18. Xavier #2
"Are you hearing the words coming out of your mouth?
" I demanded. "Sloane is allowed to do what she wants.
That's where this conversation begins and ends.
She's a grown woman who gets to make her own decisions about her own life.
You can't hold a financial empire over her head like a loaded gun and call it love.
You can't expect her to inherit your miserable life just because she carries your last name. "
"Sloane has a duty to do what I require," he countered, his voice dropping to a dangerous octave. "That's her duty. She's my daughter."
I leaned forward, placing both hands flat on the table. "Did you have a child because you wanted a human being to love? Or did you breed an heir to manage your portfolio?"
He said nothing.
"Because from where Sloane is sitting," I continued, my voice shaking with rage, "it looks like the second one.
And she wants to live her own life. She wants the freedom to make her own mistakes.
You've spent her whole existence dictating what those choices should be, and she's spent her whole life trying to claw her way out from under your boot. "
"When you have children of your own," he said coldly, "you'll understand."
"I'm confident I never will," I fired back.
"I already know what I want for my future children.
I want them to be happy. In whatever career they choose, in whoever they choose to love, I want them happy, and I want to give them the freedom to get there.
I'll offer my guidance, yes. My wisdom, whatever little I have.
But I'll never force my plans onto their lives.
I'll never substitute my own decisions for theirs.
" I stared at him with disgust. "You've been a cruel father.
I hope you understand the size of that failure before you die. "
He said nothing. He just held my gaze.
I sat in the bright afternoon light pouring through the window, staring at his manicured hands, and my brain flashed to my own father's dining table.
It was the same toxic logic dressed up as parental love, the same prison walls labeled provision.
Henry Ty had done to Sloane what my parents had tried to do to me, except she'd been trapped alone in the crossfire, with no one to shield her.
She'd stepped in front of the bullet to protect me from a monster I was only now meeting for the first time. I didn't blame her for breaking.
I should have been the one standing in front of her.
I stood, threw a twenty onto the table for the coffee, and left him sitting there.
The second my boots hit the sidewalk, I pulled out my phone and dialed Violet.
"I need to talk to her," I announced the second she answered. "I need to see Sloane right now. If I call her cell, she won't pick up. And she has every right not to."
"Xavier," Violet ordered. "Slow down and breathe."
"I don't want to slow down," I argued, pacing the pavement. "I've been a fool for days. I've been playing it careful and measured. I was wrong. She was right, and I need to look her in the eye and tell her that."
Violet went quiet on the other end.
"Come to my apartment," she finally said.
When Violet opened her front door twenty minutes later, I blew past her into the living room.
"Why did I need to come here first?" I demanded, spinning around.
"You'll see," she answered, closing the door. "Sit down on the couch. Tell me what you're planning to say to her first."
I dropped onto the sofa.
"I've been stupid," I confessed, dropping my head into my hands.
"I stared her in the face and told her I didn't believe her.
I couldn't let myself believe it. It was easier to keep believing she just didn't love me enough to stay.
I didn't want to accept there was a real reason, because accepting it meant all those years I spent hating her were years I wasted being angry at the wrong person. " I pressed my palms against my eyes.
"She loved me too much. That's what she did.
She loved me so much she stood terrified in her father's office, handed me back the ring, and watched me walk away because she believed that was the only way to keep me safe.
" My hands fell away from my face. "And I took the ring, I walked away, and I spent eight years deciding her sacrifice meant she didn't love me at all. "
"I should have fought for it," I continued, my voice breaking.
"I should have tracked her down, demanded to know what happened, and sworn to her she wasn't alone.
I didn't do a single one of those things.
I let her go and built a comfortable story to protect my own ego.
I was a fool." I looked up at Violet. "It's not too late. Please tell me it isn't too late."
"No," Violet answered.
"Then give me her address right now," I demanded, standing. "I need to go to her apartment. I want to tell her I finally understand, and that we can love each other in different ways, and I swear to god I'll learn to understand her way. I will. I want to spend my life learning it."
Violet just watched me.
Right before she could open her mouth to answer, three sharp knocks echoed from the front door.
Violet stood, crossed the foyer, and pulled the heavy door open.
Sloane was standing right there in the hallway.
We both went still.