Page 77 of Finding Fate
Glass shatters from something getting in the way of a swinging limb and falling to the hard floor. Me and Konnor both go running. It’s escalating. Konnor gets the door open just in time, a shoulder clipping the frame and they push and shove and hit, taking their brawl outside. Fists are flying so fast it’s hard to keep up with who’s hitting who, grunts and growls rotating back and forth.
Konnor steps outside into the garage when his Tahoe takes a body in the door, before they end up in the driveway just beyond the raised door, on the ground. I press into the doorframe, the outside of my right arm running up the frame like a vine. I watch, staying put as Maddox uses his leg like a whip to force her dad to the ground, instantly straddling him. “Stop!”
A piercing cry comes from behind me, and the second I glance back at her she’s running forward and trying to shove past me. Roping my arm around the front of her neck I pull her back to my front. She’s sobbing as she watches Maddox lay into her dad with punch after punch, not letting up. She grabs ahold of my forearm. “Please let me go, Riggan,” she cries hysterically. “Maddox!”
“No. This has been coming for years. Let him get it out, Gabby, if you want him to be the best man for you. This is how men solve problems. We don’t do all that talking shit. And you’re pregnant. You’re crazy if you think I’m letting you anywhere near that. You fall and miscarry because you’re in the way and he’ll hate himself. You won’t pull him out of that.”
She relaxes into me, her body shaking from how hard she’s crying. I hold her up. “I love them. I need them both. I can’t lose Maddox again, but he’s my dad. I know he has a sorry way of showing it, but things haven’t always been this way. What if he kills him?”
“He knows when to stop.”I hope.
As the thought runs through my mind, Maddox stands, his chest heaving, and then when her dad rolls to the side, he kicks him with his bare foot for good measure. “Find my fucking son before I press charges. I’m a Florida resident now. You don’t have pull here. I didn’t sign my name to shit. Better yet, fuck the charges. Find him or I’m putting a bullet in your skull.”
He starts walking backward, and when he gets about halfway between her dad and us, he turns around, halting when his eyes lock on us. He finally starts walking again and stops a few feet short. His lip is bleeding and his face is swollen. His eye is starting to bruise already, and his cheek has a shiner. Blood is smeared across his chest.
He’s barely holding it together inside. I’ve known Maddox my whole life near about. “If you leave with him after everything he’s done to us don’t come back and don’t contact me unless it’s to tell me to come to the hospital to watch my kid being born. I’ve done nothing but love you. I’ve been good to you. And I want to grow old with you. I want to give you kids. I’ll give you everything I’m capable of. Never step out on you. But after everything”—a tear slips down his cheek—“I don’t deserve to come second to someone out to destroy me all because I took one look at you and knew you were it for me. If that’s a crime I’ve done my time. I’m tired of being crucified. I’m ready to move on with my life . . . with you or without.”
He shoves past us and keeps walking. Gabby places her palms on her face and silently sobs. Finally, she holds her head high and wipes her face, before pulling away to step outside. I let her go, stunned to see her walking toward her dad. “Gabby, are you serious?”
She turns around, still walking, only backward, and shrugs her shoulders. “He’s my dad, Riggan. What do you expect me to do?”
My brows rise, and when she turns away from me, I step inside and shut the door. I can’t watch anymore. The less I know when I have to tell him she left is better, because if he breaks this time there is no putting him back together. He’ll be in a braindead state of mind.
Forty-Four
Gabby
I’ve never heard Maddox say anything remotely close to that in regard to me, and it hurts. The thought of him walking away from this is enough to make me question if I want to live another day. He’s one thing I’ve always been sure of, and he’s right. He doesn’t deserve any of the shit my dad has done to him. He’s never harmed a hair on my head. He’s never taken things further than I wanted them to go. He’s also a good guy in all areas that it counts. It’s time for me to make some choices I don’t want to have to make. It will never end if I don’t deal with it once and for all.
I glance at my engagement ring as I walk toward my dad. I haven’t taken it off since the night Maddox slid it on my finger. I haven’t wanted to. There were plenty of times when I thought I’d never be here, so I sure as hell don’t want to go back. I’m going to wear his ring ‘til the day I die. If I can’t wear it for everyday activities, there is no sense in having it.
