Page 71 of Beautiful Noise

“He doesn’t have to like me as long as he respects me.” Ezren didn’t bother trying to conceal the arrogance or lower his voice. My eyes left him and moved to my father. I was amused by the way he squared his shoulders but didn’t say a word.

“Your daughter is here,” he muttered to my mother once we reached the living room then pushed past her, taking a seat in the leather armchair adjacent to the sofa. My mother stood and offered a forced smile while she took in the scene before her. My father and Ezren were in a pissing contest. However, my mother was programmed to follow set standards. She was a hostand would perform as any gracious host would, regardless of the tension pulsing between my father and Ezren.

“Can I get you two anything?”

“No, I’m?—”

“Lemonade…” My father talked over me and my mother nodded, leaving the room. He passive aggressively forced her to choose a side without outwardly telling her to do so. He had done this a million times before, but today I realized the depth in his action. He was the voice; she didn’t have one.

“You left with our daughter without so much as an introduction and now you’re bringing her back for what? To request our approval?”

I cringed. My father had to know that Ezren wasn’t Darren, the man I left with a little over a year ago. He was attempting to shame me. My mother had surely let him know when I called explaining things hadn’t worked out and I’d reached out to ask for help. Help they both refused to offer.

“Two different people, Daddy.”

“Oh?” He smiled smugly. “I wasn’t aware.”

“You were,” I stated calmly, refusing to engage in his childishness.

“Here you go, sweetheart.” My mother returned with a glass that she handed over to my father before announcing that lunch was ready. We settled into the dining room for an overly formal lunch that wasn’t necessary but I attributed to my mother’s need to impress Ezren. If my father knew who he was, she did also.

The next half hour was spent with my mother driving the conversation with questions centered around him and his career while my father grunted his displeasure watching Ezren like he believed the man was the devil incarnate.

By the time I pushed around my seafood pasta and garlic bread enough to pretend I enjoyed a lunch I had no appetite for,and my mother quietly removed dishes from the table, my father had reached his boiling point and was on the cusp of imploding.

“Kori, I would like to speak with you,alone. Your friend can wait in the living room while we talk.”

“Hermanand that didn’t feel like a request,” Ezren stated in a tone laced with dominance.

“Do I need to request a conversation with my daughter in a house that I own?”

“No…” I turned to Ezren who was at my side, shoulders squared, arms resting on the table as if he were prepared for battle. The last thing I needed was these two engaging in a physical altercation. “Can you give us a minute, please?”

He nodded sharply before he pushed his seat back and lifted the plates positioned in front of us. He smiled arrogantly and turned his attention to my mother. “Let me help you with this so they can have some privacy.”

When they left the room, my father cleared his throat and leaned back, placing both arms on the table. “What is this, Kori?”

“This?”

“Yes,this. You’ve been gone for a year, doing Lord knows what, then you show up out of the blue with that man…”

“Ezren.”

“I don’t give a damn what his name is. He’s no more different than the piece of trash you left with.”

I angled my head to the side. “You do know the difference then.”

“There isn’t much difference.” He lifted his glass, took a slow sip, then added, “Actually there is. At least with the first one, you left quietly. Your face wasn’t all over media outlets embarrassing our family and tarnishing the Griffin name.”

I refused to dignify his statement with one of my own so I bypassed the remarks.

“I’m here because she asked me to come.”

“Only for me to talk some sense into you. You’re being incredibly selfish, Kori. Have you any idea how the decisions you’re making are affectingme.”

I snarled. “You’re rallying to become President of HISD not the President of the United States. No one cares what your daughter has going on in her life. Your verygrown,adult daughter.”

“They fucking care, Kori.” He slammed his palm on the table, leaning forward with an arctic glare that chilled the room. “And you’re not grown. Age does not equate to maturity. Especially not when you’ve put your life on display while behaving like a petulant, rebellious teen. You’re nothing more than that man’stoy. A distraction he will tire of and then move on.”