Cruel Kisses (It's Just High School #2) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,110

shit!

He really would pin all this on Julian. My running away, the fact that we were together, he would spin it in such a way that would make Julian guilty of forcing me and taking me. Hell, if my father tried hard enough, he’d find evidence or even witnesses to back him up on it. Julian and I weren’t always like this. There was a time he wrapped a hand around my throat and threatened to squeeze the life out of me. There are rumors in Palos Verdes that I tried to blow him up but ended up hurting Liam instead.

No, this can’t be happening.

“I know you’re feeling dizzy right now, but like I said, all of this can disappear,” he says, his voice alone making bile rise, pushing against my esophagus, but I force myself to focus and see this through.

“What do you want?” I whisper, sweat dotted on my forehead and tremors rip through me. “What do you want me to do?”

“It’s simple Princess, I just want you to come home.”

Silence.

My father was smart, but so was I.

“Really?” I scoff. “That’s all you want me to do? Come home and all this will be over.”

“Well, for starters,” he says. “If you agree to save your little Romeo and his brother…”

“Wait, what?” I start, my eyes widening. “What does Liam have to do with any of this?”

“He’s John’s son,” my father says simply. “That’s his only error in life, as well as that unfortunate big mouth of his. I bet it’ll be the death of him one day. But like I was saying before you rudely interrupted me, if you care at all about your little Fitz boys, you’ll get back and then you will do everything I tell you to do.”

“What makes you think that I’m so gullible?” I counter, proud of myself when my voice comes out strong and a little deadly like my old self is still in there, somewhere.

“Princess, you’ll want to do what I say, as a matter of fact, you’ll beg me to do anything I tell you to do.”

I think of Julian and his dream of playing professional football.

It’s so close, so within reach that I know it would kill him if something were to stop that. I think of Liam, who in a short space of time, has come to mean a lot to me. In a way he was my best friend.

Would either one of them want me to cower and roll over to a bully like my father? Would Nicky or Nancy for that matter? I’ve just realized that the women in my life have always been powerful and they never put their heads down as someone lorded over them, made their lives hell.

I mean, Nancy and John loved each other. They managed to keep that love burning despite my father. They won.

I would too.

“Hmm,” I start, sitting up straight now as I put all the pieces of the puzzle my father just laid in front of me, no doubt trying to scare me into doing his bidding. “You see the thing is Dad, what I’ve learned about truly evil masterminds is that they don’t waste time on the phone ranting about what they’re going to do to someone they’re trying to destroy.” I mean John didn’t at least. “They just go ahead and wreak all sorts of havoc without anyone the wiser.”

“Now you listen to me…”

“No, you listen to me, Dad,” I say sarcastically. “I am not your puppet! I won’t do whatever the hell you have planned for me and my boys.”

A sense of empowerment washes over me as soon as I say that. The dread and fear all fall away like they weren’t ripping all sorts of chaos in my head a few moments ago.

“You’re underestimating me, Mia,” my father says, his voice now low but I can hear the uncertainty in his voice now.

“No, I don’t think I’m underestimating anything at all. You see, I know everything, Dad. I know that you’re broke, and you drink all day to try and drown your sorrows because Nancy and Nicky won! They managed to get away from you! I know you’re living in a one-bedroom apartment in a bad part of town. I know you’re strapped for cash and I know it’s all because your stepbrother who is way better than you, more successful than you, made it so.”

“No!”

“Dad, you lost! Admit that! And I’m not stupid. You calling me and telling me all this, then going