Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
DAMON
I wake the next morning with a smile on my face, and a spring in my step. Kerry-Anne can’t rob me of my happiness anymore.
I forbid it.
Whistling a random tune, I hop out the shower and wrap a towel loosely around my waist. Swiping my hand over the foggy mirror, I dry my face and apply some moisturiser and add some styling clay to my hair, before dropping the towel and heading back into my room.
Toeing into some jeans and a black shirt, I find myself drawn to my phone. After our brief text messages when I dropped Dottie off, I didn’t hear from her for the rest of the evening, and with how busy I was putting everything together, by the time I looked at the clock it was midnight.
Seeing the blinking light on the top of my phone, I smile and open it. I read over Dottie’s message at least a dozen times, trying to comprehend what the fuck is happening before I press the call button.
It goes straight to voicemail .
“Dorothy, it’s Damon. Call me as soon as you get this message. We need to talk. Love you.”
I hang up the phone, throw it on the bed, and start pacing the room. Why the fuck would she go back to Sydney? And why the hell would she tell me not to follow her?
That we are over .
Like fucking hell we are.
The mere thought has my gut twisting, my throat closing up, and my heart beating out of sync because she isn’t here anymore. She’s gone. I won’t allow this to happen, I can’t, but there is one thing for certain, we aren’t finished.
I can’t stop the carousel of fuckery waging war on my mind right now. It’s making me sick. Goddamn it to hell.
But then my phone rings, and I race back to the bed, but my relief is short lived when I see Arrie’s number light up the screen. Shit this is not the time, but I press the green button anyway.
“Hey, baby girl.”
“Don’t you baby girl me!” she screeches, and I pull the phone away from my ear, my stomach dropping while anxiety claws at my throat. “How could you?!”
“Slow down, Arrie. What are you talking about?”
“Are you seriously doing this to me dad? Want to lie to me again?”
I don’t want to believe the unthinkable has happened, but with Dottie up and leaving, and Arrie on the phone sobbing, it’s too much of a coincidence.
“Where are you, Arrie?”
“I just left Mum’s. Tell me it isn’t true.”
I swallow, close my eyes and squeeze the bridge of my nose, a tension headache setting in.
“Arrie, I need you to listen to me, baby. I’m going to stop past your house before I head to see Archie. ”
“No! You can’t come here,” she rushes out, defensively. “Plus, I’m already on my way.”
The line goes dead, and I throw my phone.
“FUCK!”
Rushing over to where my phone clattered to the ground, I pull up Dottie’s number again and call. It goes straight to voicemail again, and my heart sinks. This cannot be happening. I can’t have her and then lose her in the space of twenty-four hours.
I lose count of how many times I try and call Dottie, but when the front door slams, I admit defeat and put my phone down, walking out to find Arrie sitting in the kitchen.
Her green eyes lock with mine, and my heart fucking shatters on impact. Instead of the vivacious green they normally are, they’re muddied and bloodshot. She lets out a strangled sob and shakes her head.
“How could you, dad?”
“I’m going to need you to be specific, Arrie.”
The melancholy that was surrounding her dissolves, morphing into anger.
“Are you really going to sit here and deny it?!” she screams, jumping out of the chair and knocking it down in the process. “Dottie! She is my best-friend, my cousin, your fucking niece, and you preyed on her and took her virginity.”
Now it’s my turn to be angry.
“Don’t you dare talk about something you know nothing about, Arriana Woods, because that is not how it fucking happened.” I seethe, and she levels me with a glare.
“Bullshit. Mum told me all about it.”
I laugh mockingly.
“And you believe that witch, after everything she’s done, everything she’s put us through? ”
“At least she told me!” she screams back, and I close my eyes to compose myself.
“Have you spoken to Dottie?” I ask, fear and anxiety wrapping around me at what may have transpired.
“That’s what you’re worried about?”
“I’m worried about you and her, yes, but I want to know if you allowed at least one of us to explain before coming over here and accusing me of taking advantage of her.”
“I can’t believe you did this, dad. You watched her grow up. It’s fucking sick!”
“We are both adults.”
Arrie rears back like I hit her. “Are you seriously defending yourself right now? She. Is. Your. Niece. Whom you watched fucking grow up. You are twenty-two years older than her! It’s fucking disgusting.”
“Oh, I’m disgusting?” I try and hold my words in, not wanting to lash out at her, but my tongue is forked and full of venom with the loss of control I’m experiencing. “What about you fucking two different men, huh?”
She staggers back as if I cocked a gun and pulled the trigger, fresh tears falling from her eyes, and if I could take my words back I would. But the damage is done, and this is going to go down as my most unproud moment.
“Arrie, wait, I didn’t…”
“Shut the hell up!” she seethes, her voice catching at the end. “How ─ how could you?”
I close the distance and reach out for her, but she smacks my hand away, and I feel the panic attack coming on.
I can’t lose my daughter, I can’t, but I also don’t want to lose Dottie.
I’m at loss for words, and although I’m looking at Arrie, I know no matter what I say, it won’t undo the damage I’ve just done.
The calamity I’ve set in motion .
“I ─ I can’t even look at you right now.”
She turns on her heels and storms toward the door, my heart cracking into pieces and the foundation I’ve built around me begins to crumble. I race after her, knowing it will be fruitless, but I need her to hear me.
“Arrie, please, just wait.”
“Not now, dad. I ─ I need some time, and in the meantime,” she says, stopping and pinning me with a glare. “Stay the fuck away from Dottie!”
The door slams behind her with force, and my feet stay rooted to the ground as tears start to fall down my face.
I can hear my dad’s voice in my head, telling me to suck it up, that everything will be fine, but I don’t feel it, and I only wish he was here right now to help me through this clusterfuck.
I walk back to my bedroom and fall onto the bed unceremoniously. Leaning forward, I rest my elbows on my knees and my head in my hands, allowing the melancholy, frustration and ire to swallow me whole.
How could I let this happen? I should have told Arrie sooner instead of allowing that bitch to get one up me.
How did she even know? More to the point, is she the reason Dottie hightailed it back to Sydney? Leaving me here with a broken heart, and a mess I don’t care to clean at the moment. So many scenarios run through my mind, and the tension headache is hating me for it.
Standing up, I stagger when I realise it’s actually a migraine setting it.
Cursing, I stumble around the room, close all the curtains, and grab my phone.
With one eye open, I squint and type Archie a quick message about cancelling today.
I don’t tell him about the bullshit that just set me on a downward spiral, no, I simply say I have a migraine.
The thumbs up text is immediate. Groaning, I try Dottie one more time. It goes to voicemail again, but this time I don’t leave a message. I don’t think I would be able to articulate words anyway.
Pulling open the drawer, I fish out the pain tablets and pop two into my mouth, followed by a deep pull of water and swallow them down. Rolling over to my side, I grab the pillow Dottie slept with when she was here last and cuddle up to it like a pussy.
It smells like her.
I force a choked sob down and squeeze it. I’ll let her run away from me today, but I’m not giving up. Maybe she needs time to work through whatever happened, that I can give her, but I refuse for it to be forever.
I will talk sense into Arrie, because I know how much those girls mean to each other, however, I won’t lose Dottie in the process.
And that’s something Arrie is going to have to learn to live with. I love my daughter, but I also love Dottie, and now that I have her, I will never let her go, not as long as I’m living and breathing.
She can run, but she can’t hide from me forever.