Chapter 39
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
BILLIE
“Ican’t even look at you right now, Scott.”
As I sit at the top of the stairs, it feels like I’m ten years old all over again, listening to my parents argue over money.
When I was a kid, my mom and dad rarely fought, but whenever they did, it was nearly always about bills and how they were going to scrape enough together to make it through the month.
Today isn’t any different. Mom is pissed at Dad for exaggerating the value of his shares so he could hide the money he took from Emmett to help repay my student loans and fund the apartment he is determined that I’ll move out of immediately.
I can’t believe that, all along, Emmett was paying for everything.
And truthfully, I don’t know how I feel about that, other than being mad over the fact that he didn’t tell me himself.
After I finally escaped from Rise Up and an oblivious Mom dropped me back home, it took around an hour for the moving trucks to arrive, closely followed by Dad with bloody knuckles and a face like absolute thunder.
He insisted that I allow the moving guys to take my stuff. When I refused, his rage boiled over, and he spouted off about how Emmett had gifted the family money to basically care for me and Blake.
That brings me to where I am right now—ignoring calls from my boyfriend because I don’t know what to say to him while listening to Dad beg for my mother’s forgiveness.
“I had no choice, Freya! It was either that or remortgage the house, and that was before my accident at work.” Dad tries once more to make my mom see reason.
A slamming sound filters from the kitchen right before Mom volleys back, “What about Shelby? You could’ve sold her! Or is she so damn precious that you chose to deceive your wife?”
Silence.
“No,” Mom bites out. “I don’t want your hugs right now. I’m mad as hell. Who gave you the right to make financial decisions without consulting me?”
Mom makes a very good point, and Dad knows it. I don’t need to be a fly on the wall to picture his face—one of regret and anguish. Dad worships the ground Mom walks on, although I’ve never heard either of them as distressed as they are in this moment.
Dropping my head between my shoulders, I exhale a deep breath, praying Blake will stay napping a while longer and grant me some time to gather my thoughts.
Emmett always predicted that a war would ensue when news of our involvement eventually broke. I just wish that he’d been up front about the money.
“The only person to blame is Emmett. He basically paid for access to our daughter.”
I shake my head to no one. Dad’s got it all wrong if that’s what he thinks about his best friend. Emmett gave that money with all the right intentions.
Mom clears her throat. “I don’t think that Maria gets a free pass in this. Billie tells me that she confronted her at breakfast while I was in line, right after she decided to tell only you about what she’d witnessed between Emmett and Billie.”
“Freya—”
“No, Scott!” Mom interjects. “You should’ve spoken to me, and so should Maria.
She capitalized on my absence because she knew that you would lose your shit and hunt down Emmett.
Maria manipulated everyone for her own ends, and I’ve seen a side to my friend that I never knew existed.
Maybe that’s why her marriage failed—because if she was as calculating in the past as I’ve witnessed today, then I don’t think that I’d want to remain married to her either. ”
More silence falls between the two of them, eventually broken by the sound of the doorbell.
Moments later, the kitchen door opens, and Dad half stalks, half hobbles into the hallway, unable to see me since the top of the staircase sits directly behind him.
I draw a deep breath into my lungs, convinced that this day cannot get any worse, regardless of whoever is standing on our porch.
Enraged, Dad practically rips the door from its hinges, ready to slam it back in the jamb when a familiar hand and sparkling Rolex comes into view.
“I need you to hear me out, Scott.” Emmett’s soft and calm voice washes over me in waves of emotion that pool in my eyes.
I can’t see Emmett, and he can’t see me, but I can see Dad clearly as he points a finger straight at my boyfriend, venom in his voice and body language.
“What part of my last warning did you fail to understand? Stay away from my family.”
A single tear runs to the edge of my chin before it cascades to the carpet.
I shouldn’t have agreed to stay here tonight instead of at my apartment.
Emmett and I need to talk, and there’s no way Dad will allow him within a hundred feet of me.
After all, he can call the shots on who enters his property.
“Scott …” Emmett begins speaking but trails off into silence.
Dad’s fingers curl around the door, knuckles white, grip poised to slam it straight in Emmett’s face.
“If you don’t get off my property in the next thirty seconds, I’ll have Freya call the police to remove you from it.” Dad grinds out a promise that I know he’ll keep.
“You need to leave, Emmett,” Mom reiterates, walking down the hallway toward the door.
When she wraps her arms around her middle, Dad attempts to loop his free arm around her shoulders, but his efforts are immediately shrugged off.
“Freya, I—”
Mom raises a hand, cutting Emmett off in his tracks. “I’m not ready to talk to you. Today has been a revelation and not a good one. I thought that we could trust you, and you violated that by going behind our backs with Billie.”
For a second, I think Emmett has walked away until he speaks again.
