13. Daddy’s Home
Chapter thirteen
Daddy's Home
NOAH
Iwaited for whatever vengeance was coming while sitting in the living room. I had been banished there for about an hour while my mom and Damian argued about me. From the conference room next to me, I could hear the growing noise and wondered, without much concern, what they were discussing.
I already knew. Considering the look of pure disgust on Damian’s face when he exited my bedroom, he must have known what Silas and I had done.
I was losing my mind just sitting there in the oddly shaped chair that my mother had taken such a liking too.
I started counting the tiles on the floor, just to mediate some of the boredom I was enduring.
When that disinterested me, I started to admire my reflection in the shine the floor gave off.
I rummaged through my pockets, wondering vaguely how pissed my mother would be if I lit a cigarette in her sitting room. I needed to cool down.
The front door slammed, sending a harsh chill up my spine. My whole body grew cold.
David was home.
The house grew strangely quiet, and I could imagine my mother greeting the bastard with a peck on the lips like a good little housewife. Right about now, Damian would have received a pat on the back and a, “How’s it going, son?”
The muffled talking initiated once again.
I crossed my fingers over my lap and tried to listen to what they were saying.
Of course, Damian would tell father what he found.
He was such a suck up, only concerned with deals that would end up hurting or helping him for personal gain.
Even though he was seven years older than me, he still lived for our parents’ approval.
“This better be good,” I heard David’s menacing tone through the walls.
I waited the next few minutes, still trying to decode the mumbles that were from my mother, most likely explaining the whole situation.
I chuckled to myself, knowing full well that David wouldn’t care in the least. He’d probably tell the whole “family” to just leave me there and head out for dinner.
“Where is he?”
But on the other hand...
The door swung open and I didn’t even bother to look up to see who walked in. I knew who it was.
The sharp sound of the lock echoed through my ears and I tensed like a wild animal, every muscle rigid and ready to spring to action if needed. Footsteps neared my seated profile.
“You stupid fuck,” he seethed.
My nostrils flared. “Yeah?”
“Daddy is going to be the one that loves you most...”
I could feel him standing to the side of the chair, mere inches away.
“I wouldn’t come any closer,” I warned in a whisper, and chanced a glance upwards at his surprised expression. I wasn’t even quite sure where those words arose from, or how I pronounced them so clearly. I steadied myself against the arm rests of the chair, expecting the worst.
A sinister laughter filled the room. I shook fiercely.
“Well, just look at you,” David clapped his hands together twice, circling the chair. “Is Mommy’s baby boy all grown up now?”
“I’ll show you what it’s like to be a man.”
“Are you a man now, or something?”
“Don’t cry. You know that you enjoy this. Be a man, Noah.”
“You think you’re the boss of the house, huh? Grew some balls, did you?”
I grit my teeth. I knew this process. David was trying to break me down, as he did before when I was a child.
Well, I wasn’t a child anymore. And his antagonizing wouldn’t scare me.
“I’m more of a man than you will ever be,” I growled.
The moment the words left my lips I knew the retaliation was coming.
David ripped me from the seat, his hands tightly gripped around the loose part of my shirt. I was no match for his strength. He lifted and slammed me to the floor, knocking the wind out of me. Before I could move, his fist swiftly drove into my gut.
“You are?” David bellowed. “You think so, bitch? So, man the fuck up. Fight back.”
I coughed, unable to speak or breathe. I curled inward, clutching my abdomen, instincts telling me that I needed to protect myself.
David leaned down, and I felt the hard exhale of his beer-tinted breath on my face. His lips curved into a snarl. “I showed you what being a man was, you insolent brat!”
My eyes shot to his. The scary reality of that statement was that David actually believed his twisted words. He actually thought that he did me a favor, and that I owed him for my “upbringing” at his hands. He was proud of what he put me through, and that was not something I could ignore.
“What in God’s name are you spouting?” I screamed, struggling in his iron hold. “You destroyed my childhood!”
David watched me with an amused gleam in his eyes. I felt like vomiting.
“I destroyed your childhood, eh?”
He bent to the side of me and grabbed hold of my chin. I tried to turn my face away from those prying eyes. That horrid soul had taken everything of importance, and yet still yearned to extract what small amount of dignity that remained in me.
“You’ve always been a little bitch,” he hissed, forcing me to look at him while he said it, his other arm pressing into me from behind, pinning me to the floor.
