“We aren’t on a first name basis yet, boy.”
My jaw clenched, and he saw it. He was waiting for it and pounced.
“But maybe we should be, huh? It seems you were in the company of my daughter enough. Maybe we should have met on a more regular basis.”
“What your daughter and I do is not really your concern anymore.” I smiled and looked sweepingly around to emphasize my point. The man would be behind bars for a long time.
His eye twitched a little then. I’d struck a chord and he knew it. “You think these walls can protect my daughter from me?”
“Your daughter doesn’t want anything to do with you.” My voice was low.
“My daughter doesn’t get a choice. I’m her blood,” he spat the words out smugly.
I started to rise. “I’m glad I came to witness this. You’re right where you belong—”
“Sit down,” he hissed.
“Maybe you forgot, but I’m not locked up in here. I can go whenever I want,” I reminded him, still standing.
Somehow, the man seemed to rise above me even as I stood over him. He stayed sitting and showed his hand, the one he’d been sitting on, the one he knew was the trump card. “Aubrey thinks she’s donating her mother’s trust fund to that little charity, doesn’t she?”
“Who the fuck cares what she does with it? If it makes her happy—”
“Oh, I’m aware it makes her happy. You know she lives for that? Doing something for someone else. She and her mother were just so alike. So giving.”
“Fuck you, old man.”
“No, no, no.” He shook his head slowly. “You and I have a lot of business to do together and you talking to me that way just won’t do. Now, let’s remember, I didn’t give Aubrey’s mother any money.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. What he was saying didn’t add up.
I could always read people though. They were an equation that could always be solved. Frank was no different. His plan was as clear as day to me immediately.
My face must have paled or turned red, I don’t know. I didn’t hide my disgust so easily back then and knew Aubrey would never accept the conclusion I’d come to.
“Ah, you understand.” Frank smiled at me, teeth so white and perfect, they just called to be knocked out. “So, you see why we’ll be working together. You can’t possibly be all right with me telling my daughter she’s spending your parents’ hard-earned money. That trust fund is a little lie they spun to make sure she was comfortable.”
“You piece of—”
“Sit down,” he hissed again.
This time, I listened.
“Now, we’ve got stocks to talk over and you’ve got algorithms to look at for my company. I expect my business to still be running smoothly by the end of my time here.”
“I’m not a businessman or an investor.” The walls of this place started to seem as though they were closing in. “And you’ll never get out of here.”
“Then you’ll be investing my stocks for a long time, won’t you?”
“Like I said, I’m not a business—”
He cut his hand through the air to silence me. “I know your worth. I’ve read about you in the news. You’ve worked closely with your father and have made some of the best investing decisions possible in your first eighteen years of life. Don’t play dumb with me.”
“Aubrey won’t care,” I replied, but my voice sounded panicked.
“Maybe not. But she’ll care that you’re responsible for her mother’s death. That you left me when you grabbed those keys that night.”
My poker face went up like a motherfucker then. We both knew I would never admit to anything like that. Not here or anywhere.
“You don’t have to admit anything, but it doesn’t matter how much I had to drink. I always kept my keys on me when I locked them up.”
I almost vomited at his blatant confession of abuse.
“So, when can I plan on seeing you next? I need to make sure my company gives you access to my finances.”
The prison I thought I could freely walk out of seemed to mock me.
I walked out that day in my own personal lockup, chained to a monster that happened to be the father of the girl I loved.