My ride home was on autopilot, all that had transpired in the past twenty-four hours racing through my mind. Before the encounter in the bathroom where I spilled everything, I’d been conflicted about my feelings toward Kaden, and now we were back together. We’d had sex several times on top of everything else, but I supposed there was no better way to end such a chaotic day.
Walking toward my house, I heard shouting coming from inside. While I wasn’t ready to deal with what I had to tell them, I wanted to get it over with and move on, just like I’d told Kaden earlier. The breath I held tightly in my lungs trickled out slowly when I wrapped my hand around the handle of the front door. “I can do this,” I whispered to myself as I took my first step inside.
The shouting stopped, and before I saw her coming, my mom barreled toward me, her eyes red and puffy. She pulled me into her arms, and I returned her hug full force, guilt that she was in this state because of me eating me up.
“Oh, honey.” She pulled back to look at me before hugging me again. “Where were you? We were so worried something happened to you.”
“I’m fine. I’m sorry I made you worry.” I wanted to remind her I was a twenty-two-year-old woman and could take care of myself, but I kept my mouth shut.
“I’m just happy you’re home now.” She took a step back, her strained smile telling me the worst was yet to come. “Your dad is….” She shook her head, a lone tear slipping down her cheek. “I’ve never seen him like this, and trust me, I’ve tested the man’s resolve in my time.” The faintest chuckle escaped, but her posture stiffened when we both heard my dad shout from the other room, his voice getting louder, indicating he was headed right for us.
I felt his presence before I saw him, every muscle in my body locking up. As soon as his eyes met mine, I wanted to slink back out the front door and hide in my car. My own father glared at me with contempt, snarling at me right before he spoke to me.
“Nice of you to let us know you’re still alive, Riley.” I parted my lips to say something, anything, but he cut me off with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Erase whatever crazy ideas you have in your head about you and him.” He couldn’t even say his name.
“Dad—”
“I don’t want to hear anything you have to say. I’m so disappointed in you. We raised you better than this.” He stepped closer, his intention to intimidate me working well.
I didn’t know if my newfound strength came from finally dealing with what happened years ago, or the knowledge that Kaden still loved me and wanted to be with me, but I cocked my head to the side and glared right back at my dad.
“Raised me better than what? Not to fall in love?” He scoffed. “Not to make a mistake?”
“Riley.” My mom said my name in warning, not to poke the bear, so to speak, but I had to say this. When I stepped into my house, I was hell-bent on doing whatever I could to not rock the boat and makes things worse, but I discarded that plan, refusing to stay silent any longer. Kaden was right… no more hiding.
“I’m sorry I’m not perfect. Kaden and I made a mistake, one he didn’t find out about until yesterday. I never told him about the pregnancy or about the miscarriage.” I didn’t want to go into the details of why, although I was sure he heard them when he’d been listening outside the bathroom door. “But that’s all in the past now. I want to move forward. We want to move forward together.”
“We?” He shook his head vigorously. “Not a fuckin’ chance in hell. You’re not to see him. You’re not to talk to him. I don’t even want you mentioning his name in front of me again. He’s lucky I haven’t killed him yet.”
The way he said yet ignited the flame of fear I had for Kaden’s safety where my dad was concerned.
“You can’t tell me who I can or can’t be with. I’m twenty-two. I’m an adult.” My voice rose an octave.
“Not in this house you’re not.”
“Then maybe it’s time I move out,” I shouted, tearing at my hair because I didn’t know what else to do with myself.
“You’re not goin’ anywhere.” His voice dropped, the gruffness in his tone scaring me. He would never physically lay a hand on me, but right then, I completely understood why some of the guys at the club were afraid of him, including Kaden.
“Please calm down. Both of you,” Mom said, caught in the middle of our meltdown.
“I’m not calming down,” he said. “I run this house and what I say goes.” He turned his back on us, every expletive flying out of his mouth in the span of four seconds.
Typically, his wife would remind him that he in fact did not run the house, that she had just as much say, but saying such things to him now would be pointless when he was in such a state.
My dad grabbed his cut from the back of the chair, snatched his keys from the side table, and stormed out of the house, slamming the door so hard I was surprised all the windows didn’t break.
I broke down in tears, and I would’ve fallen to the floor in complete emotional exhaustion had my mom not been standing there to catch me.
She kissed the top of my head. “Shh…. It’ll be okay. He’ll calm down, honey. You’ll see.”
“You don’t even believe that,” I mumbled, clutching on to her while I released my sadness.
Choosing not to agree or disagree, she led me into the living room and sat me on the couch, sitting right next to me and continuing to offer her support.
When I finally stopped crying, wiping away the last of my tears, she squeezed my hand. “I know you probably don’t want to talk about this right now, but I need to know what happened.” I didn’t bother asking her what she meant.
I told her about the day I found out I was pregnant. How scared I was, especially since I was unsure about the state of my relationship with Kaden. I told her how he’d been pulling away from me for months before and wasn’t sure how he’d react to the news of becoming a father, but when I found him in the clubhouse, with that woman, I ran. I hurriedly told her he hadn’t in fact cheated on me, but I didn’t know it at the time. Then I reminded her about my car accident and that I’d suffered a miscarriage a couple days later.
Collapsing against the back of the couch, I released a breath, one so heavy I felt it in my bones. While I was elated to have Kaden back in my life, and in my heart, I hated our relationship caused my dad so much stress. Why couldn’t he be a normal overprotective father and not some crazy man about to throw down at the first sign some guy was interested in me? Better yet, why couldn’t he come to terms with Kaden being the one I loved? He’d known him his entire life, loved him like a son, had said so many times.
Lost to my own thoughts, my mom’s voice startled me when she spoke.
“Can I ask something of you, sweetheart?”
“What?”
“Don’t do anything rash. Give it a few days before you make any decisions.”
“Like I told Dad, Kaden and I are together now, and nothing is gonna change that.” I moved to stand but she caught my hand, pulling me back.
“I’m not talking about you and Kaden.” She placed her hand over her heart. “I love him, and I love you two together. I just wish you would’ve confided in me back then. Maybe I could’ve worked on your father.” My brows shot up. “Okay, so maybe I wouldn’t’ve gotten very far but I still wish you had told me.”
“We couldn’t risk him finding out. No one knew. Just me and Kaden, of course. Oh, and Uncle Trigger.”
“Yeahhh… he’s not gonna let this one go with your dad.” A strained grin appeared on her lovely face.
“I’m getting that same feeling,” I said, mirroring her expression. “I do think it’s time I move out, though. I’m grown now and there’s no reason I should still live with my parents.”
“Where would you go?”
“Chelsea would love a roommate,” I said, hoping it was the truth. She’d lived on her own for a while and had mentioned several times how much she wished her rent wasn’t so high. And she lived in a nice part of town, safety being one of the reasons she put up with paying as much as she did.
“Just make sure you work through all the details before you up and move out. Like I said, don’t do anything rash.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
“Good.” She patted my knee before standing.
“Hey, Mom.”
She looked down at me and smiled. “Yeah?”
“How long do you think it’ll be before Dad gets over this and accepts that Kaden and I are together?”
“I don’t know. It took Uncle Trigger years to come to grips with me and your dad. He still gives him shit every once in a while, but now it’s more teasing than anything. Your dad didn’t let my uncle’s anger deter him from being with me, and if Kaden loves you like I think he does, he won’t let anyone stand in the way of being with you.”
“I believe that, too. I just don’t want Dad to retaliate like Uncle Trigger did.”
“Neither do I.”
Her parting words did nothing to soothe my worry that my dad would indeed try and shoot Kaden.