“I understand why you both feel like you do, but I need you to know that if things hadn’t gone the way that they did and if Maria had kept her nose out, then I would be sitting in your living room right about now, explaining that I’m in love with your daughter.”
Heart lurching, I jump to my feet, the movements attracting Mom’s attention, and she turns her head to look at me.
“Billie, I thought you were taking a nap with Blake.”
Dad keeps his eyes plastered on Emmett, no doubt guarding his family from a predator.
“With the way you’ve been fighting?” I say, taking a couple of steps down. “I’m surprised Blake hasn’t already woken.”
“Billie.” Emmett’s hand appears in the doorjamb. “Billie, I need to talk to you.”
His voice is a plea that rips my soul in two. He thinks he’s lost me, but he should know that I’m not the type of person to quit on someone I love, even if they could’ve handled a situation better.
“Let me talk to him,” I whisper to Dad as I continue to descend the stairs.
“Get back to your room, Bill,” he warns, never taking his eyes off Emmett.
I ignore him and his patriarchal bullshit. I’m twenty-one, not twelve.
“You need to hear him out, Dad,” I urge, taking the last step until I’m standing behind my parents, jaw almost hitting the floor when I see the state of my boyfriend’s face.
Like there’s an invisible thread between us, I jerk forward, searching for Emmett’s arms.
“Don’t you even fucking dare.” Dad thrusts the heel of his hand into Emmett’s sternum. “You’ve got some fucking gall,” he continues, rearing his hand back to hit him square in the face.
I figured the blood painting Dad’s knuckles a few hours ago was Emmett’s, although nothing could’ve prepared me for the mess he’s made of Emmett’s face.
“Stop!” I cry right before Dad’s fist connects with Emmett’s jaw. “Please, stop!”
Mom spins on her heel, wrapping her arms around me in a bear hug.
“He needs to stop hitting him,” I sob into her sweater, body going limp in her embrace.
“Scott, you’re going to get yourself arrested for assault,” Mom quietly breathes into my hair.
I peek beneath her arm, only to catch another swipe of Dad’s fist across Emmett’s jaw.
My hockey player boyfriend just stands there, hands in his pockets as he takes beating after beating from his best friend.
As he spits blood onto the ground, I can see the physical and emotional pain in his eyes.
“I’m not going to retaliate, Scott. You can take swings at me all day, but I refuse to hit the man I’ve idolized for over a decade. The father of the woman I’m fucking crazy about.”
Growing weary, Dad takes the weight of his bad leg on his good one. “Idolized?” He laughs. “You must be fucking joking! You’ve betrayed me in the worst way possible. Hopping into bed with my already-vulnerable daughter.”
Emmett swipes blood from his bottom lip.
Yearnful eyes lock with mine as he delivers an admission that melts my bones.
“When Billie returned from Austin, I walked back into her life as a friend and a person that she and her baby girl could count on. Did I mean to fall in love with the woman who stole the air from my lungs on her twenty-first birthday?” He shakes his head slowly, eyes moving to my dad.
“I tried not to. For you and for Freya, for the respect we’ve built between us and our families over the years.
” Emmett’s gaze tracks back to me, a warm smile tracing his split lips.
“But the best things in life often come along when you least expect them, and that’s what Billie and Blake are to me.
I can’t live without them, and I refuse to walk away until I have what I came for. ”
Dad steels his shoulders. “I thought you showed up to apologize?”
Emmett’s gaze drops to the ground, brows pinched together in thought. “I guess it’s understandable for you to think that way. Maria really managed to twist your mind up good, right before she admitted to multiple counts of infidelity during our marriage.”
Mom gasps, but Emmett’s face doesn’t change as he reaches out one hand for me to take.
“If you’re asking me to make a choice between our friendship and your daughter, Mr. Quinn, then I gotta tell you that there can only ever be one winner. Maybe, one day, you’ll give me the grace to prove why I have my priorities the right way around.”
Neither Mom nor Dad prevents me from taking my boyfriend’s hand.
Stepping across the threshold, I turn back to my parents. “I need to talk with Emmett for a while.” My gaze lands on Mom. “Can you watch Blake for me?”
She gives me a tight nod as I center my attention on Dad. The pieces of my shattered heart crumble into dust when I realize that none of Emmett’s words have resonated with him. His expression is stony as his fingers flex at his sides.
“Say something,” I plead.
Pained eyes drop to our joined hands. “This is all going to end in tears. This is all a rebound for him, and you and Blake will wind up as collateral damage.”
“I already am in tears,” I point out, Emmett squeezing my hand tighter.
Dad just shakes his head at me. “Then I don’t know what to say to you, Bill. There’s only so much a father can do to protect his daughter from making the biggest mistake of her life.”