Chapter 4 #5
Narrowing both eyes at her, for the first time, I looked at the girl, and I saw her.
She wasn’t who I snatched or Harold’s daughter—a means to an end.
She was a young woman that was still stumbling through life trying to find herself.
I knew what that was like. It had been a long time since I felt that way, but I could relate.
I went into my pocket to retrieve a cell phone.
It wasn’t mine; it was a burner. I dialed a number and placed the phone on speaker.
We both listened as it rang twice and a man picked up.
“Hello?” Harold Lawson picked up.
Harbor gasped, and her eyes lit up at the sound of her father’s voice. She brought her stunned gaze to mine, and I nodded to the phone. She had the chance to speak now, and was mute.
“Daddy,” she whispered.
I could hear his breathing change when her voice struck his ears.
“Harbor?” he asked, sounding unsure. “Are you okay? Where are you?”
Her eyes locked with mine again. “I am… fine,” she answered.
I nodded. Good girl. She didn’t know anything to tell anyway, so I knew that I was in the clear.
“You’re fine? Where are you? Where the hell have you been? Do you know what we have been going through?” His relief quickly merged to anger, and her breath became hitched in her throat.
“I—” She seemed confused and bewildered by his reaction.
“Are you telling me that all this time you’ve been safe and sound some-damn-where!” Harold barked.
Harbor’s eyes closed, and she tried to hide it, but I noticed the single tear slip past her cheek before she inhaled and opened them again.
“What was the reason? Was it Alba? Or Lock? How could you be so selfish to just take off—”
“You know what… I’m gonna go,” she said, her tone flat, eyes dead and blank while they stared off ahead.
His accusations stung her, leaving her wounded. He hadn’t given her a chance to even speak, and he was jumping to the worst conclusions. A nigga almost felt bad about what he had put her through.
“Harbor, I have been going over every single thing that I can think of to find you! Do you know what it felt like! Not knowing if you were dead or alive!” Harold shouted.
She scoffed in complete disbelief, which was my guess. It didn’t seem to be the conversation she hoped to have with him after all this time. He didn’t skip a beat.
“And you won’t let me explain now, so what is the point, Daddy? Clearly, nothing has changed.”
“Harbor, just… tell me what you need. What do you want from me?” her father questioned, sounding exasperated. Their relationship wasn’t some loving father-daughter scenario. It seemed more strained than anything.
“Nothing. I was calling so that you knew that I was okay. Goodbye, Daddy.” She hit the red button to end the call before he could argue or question her any further.
Her somber gaze caught mine, and she walked over to the bed and sat down. I didn’t know how to take that shit, so I just studied her where I stood. I shut the burner phone off and tucked it back into the workout pants I was wearing. Awkward silence filled the room. Her eyes shifted to the ground.
“What is it that you wanted from me?”
The tables had turned in my favor, and for some stupid ass reason, I didn’t feel good about it.
My victory caused her pain, and that was evident.
Clearing my throat, I considered my proposal in my head before I made my suggestion.
Harbor was an asset, and the more I kept her around, the more I knew that was a fucking fact.
I wasn’t sure what the universe had in mind or what kind of fucking joke it was trying to play on me, but shit was strange.
“I’m not the type of man to be put in a position where I have to ask another mothafucka for a damn thing.”
“Hmm, you don’t say,” Harbor replied.
I couldn’t tell if she was actually amused or being fucking sarcastic. She held my stare, and that shit was like fire passing between us in the air. Harbor squinted while I worked on what to say next.
“You seem like the kind of woman that typically gets what she wants,” I acknowledged.
“Not everything,” she muttered, averting her troubled gaze from mine. “How about you stop dancing around what you want to say and just say it?” she asked, shrugging calmly while I paused midstride from pacing in front of her.
Women didn’t typically get away with talking to me like her.
For some reason, when Harbor did it, it turned me on.
Usually, I was ready to knock a bitch’s head through the wall, but with her, the vibe was different.
I told myself that it was nothing. I had chemistry with most women. This was something else.