My dad is sitting with his head bowed like he just needs a minute to recuperate. He’s no longer as young as us, and Maddox is strong. I’ve heard stories about him beating the shit out of guys double his physical size that depend on steroids for their muscular profile. There is no comparison to someone that works for their strength the old-fashioned way. Real muscle is a way of life, not a phase.
I stop in front of him, silence opposite of peaceful for the first time. I hate that it’s come to this. I’ve stuck around through all of his bullshit because he’s my dad. I told myself he did some of the things he did for my own good, because of my age, regardless of how bad it hurt, but now I’m a grown woman. He can’t keep doing this and expect me to remain in his life. “Dad.”
His jaw hardens, but then he finally looks up at me, and I have to take a deep breath when I see that his face looks worse than Maddox’s, even though my dad can hold his own. I’ve always known he wasn’t all bark. He used to tell me stories about how my grandfather would make him box with him to keep him sharp and hard. Weak men are frowned upon in my bloodline, but Maddox had a lot of pent-up anger, which means he was fighting with purpose.
“Gabrielle,” he says, almost in relief. It adds another cut in my already broken heart. I swear on everything, when he takes me in, his eyes gloss over. “Your hair. It’s you.”
I close my eyes. There it is. He hated when I dyed it black. Said I ruined my God-given beauty, even though his is black. His blonde-haired, brown-eyed little girl was perfect in every way. The rebel, not so much. He never told me no until I asked to be with Maddox, to then keep my son. After that I wanted nothing from him. He would give me any sum of money if he has it, but the things that mattered I couldn’t have. It’s a hard pill to swallow, even still. “I didn’t do this for you.”
His eyes narrow. “Forhim?” he spits back at me like he has a bad taste in his mouth.
“You aren’t the only one that likes me for who I am,” I tell him. His lips part, and I take his silence for a window. “Maddox is a lot like you in many ways, but you’d know that if you actually gave him a real chance. Most people don’t hate someone until they have a reason to, Dad, and for the life of me I can’t figure out why you’ve always hated him.”
“He took the virginity of my thirteen-year-old! My little girl. You were too young. You can never get that back.”
I laugh, already rolling my eyes as the night plays out in my mind. “He didn’t take anything. He didn’t even try to touch me! So many guys would make inappropriate comments at school, yet he didn’t make a single one. Talked about everything under the sun but getting in my pants. I wanted him to like me the way boys at school liked girls. I didn’t want to be his friend. It was all me. I gave it to him. It’s my body. I can do whatever the hell I want with it.”
“We have traditions,” he barks. “And beliefs. It should be a gift to your husband on your wedding night.”
“Dad! Would you stop living in the past? For most people that concept is ancient history! Just because I didn’t want to wait for marriage doesn’t mean I’m a whore. I’ve only had sex withoneguy. We love each other. I’m tired of having to defend us to you. We want to be together, and we will be. Regardless of how many years go by our feelings will never change. He asked me to marry him. I’m going to whether you get on board or not. You can support my dream of getting married in a cathedral like you and Mom, like grandpa and grandma, or you don’t have to be involved at all and we can find somewhere to do it. I’m done with your smallminded thinking just because grandpa raised you that way. You can beat me, you can kidnap me, and you can trick me into things, but the fact of the matter is I’m an adult now. You have no control over me anymore. That’s the beauty of being born an American. I was free the day I turned eighteen, and I’m going to exercise my rights. I’m cutting you out of my life until you prove to me that you deserve to be in it.”
“You wouldn’t.” His eyes harden on me, just like mine do so many times. I realized years ago that looking into his eyes is like looking into a mirror. Even though he doesn’t admit it, he knows we’re just alike, and I think that’s why he fights me so hard for control. He doesn’t like for me to have as much power as him. It would probably be different had I been a boy.
I laugh. “Oh, but I would. I don’tneedyou or your money. I haven’t in a long time. The good memories kept me hanging on for you to change, but clearly you never will. I love you, Dad, but I was done the second I found out you had a chip placed under my skin.”
“That was for your benefit! Do you know how many girls go missing to sex trafficking? Especially blondes?”