, too, to be honest.
I ultimately saw my dad in a new light, and what I thought I knew about him shifted. I don’t see the path forward, and it’s scary for me. A little guiltily, more than a few times, I’ve wondered what the three of us look like with their mom alive. How they’ll feel when they know my dad hid her from them. Or will they forget all about my connection to him because of how happy they are to see her again?
Who the hell am I kidding? They’re going to be so fucking upset. A tear sneaks out of my eye, and I wipe it away.
A knock at the door sounds, and I stiffen. But my traitorous heart speeds up behind my breast at the idea one of them forces themselves inside my apartment to make me see reason.
Even though I’m not ready to face telling them, part of me wants to be in their arms. Either of them. I know it’s childish, hiding from them like this, but I’m too far gone now. I fear what the future looks like once this journey they’ve been on their entire lives ends.
“Open the fucking door,” Dad’s voice sounds from behind my door, shattering the illusion and pulling me from inside my head.
“No. You’re not welcome here. Go away!” I shout back, more tears threatening to spill over.
“Aella!” he grumbles.
I’m a little surprised he’s here. For one, he loves to hide from his fuck-ups. For two, he seemed more concerned about his dirty little secret than how I felt.
“Go away!” I scream, letting emotion take full rooted hold on me, but the tears are filled with anger. Some sadness for the changes ahead, if I’m honest.
Silence permeates the space after my outburst, and I think he’s gone. Until a massive crash disrupts the calm. My door bursts open, the frame folding inward on itself, and splinters skitter across the ground.
“What the actual fuck, Dad?” I gasp, wiping my face clean of emotion.
He looks me up and down. I’m sure I’m a fucking sight.
I got into my pajamas two days ago and haven’t gotten out of them or even dared to shower. I’ve been in a perpetual state of nightmare since I walked into my dad’s office the other night. Now, he’s in my space. While it’s not my safe space, it’s still mine.
“You wouldn’t open the door, and you sounded disturbed.”
I scoff, crossing my arms over my chest. It makes me feel stupid that I’m standing in front of my dad, a man I’ve thought was the most put-together person in the world, while wearing a pink fuzzy robe with unicorns.
He gives me another once over with his eyes. “Where is your phone? I’ve been calling…”
“I know,” I cut him off, turning and plopping down onto the leather couch he’d provided me when he bought this place.
It’s a little clinical. The leather isn’t broken in yet, and everything smells brand new, mainly because this isn’t home.
The clubhouse is.
“I know this is a lot, Aella, but I wasn’t calling because of that. Well…” He scrubs his hand over the back of his head. “At first, I was, but then I got word about what happened and wanted to check on you.”
My heart skips a beat as I sit forward on the couch. “What happened?”
I hold my breath as he lifts an eyebrow. “You don’t know? Fuck, Aella…”
He comes closer, sitting on the massive, cherry wood coffee table and hanging his head before looking back up at me with the same eyes that dwell in my eye sockets.
“Tell me,” I say shakily.