“Maybe we should have this conversation when you aren’t already emotionally charged,” I concluded, heading for the door.
“Oh, now you want to analyze me?” Her face balled up angrily.
“I’ll just give you a minute.” I traveled to the door and let myself out.
She must have grabbed something because I heard a thud, which meant she had thrown something at the door in her moment of rage.
After I locked her up, I decided to join Celine and Ivy for dinner.
The table was set, and the food was spread.
Brownies were in the oven, and it smelled heavenly when I sat down.
Ivy was already in her chair, and Celine brought fresh rolls over to go with everything.
After saying grace we made our plates. Everything was mouthwatering.
The steak was tender and juicy, the potatoes were seasoned to perfection, and the asparagus wrapped in bacon was one of my favorites.
We ate in silence, and Ivy studied me as I stuffed my face.
I could practically feel the hole she was burning in me.
“I got a list of schools so that we could go and ’em check out this week.” I didn’t bring my eyes up from the plate.
“Hmm, is it going to be private or public?” Ivy queried, and this time I focused on her.
I continued to chew my food while I soaked in her face. She was definitely grown up. She wasn’t some snaggletoothed little girl anymore that took my word as nothing but the truth. She was almost a teenager, and full of questions. I could see it in her bright eyes.
“Which do you prefer?” I asked, holding my utensils in each hand while lingering near my plate.
“I want to study arts. Public schools unfortunately are limited on those courses. So I would prefer private, even though I hate the people,” she muttered and rolled her pretty brown eyes right after.
“Then we will find something that suits you,” I agreed, nodding.
“So… Lyra isn’t here today.” Ivy moved her potatoes around on her plate and brought her eyes to mine.
“Nah, she’s just…”
“A friend?” Ivy chimed up, lifting one brow.
She didn’t give me room to reply. For a twelve-year-old, her conversation was a little too mature for my liking. I wondered how exactly Gardenia had been raising her.
“What about the other one? Who is she?” she asked, stuffing her face with potatoes.
“Harbor is… a business associate,” I answered, avoiding my daughter’s prodding stare.
“Why is she held hostage in her room all the time?” Ivy squinted and narrowed both brows at me. “I mean… is she antisocial or something?” For a second, I thought that my daughter had disobeyed and gone where she was forbidden.
She was concerned but more nosy than anything.
My mouth stopped moving, and I shot a warning glare across the table.
After I swallowed my food, I reached for the glass of Merlot that Celine poured and took a slow, thoughtful sip.
Tension thick as fog built in the air. Ivy’s shoulders shrank, and her eyes drifted to her plate.
“Let’s make a few things clear around here.
I am the parent. Your father. My seed is the reason you grew inside your mother.
She’s not here anymore. I am who you have left.
I have taken care of you your entire life.
Maybe you have forgotten the rules. Or maybe you’re getting older and think that somehow they change.
They don’t. We don’t talk about my life like I am your friend.
That’s not what this is. You don’t question me about anything that goes on around here, and you stay in a child’s place. ”
Ivy’s eyes misted, and she sniffled while slowly bobbing her head. The look on her face struck something inside me. It was the same sullen expression that Harbor wore when she heard her father’s accusations against her.
“I was just asking. I didn’t go over and start bothering her or anything.
I just… I hear music in my room. It comes in through the vent, very faint.
It’s pretty. I wonder what she’s doing in there for all those hours with those beautiful notes bouncing off the walls.
She’s got taste too. Some of that stuff I’ve never heard before.
Music. Real music.” Ivy’s eyes shined while she talked, and Celine simpered beside her while continuing to quietly eat.
She was resilient. Clearly, I had hurt her feelings, yet there she was finding a silver lining. Finally, after she finished her roll, she raised her shoulders.
“I guess I get it though. Wanting to be isolated. Sometimes it can feel like that even when people are around,” Ivy grumbled.
She sipped her water from a glass, and Celine stared on at her empathetically before lowering her eyes to her own food in front of her.