Chapter 19 – Cut Out
Luke – 22 years old
L eaving Hadley in bed this morning was hard.
Her dark hair sprayed across my pillow, her soft snores, and the duvet barely covering her naked body made it almost impossible go.
But Nana and Liam had to go back since it wouldn’t be much longer before Dad started to clock onto them, if he hadn’t already.
While I quietly move around my apartment, Liam rises from the air bed on the floor while Nana is trying to put the sofa back to its original state. It’s one of the reasons I got a sofa bed—in case her or Liam turned up to stay.
“It’s okay, Nana, I will sort it out later,” I whisper.
She pats my cheek. “She’s a keeper, that one.” Then she nods towards the closed bedroom door.
“One hundred percent,” I say. Without a doubt, I won’t ever let Hadley down again.
A knock at my door has me frowning. Who the hell is that?
Nana looks towards the door, then back at me with worry etched in her features; I don’t need to open the door to know who is on the other side. He’s finally found me.
“Luke, let me get it,” Liam says, passing me and moving towards the door as another knock comes from it.
“No.” I step forward and place a hand on his shoulder, shaking my head at him. “It’s time to face the music, right? Stay out the way.”
After a louder bang on my front door and Nana and Liam in the bathroom hiding, I open the door.
Dad stands tall, a look of disgust on his face as he straightens out his sleeve of his suit.
“What do you want?”
He looks at me almost puzzled. “It’s time to come home, Luke.”
“I am home,” I snap, and he chuckles, either amused by my answer or tone, probably both .
Breathing heavily, he looks around me and inside my home. I step out of my apartment, shutting the door behind me.
“ This isn’t a home, Luke, do you have any idea what you have done to your mother and brother.” He points in my face.
I scoff, little does he know Liam is also free from him, and so is Nana. They are relocating to Harpsden next month. Liam, however stupid he’s been in the past, woke up after he overheard Dad and Mum arguing about me. He realised money didn’t bring happiness, and he was smart enough to save money in an unknown account from my dad. And Nana, well, instead of giving Dad an inheritance when she’s gone, she’s spending it on moving here to be with Liam and me.
Liam had told me he’d tried to get Mum to come with him and leave Dad, but she turned him down. Liam was furious and assumed it was the money that held her to Dad. I told him one day she will see and come to us, and when that day comes, I will hold the door open for her and her only.
Although this day has been in the back of my mind since I left London, I expected to feel angrier, maybe more venomous towards him. But right now, I feel calm, free, and for once like he can’t affect me.
“I’m going ask you to leave once, and the next time I will be calling the police. I do not care what contacts you have or how much you think you can control my life. It stops here. I don’t need your money, your job, or you in my life. I think I’ve proved that. You want to turn vicious and test it, go for it. I don’t care. I have everything I need and everyone I need right here, and there’s nothing you can say to change my mind or anyone’s who is inside my apartment.” I step forward going nose to nose with him. “We are done, I want nothing more to do with you.”
He steps back and looks at me, then down at the floor.
“When the money runs out, Luke, and this home of yours fall to shit, don’t come back to me crying. I won’t save you.” His tone almost sounds defeated, but he masks it well.
Without another word, he turns and walks away.
And hopefully, out my life for good.