CHAPTER 53 You Already Knew
We told my dad we were leaving, and he offered to walk us to the motor lobby. He and Nathan were staying a bit longer since they were still looking for an opening to talk to the host, and they wouldn’t leave until they closed the deal and brought him in as a client.
“It was a lovely evening,” William said, shaking my dad’s hand. “Thank you for inviting us.”
“Thank you both for coming. I appreciate the support.”
“Bye, Dad.” I waved him goodbye with the biggest smile I could muster. All I had to do was smile for a minute longer and pretend I was fine so it wouldn’t raise any red flags.
Aaron opened the door for us, and before I could turn around to walk the ten steps separating us from the car, a tall, well-built man in all-black casual tactical attire zeroed in on my dad. “Fucking murderer!”
It all happened so fast. My dad was on his hands and knees, tiny drops of blood trickling down his nose and falling on the pavement after getting sucker punched in the face by this man. William took a protective stance in front of me, shielding me from the action. Aaron was fighting off the man in hand-to-hand combat, and Big Mike was rushing our way from where he had the car parked.
The man was good. Whatever Aaron threw his way, he expertly dodged it and retaliated with vengeful force. It seemed as if they were using the same fighting style and knew what to expect from each other’s moves. The man launched at Aaron, but he grabbed him by the neck and struck his face with a head butt. It stunned him for a heartbeat, giving Aaron enough time to make him submit with an elbow lock.
“You’re too old for this shit, Mark,” Aaron said to the man close to his ear, who was now kneeling in front of my father and hissing with pain. “It’s not worth it.”
“You always got me on the close-range attack, Hirsch,” the man said through gritted, bloody teeth.
“Agent Mark?” I stepped to the side and stared at him with confusion. He was my mother’s head of security in Bern before we moved to Mexico City. “What is happening?” My voice shook as I asked my father, who was now standing tall and looking down his nose at Agent Mark as he cleaned his bloody nose with a handkerchief.
“Get him out of my sight.” My dad ordered. Agent Mark replied by spitting at my dad’s feet, blood gushing out from his cheekbone and leaking into his mouth from where Aaron had struck him with his forehead.
Agent Mark struggled to free himself against Aaron’s ironclad grip, but it only made him cry with pain. “You killed her, you worthless, motherfucking coward.”
“D-dad?” My insides twisted with horror. “What is he talking about?” My knees almost buckled so I held on to William, but my dad wouldn’t acknowledge me. He could only stare at Agent Mark with a hatred so feral and unchecked I almost didn’t recognize him.
“You wish I had so you can keep justifying your sick, compulsive need to blame her death on me,” my dad retorted, his voice calm as he continued to stare down at Agent Mark’s pain-contorted face. He was like a wounded wild beast that refused to give in to its captor.
“I would’ve kept her safe!” Mark yelled, the words pain-ridden as they shot out of his mouth accompanied by a fine spray of blood. “You kept her away from me when she needed me the most! She hated you! She—” Mark’s voice splintered, and he almost choked on the sob that followed.
My dad launched at Agent Mark, but Big Mike ran an arm around his shoulders, his firm grip preventing my father from doing something he would regret later. We had an audience now. People were staring with mouths agape. Others murmured among themselves.
“I trusted you with my wife!” My dad tried wriggling out of Big Mike’s immobilizing embrace. “And not only did you violate that trust, but you took what was mine!”
“And you were too busy taking your French assistant slut in your office every night.” Agent Mark chuckled with bloody teeth. My dad was having an affair with Annette? “Too busy to come home early for dinner and notice your wife hadn’t been yours for a long time.” He drawled out the word long, and my dad’s neck and face flushed with hysterical rage.
He let out a stream of curses directed at Agent Mark and tried to break free from Big Mike’s arm-shackle again but failed miserably.
“All I ever did,” Mark said in a taunting voice, finally submitting himself to Aaron’s restraint, “was piece her back together every time you tore her apart.”
My dad started kicking, but Big Mike hauled him further back as a precaution. My vision became blurry and spotty. My breathing became labored as the panic slithered up my chest, grabbed me by the neck, and squeezed.
My dad was cheating on my mom.
My mom was cheating on my dad.
Agent Mark blamed my dad for her death.
Nothing made sense.
“María was pregnant when she died.” Tears streamed down Agent Mark’s resigned face. “She was going to leave you.” His mouth twitched into a painful smile. “But you already knew that, didn’t you?”
I barely registered the last word when a dark, foggy mist enveloped me, and I allowed it to consume me.