TWENTY-NINE
Charlotte
Up until this point in my life, if anyone had asked me if Ardy Owens was a violent man, my answer would have been a solid no . But the way my father barreled into the room now had me second-guessing everything.
I turned on the desk just in time to see him charging at Noah and me, with a face full of fury, and I gasped. I was too stunned to do anything, so when Noah pulled me down off the desk and to the side, I stumbled on my feet.
He’d flung me aside, out of my father’s path, but in doing so, he’d given himself up. It made it easy for my father to latch his hands onto Noah’s shirt and jerk him close, thrusting the men face to face.
Time slowed when my father reared back with his right arm, closed his fist, and readied a punch. I moved before my mind could approve it, putting a hand on each of their chests and wedging myself between the men.
“Daddy, stop!” I cried.
Everything went still.
The tension in the room was so great, nothing could move—not even my heart. My father still had a handful of Noah’s shirt twisted in his fist, while his mouth was frozen open and his face was filled with disbelief. This was probably because I hadn’t called my father daddy in at least a decade.
Noah stood stock-still, with his wide-eyed gaze fixed on me. Did he... did he think I’d meant him when I’d used that word? It had worked to disrupt my father’s anger, but it had thrown my boyfriend into chaos.
And the effect of the word was only momentary, because my father sprang back to life. He used his hold on Noah’s shirt to give him an enormous shove, sending my boyfriend stumbling backward and crashing into the chair.
“You think you can come in here and put your hands on my little girl?” My father’s face turned an ugly shade of reddish-purple, and the longer he yelled, the more his voice climbed with rage. “I give you a job and you say thanks, how? By sexually assaulting her?” He flung a sharp finger at the door. “Get the fuck out now. You’re fired.”
Oh, God. Oh, fuck.
“Wait, wait, no,” I blurted. Adrenaline shot through my bloodstream, making me shake uncontrollably. “He wasn’t assaulting me, we’re—”
My father heard absolutely none of it. “Are you all right?” His focus swung to me so he could scour every inch of my body, searching for signs of injury. “Did he hurt you?”
Thoughts flew past me at a million miles an hour, and it was just as hard to grab one as it was to catch my breath. “I’m fine, Dad. Noah wasn’t doing anything I didn’t want him to.”
“What?” His face contorted as he refused to accept what I was telling him. “No, Charlotte. He tried to take advantage of you.”
I shook my head. “No, Dad, please listen to me. He wasn’t doing that at all.” It wasn’t enough to convince him, so I had no other choice. I sucked in a deep breath. “Noah’s my boyfriend.”
As my father tried to grapple with that information, it was like it shut down his brain. His posture was stiff, and his expression was unreadable. My gaze darted to Noah, who stood several feet away, but it might as well have been miles. He looked like he might throw up, or bolt, or maybe do one, followed immediately by the other.
“ Him ?” My father’s voice was full of horror. “No.”
I turned so I was facing my dad, and it came from me in a rush. “I’m sorry we kept it from you.”
But his furious gaze went over my head and to the man behind me. “No,” he repeated, only this time it contained enough force it pierced my heart. “Absolutely not. Whatever it is you think you two have, it’s over. Done.” His focus returned to me, and I shivered from his icy tone. “You will not see him again, you understand me?”
Everything had spun out of control, and I folded an arm over my stomach, trying to hold myself together. “But... but...” Hot tears sprang into my eyes, blurring my vision. “But I love him.”
Breath was pulled into Noah’s lungs in a sharp sweep.
Which was surprising to me since I couldn’t seem to find any air at all. I sank my teeth into my bottom lip and risked a glance at him. I both did and didn’t want to know what his reaction was to my sudden declaration.
He wasn’t looking at me, and he wasn’t looking at my father either.
Noah’s guilty gaze was pinned to the floor in front of him, and my heart plummeted to my toes. He did nothing. Said nothing. It was like he thought if he stood still and was quiet enough, maybe we’d forget he was here.
It wasn’t a shock he didn’t feel as strongly about me as I did him, but his total lack of action or defense? That was pretty fucking surprising, not to mention hurtful. I felt abandoned.
On my own.
But I needed to deal with one problem at a time, and the issue with my father took priority.
I was no longer a stranger to seeing disappointment in my dad’s eyes, but the expression he wore now was new. He peered at me like I was a spoiled child throwing a tantrum and he was fed up with it.
“You don’t love him, Charlotte,” he said plainly. “I know you think you do, but you’re young and don’t know any better.” When I opened my mouth to argue, he lifted a hand to cut me off. “I’ve been here before with you telling me you love a man who’s much too old for you. Don’t bother telling me ‘this time it’s different.’ I don’t want to hear it.”
Oh, my God. It wasn’t fair to compare Noah to Zach in any way, but that was all my dad saw right now.
“When you came back, I had only one rule.” Frustration spilled from my father. “And, goddamn it, you couldn’t even follow that.”
His disappointment was crushing, and I wanted to wilt beneath the weight of it. My feet ached to move, to run away and not have to deal with it. In a moment of weakness, my gaze flitted to the door.
“That’s right, run away,” Zach taunted in my head. “It’s what you’re good at.”
