“Your father,” he grunts. “He broke off the engagement.”
“Well, what else did you expect?” I argue. “That he’d just let you do whatever the hell you wanted to me? You know fully I’ll lose my Firstborn status, and it will go to Brazen if this gets out. My life will be as good as fucking over.”
“You should have fought him,” he demands. “Should have told him you wanted to marry me.”
“Yeah, sure,” I laugh out loud. “Because that’s exactly what I want, Dexter. Do you really think there’s a way I can go up against my father? Besides, you’re not even around anymore.”
“Just for the time being,” he growls. “I’ll be back soon enough.”
“Well, there are other people around too,” I tell him innocently.
“What the fuck do you mean?”
“Easton Brantley’s taking your place, did you know that?” I ask, my voice dripping with sweetness. “I’d say he likes me very, very much.”
“Don’t talk to me about that bastard,” Dex hisses, and I smile smugly to myself.
“Why not?” I wonder out loud. “You don’t like him, do you?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“There’s something else,” I go on. “Something you neglected to tell me.”
“What?”
“I know about my mother,” I hiss. “I know she’s still alive.”
This shuts him up, making me laugh bitterly.
“You didn’t tell me,” I accuse him. “You kept it from me, when I had every fucking right to know.”
“I’m sorry, Pandora.”
Hell must have frozen over, because I never thought I’d hear him apologizing.
“Easton said he’d find her for me,” I tell him.
There’s no response. He’s quiet, brooding. I can practically see him on the other side of this call, refusing to show any emotion.
His voice thaws, but there’s a mocking edge to it that makes me nervous as he says, “You know, I was going to give you a belated birthday present, since you turned eighteen.”
“I don’t want a present,” I tell him firmly.
“That’s a shame. You don’t even want to know what it is?”
I open my mouth to tell him no, but the word won’t leave my lips. Instead, I stay stubbornly quiet, listening to the sound of his chuckling on the other end of the line.
“I arranged a call for you,” Dexter goes on. “A call back home.”
“W-What?” My heart instantly picks up the beat, hammering in my chest. “With my family?”
“Yes,” he says, sounding almost bored, as if this won’t completely turn my life around. “But I’m guessing you don’t want it, since you were so quick to dismiss me.”
“Dexter,” I say hoarsely. “Please.”
“Please what?”
I chew my bottom lip, trying to figure out how I should play this. The moment he realizes how important this is to me, he’s going to make me do terrible things to get it. Although I’m assuming he already knows.