The Slayer (Untamed Hearts #2)(51)

“Do you care?” Jules asked in annoyance, because Alaine’s father didn’t exactly approve of Jules, or her husband, Romeo, to say nothing of Romeo’s extended family.

“Can I have a moment to speak with my daughter?” he asked, clearly giving up on the ruse that the two of them felt anything less than absolute loathing for each other. “If you wouldn’t mind?”

“Are you asking me to step out of my own office?” Jules laughed at his audacity. “If so, then yes, I mind.”

“Alaine,” her father said harshly as he leveled a cool gaze at her still sitting behind her desk. “Step outside, please.”

Alaine groaned in frustration, because this really was the last thing she needed. She moved her chair back and put her hands on the desk to get up, but then stopped.

Why did she think she owed him anything?

She had been surviving on her own for a long time now.

She’d gotten a law degree without him, yet there was still this young part of her that always feared his disappointment. Not enough to push aside her own desires. She’d done what she wanted despite him, but face-to-face she tended to bend to his will.

And it always infuriated her later.

So this time, she spread out her open palms on the desk and stayed where she was. “You know what? No.” Alaine lifted her head and looked him dead in the eye. “I’m working right now. If you have something to say, please say it and let me get back to what I was doing.”

“Alaine,” he chastised, giving her a wide-eyed look before his gaze darted to Jules pointedly.

Alaine followed his gaze, seeing that Jules was still standing there, the hint of a smile tugging at her lips as she raised her eyebrows in obvious amusement and curiosity.

“It’s either here or nothing at all,” Alaine said simply. “I’m busy. I’m tired. I’m in a bad mood, and I don’t have time to get into an argument with you today over things that are none of your business.”

“It’s my business,” he growled, losing some of the fine air of elegance he always tried to exude. “You’re my daughter. What you do reflects on me.”

Alaine stared at him, realizing he’d just summed up their entire relationship. All he’d ever cared about when it came to her was how she made him look to others. A part of her had clung to the idea of what she thought fathers were supposed to be—loving and caring about their child’s dreams and ambitions.

But it had always been about his ambitions, and he’d been angry at her for years now because she hadn’t gone along with the program. She wanted to go back and slap her nineteen-year-old self for ever feeling guilty about disappointing him.

This was all on him, and Alaine wasn’t playing anymore.

She was so angry she just sat there gaping at him.

“You broke up with Edward,” he said when she didn’t respond. “After he came to me and asked for your hand. I thought you were settling down. You’re getting your life back in order.”

“I don’t like Edward.” She didn’t even flinch as she admitted, “I have someone else I care for. I misled you into believing I was interested in being with a man you approved of. For that, and only that, I apologize.”

Her father took a deep breath. His nostrils flared as he gave her a furious look. “It’s that boy.” He gestured to the stairs. “That fighter.”

“He’s not a boy.” Alaine’s own nostrils flared as she took a steadying breath and tried to contain her anger. “He’s a man. One who’s been there for me all this time when you haven’t.”

“Have you lain with him?” he snapped, his entire face flushed with fury.

“I have,” Alaine said, and it wasn’t a lie. She stood up with the intention of letting him out. “I’ve slept with him many, many nights, Daddy.”

“You let him touch you?” he growled, losing all semblance of the smooth, cultured, and respectable air he clutched at like a lifeline. “I don’t believe it. You wouldn’t.”

“I would.” Alaine let out a bitter laugh, because she had spent the past five years yearning for it with everything in her.

“He touched you? That one? With his tattoos and violence. The spic!” He pointed to the stairs once more in furious disbelief. “They are dirty, disgusting, lazy—”

Just like she had the night before, Alaine hit on instinct, smacking her father hard enough to leave the white outlined impression of her hand on his cheek. Jules actually gasped, but Alaine didn’t turn to look back.

She just stared at her father, unable to believe she had hit him.

A white-hot bolt of fear went through her, and for one long moment she couldn’t breathe, and he obviously couldn’t either. His eyes were wide and horrified as he stood there shaking.

“I’m leaving,” he said in a choked, incredulous voice once the silence became deafening. “And I’m not coming back, Alaine. If you want to lie with that filthy beast, it’s your soul.”

“Yes, it is,” she agreed with a nod. “It’s mine.”

She just stood there as her father stormed out of the office.

And out of her life.

A part of her didn’t want to believe he would end their relationship over something so petty, but she understood he had.