I pulled my shoulders back and lifted my chin, standing my ground. “I know. I’m sorry.”
Could he see how badly I meant it? How much lying and sneaking around had made me feel like shit? God, I wished I hadn’t been so scared and had talked to Noah, tried to convince him that we needed to tell my parents. At least then my father wouldn’t have found out in the worst possible way.
I pictured Preston, wearing a smug look as he reminded me that he’d tried to warn me.
“I am so tired of giving you chances, only for you to disappoint me time and time again.” The weary expression on my father’s face hardened. “You will end this, come home right now, and maybe— maybe —we can work through this.” He glared at the other man, like it was all his fault. “But if you choose him over your family...” He sighed. “Then, Charlotte, I guess we’re really done this time.”
Suddenly, I was back in my college apartment, standing between Zach and my father. I’d screwed up then, and my father had offered me a lifeline, but I’d been too stubborn and embarrassed to accept it. Unwilling to face consequences. But I wasn’t that same girl now, and—
Wait a minute . I blinked back the tears stinging my eyes.
I didn’t need a lifeline, because I hadn’t fucked up bad enough to require one. I’d lied, which was shitty, but I would apologize and make amends. Being with Noah wasn’t a mistake. And this ultimatum?
It was stupid.
This didn’t need to be an all or nothing scenario. Maybe I was a spoiled brat, because I didn’t understand why I couldn’t have both.
My father had said he didn’t want to hear me say this time was different—but God. It fucking was.
“Why do I have to choose?” I demanded.
“You don’t,” Noah said from his far-off spot where invisible chains had him imprisoned. “I... can do it for you.”
What the fuck? His expression was cryptic. Vacant. I didn’t understand—
Oh, shit.
It filled me with so much dread, my body ached with it. No , a voice in my head cried. Announcing I loved him had torn a rift between us, and with each passing second, the distance to him grew until it was vast and insurmountable.
“Wait,” I pleaded.
My father didn’t sense what was about to happen. Maybe he worried Noah was going to make some enticing offer and sway me to his side—or maybe he just wanted to twist the knife. “Think carefully about this. If you pick him, remember he’s currently unemployed.”
“We’ll stop seeing each other.” Noah said it like it was decided, a settled fact.
I’d seen it coming, but I gasped with shock anyway.
At the sound, he flinched. It was as if my pain was causing him pain, and his focus swung to me. God, his expression was fucking heartbreaking.
“I’m sorry.” His voice was uneven. “But you and I both know this is the right call. I can’t let you blow up your life over,” he searched for the right word, “an infatuation.”
I crossed the other arm over my stomach, trying not to double over. Infatuation ? Was he fucking serious? I wasn’t just wounded by his words—I was betrayed.
He knew I didn’t sleep with someone until I cared deeply about them, and we’d been sleeping together for more than a month. Add on all the months leading up to that, all the times we’d talked, and kissed, and fooled around...
“How can you think this is just an infatuation?” A tremble worked its way up my legs, and my eyes widened in realization. “Oh, God. Is that how you see me? Just some foolish, lovesick little girl?”
My father disappeared from existence. It was only Noah and me, standing in this room with the great divide between us. His face was full of regret, and I hated it so much, I could barely look at him.
“I told you,” he sounded so fucking small, “I don’t have time for love.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“I do.”
And the scary thing was, he believed it.
But I was so tired of hearing that bullshit and my anger swelled until it became icy cold. “That’s fine,” I snapped. “I was fine with waiting for you, but you can’t get mad at me for falling in love with you in the meantime.”
Finally, his feet were no longer rooted to the ground, and he took a step forward. But it felt much too little, too late, and I backed away in response. He put a hand out to try to calm me, as if to say steady .
I found that . . . infuriating.
How dare he be calm when everything was falling apart? How dare he give up at the first sign of trouble, and not fight for what we had? The Noah I loved wasn’t afraid, but I didn’t recognize this man in front of me.
He wanted to run.
“I’m not mad,” he said, “but, Charlotte, you can’t wait for me.” He leveled a gaze that made my heart stop. “Doing that would be a waste of time.”
It was the final crack in the ground beneath us, forcing the earth apart so much, I could no longer see a way back to him. Tears streamed down my cheeks as my heart cleaved in two, and then shattered into a million pieces.
I wiped my face, angry I’d let him see the tears he didn’t deserve. The ones I’d foolishly told him months ago I wouldn’t have time for. He stared at me now like he’d evaluated our relationship with his cold shell of a stockbroker’s heart and decided it was time to cut and run.
To mitigate our losses.
“This doesn’t change anything,” a voice said, and in my pain, it took a long moment to realize it was my father speaking. “Your employment here is over, and I don’t want to see you again. You understand?”
Perhaps if my eyes hadn’t been so blurry with tears, I would have seen in perfect detail just how shell-shocked Noah looked. He nodded, shuffled forward, and when he reached the doorway, he hesitated.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
It was unclear who this apology was for. My father? Me?
My voice broke as I issued the order. “Just go.”
He did as asked. He left me and the heart he’d broken completely, walking away like this was nothing more than a deal that had gone sour.