to an almost unbearable level, but I fought to keep calm and show no outward emotion. “They aren’t called maids, the term is housekeeper,” I spat, suddenly feeling the same indignation Shane must have when I referred to her aunt as a maid months back. “And I’m not fucking the help. That’s you and Mom’s thing. Not mine. Besides, Shane doesn’t work for us. Her aunt does.”
His gaze turned shrewd, making my skin prickle. “You sure seem defensive of a girl you claim means nothing to you.”
“I’m not defensive of shit,” I lied, biting the inside of my cheek to keep the truth from spilling out. “Like I said, she’s just a girl.”
He crossed his arms, looking like the condescending prick he was. “That’s not what your mother seemed to think. She said she saw you down in the driveway next to a piece-of-shit car, and it looked like you too were close. Very close.”
“Mom’s a wino and a pillhead,” I said as I reached for my headphones. “She doesn’t know what the hell she saw.”
This time my dad grabbed them and my phone and threw them both across the room. “You’ll watch how you talk about your mother while you’re under my roof, boy.”
I felt that indignation bubbling up in my gut, coating my words in sarcasm as I asked, “Is anything I just said a lie?”
“That’s not the point. The point is, you have no business getting involved with some white-trash townie, not when you’ll be graduating soon and leaving for Columbia in a matter of months. You need to concentrate on the future.”
I hadn’t bothered to tell him I had no intention of going to Columbia. Or Yale. Or any of the other bullshit Ivy Leagues he’d pulled strings to get me accepted to. Once I graduated in a month I was done with him and his bitch of a wife and this goddamn house. He could keep his money, I’d make my own way. I didn’t care how I did it as long as I never had to see either of them again. All I needed was Shane. As long as I had her, nothing else mattered.
“You’re getting worked up over nothing. You don’t have anything to worry about.”
He wasn’t buying it, I could tell by the gleam in his evil eyes. “Then you won’t have a problem ending it with her.”
“That’s not gonna happen,” I snapped, playing right into my father’s hand so easily he didn’t even need to break a sweat.
The son of a bitch grinned like he’d just bested everyone on a cheesy gameshow. “That’s what I thought.” He turned and started for the door, speaking over his shoulder. “That’s wasn’t a request, Jensen. That was an order. You’ll end it with that girl, and you’ll do it tomorrow. I won’t let you tarnish this family’s name and reputation by associating with some backwoods trash. Roses only mingle with class,” he stated, like I was nothing more than a stud horse kept around for breeding and increasing the bloodline—which I guess was an accurate depiction of how he saw me. “I won’t risk you knocking this girl up so she’s tied to our family for the next eighteen years. Break up with the bitch.”
I threw my legs over and stood to my feet. “Don’t you ever call her a bitch again,” I growled, that all too familiar rage building up inside of me. “I said I’m not ending it. There isn’t shit you can do about it so you might as well just deal.”
He turned slowly, the vein in his forehead starting to throb. “You think there’s nothing I can do about it?” he asked in a chilling whisper. “Have you forgotten who I am?”
I hadn’t forgotten. He’d never let me. Whitman Rose, district attorney on his way to judge. He had power, he’d already shoved that fact down my throat. But when it came to Shane Hendrix, I didn’t give a fuck. “You aren’t ready to play with the big boys, so I suggest you learn your place and mind yourself.”
“Fuck you,” I bit out. “Fuck your ‘power’ and your connections. There isn’t a goddamn thing you can do or say that will make me leave her.”
His face grew that same mottled red it did every time I pushed him to the line. “Who the fuck do you think you are, you little shit?” he snarled as he rushed me, stopping only an inch away. “You’ll do what I say when I