45. Penn
Chapter 45
Penn
By the time I get back to my house to feed Slim Jim, the soft rain has turned into a downpour. It's raining so hard that at first I don't notice the sedan parked on the street, but it would be impossible to miss the man standing under the front porch overhang at my house.
He's put together, wearing dress slacks, a collared button-up shirt, and tan trench coat. Not a single silver hair is out of place, and it serves to sharpen an already shrewd gaze.
"Hello?" I say, stepping out of the rain. I don't immediately recognize this person, but he knows me.
"Penn Bellamy," he says evenly, and it's frustrating I don't remember him. I don't like being at a disadvantage.
"I'm Glenn Hampton. Duke's dad."
Of course. The icy blue eyes, sharp and calculating, are exactly like his son's. The last time I saw this man, he was standing over a crouching thirteen-year-old Duke, raging at him.
"What do you want?"
"I saw my son this morning at the office. His cheek was…" He pauses, like he's searching for the word, but it feels too practiced. Too on purpose. A boardroom tactic. "Colorful."
"That's nice," I say dispassionately. "What do you want?"
"He told me how he got it."
"And?"
"Have you ever been charged with battery?"
"Can't say I have."
"Hmm. That might be something you'll have firsthand knowledge of soon. I'm encouraging my son to press charges."
Fuck. This isn't good.
"I know you didn't come here just to say that to me, so spit it out. What else do you want?"
"I want you gone. You pose a threat to my son's relationship with his fiancée."
"That's between me, Daisy, and Duke. Nowhere in there were the words Glenn Hampton ."
"You better watch it, boy. I will make your life hell. That payout you took to leave town when you were thirteen? Did you really think Daisy's dad had the money? That money came from me." He points back at himself. "I set your mother up in San Diego. I bought that condo near the beach, and put it in her name."
What. The. Fuck?
My mind races, trying to understand his words, his revelation, the reason behind it. But I can't. I'm coming up with nothing.
"Why would you do all that?" I ask.
My floundering has no impact on Glenn. He remains stony-faced as he says, "Daisy's dad and I go way back. We've had disagreements and agreements, we've been enemies and we've been friends. It was in our mutual best interest for you and your mother to go away."
My jaw tightens at the idea of someone, anyone , needing my mother to go away. "How could that have benefited you?"
"That will be my little secret." He tucks aside his fancy camel-colored pea coat so he can smoothly glide his hand in his pants pocket. A power move. "I'm here with a proposal. I will buy that old piece of shit house of yours outright, plus twenty percent."
"And do what with it?"
"None of your fucking business. It'll be mine to do whatever I want with it. I can piss on it, tear it down, or hang up ugly Christmas lights and keep them there all year."
"No. Fucking. Way." The plan was always to sell it, but to this guy?
He is unruffled by my response. "Are you planning on stealing my son's fiancée, and then going to jail? Do you think Daisy's going to come visit you? She's not. She's going to marry Duke next Saturday afternoon, and you're going to wise up and accept my offer." He walks out into the pouring rain, unfazed. His car slowly pulls away from the curb, then disappears.
I let myself inside. Slim Jim trots over, sitting back on his haunches to stare at me. He takes in my face, reading my expression, then moves his body until he is putting his weight against the front of my legs.
My hands run the length of his silky, reddish coat. The shock of defeat rolls through me, my body aching with it. Anger arrives next, heating up my limbs. All these years later, something, someone, wants to keep me from Daisy.
All I ever wanted was to be with her. As a friend when we were young. However she'll have me now, as adults.
The more I think about it, the angrier I feel. Daisy and I aren't kids anymore. The adults aren't running the show like they used to. We have voices now.
But what is it they're saying?