I fucking hated him.
“Get your filthy hands off of me!” I yelled, pushing with all the force I had.
David stumbled slightly, though his grip on me did not waver.
The physical contact only seemed to fuel his anger.
He aggressively pressed me back to the floor, twisting my wrist behind my back as if he was apprehending a criminal, angling his knee into the small of my back to keep me stationary.
The position left me immobile and in excruciating pain.
All I could do was squirm underneath his hold.
The room’s handle turned quickly. “Father,” Damian’s voice echoed around us.
He couldn’t get in.
“What is this, Noah?” David said, clearing his throat and catching a breath. We were both exhausted after the struggle.
I looked up to the object he now held between his two forefingers.
“I said, what is this?” he repeated.
I stared at it, perplexed. “Is that what everyone is so angry about?” I asked quietly.
David tilted his head up. “Why? Have you done something worse?”
A flash of Silas’s face popped into my mind. His chest. His tattoo. His cock.
As a matter of fact...
“No,” I said with a smirk. “I suppose not.”
David pressed his knee deeper into my back, causing me to wince.
“Answer my question.”
“It’s weed.”
The more I thought about it, the more it made me want to laugh. Damian had found the tiny, burnt out bud that I had carelessly thrown into my top drawer without covering it.
“You bet your ass it is,” David growled. “And if I ever see anything like this again in my house, you’re going to regret the day you were born.”
I scowled. “Don’t worry. I already do.”
With a throaty chuckle, David stood, allowing me to pick myself off of the floor. I watched him suspiciously as he pointed towards the locked entry way.
“Get out of my sight. Your mom wants to talk to you.”
Though it was my mom who had requested the talk, it was Damian hammering me with all of the questions, like he was the dad I never got.
“How many times have you smoked this shit?”
“Damian, language,” My mother reprimanded.
I figured lying would save me the most trouble. And time. I didn’t need my family poking their noses in where they didn’t belong. “Once.”
I had said it before:
“It’s my life...”
And it was. I didn’t care about anyone else’s opinion of it.
Damian paced a few feet away from me. His face was deep in thought, determining his next words, his next move.
Maybe that’s what made him so good, I thought. He thinks before he acts.
Damian continued his interrogation. “Who gave this to you?”
“No one. I found it.”
Wrong. You know who sold it to you.
“What are you smirking about?” Damian roared.
I covered my mouth with one hand, hiding the new, fresher smile. “Oh? Was I?”
“Noah, please, be serious,” my mom begged.
I hadn’t realized how easy it was. Lying to them. Or just how accustomed I was to lying now. It was just a natural thing for me to smile when I knew I had won.
“You think this is a game. You parade around, doing absolutely nothing. You think somehow, it’s okay to bring illegal substances into this home, fully aware that we represent the law!” Damian seethed.
Check. The piece inched forward in my game of chess.
“It’s not a big deal, there are worse things out there than a little pot,” I quipped, crossing my arms in defiance.
“You want something to laugh about? I’ll give it to you.” Damian said, matter of factly. “Mother and I have decided—”
“It’s going to be the best for you, dear,” my mother interjected, nodding with enthusiasm.
I narrowed my eyes cautiously. Where was this headed?
Damian sighed before continuing, “You’ll be attending college. I’ll be here by the time you get home from your seven-hour day at school…” He caught my gaze. “...to watch over you.”
I looked from both of the faces. They were stern.
“So this kind of thing,” Damian tossed the drugs into the trash can. “Doesn’t occur again.”
I had always thought that once I survived high school it would be the end of that hell. And now they were trying to make me go to college? I barely kept my head above water in high school. If they enrolled me in college, I would drown.
“You’re not serious,” I spoke.
“We are serious Noah. You’re constantly staying out late and getting into trouble. You don’t even have a job.” Damian held his forehead. “You need to get a grip and actually do something with your life. Whether it’s the force or not, you need to pick a path.”
I shot him a death look and crossed the floor to my mom. “Mother? Really?”
The guilt trip might work, I thought. As much as I hated to admit it, my mother was gullible and fragile. And even better, she loved me to death. I was certain that I could persuade her to change her mind. I’d won her over before.
“Mom, I don’t need college. We’d be wasting our money. I won’t do well there.” I smiled, placing my hands on her quivering shoulders. “C’mon mom. I know I made a mistake. Everyone does. Right?”