Serendipity // Camren

Chapter 34

Out of everybody in the great state of Florida, her father was the one person Lauren had really been hoping she wouldn't run into. Not so much for herself, but for Camila. Because, while Camila had known and grown used to her particular brand of verbal assault back in the day, even HBIC Lauren Jauregui had nothing on her father. Lauren knew Mike would go for the jugular and, while she was prepared to take it, she wasn't sure Camila knew what they were in for.

She had told Camila that Mike had been abusive, but she didn't tell the brunette why he'd ever gotten angry enough to start swinging. Granted, it didn't take much to set him off if he'd been drinking, which it looked like he more than certainly had been, but she knew that the recent spate of pictures of her and Camila that had been showing up online and in magazines would have angered the man and embarrassed him. She knew that he would see her happiness and sexuality as an attack on the way he raised her, and if there was one thing Mike Jauregui could not stand, it was anything he perceived to be an affront to his 'Christian morals'.

"I can't believe you have the gall to show your face in this state after what you did," Mike spat. "You're a disgrace. An abomination. Bringing your filth around good people, trying to-" he took a step forward toward the group.

"That's far enough, man," Zayn warned, lifting a warning hand at him.

Mike laughed maliciously. "You don't scare me, boy. Look at you," he snarled at Lauren. "What kind of girl goes to a place like this? Huh? Are you trying to spread this disease you have amongst the rest of the world? Trying to infect everybody with your perversion? You're going to burn in hell, you little dyke. You know that, don't you? Are you trying to bring the rest of humanity down with you? Answer me!" he bellowed.

"Mike," Lauren said, reaching back and taking Camila's hand in her own. It wasn't much, but it was the best she could do to tell the brunette that they would be okay because she didn't dare take her eyes off of her father when he was behaving this way. When she spoke next, her voice calm and even, even though her body was ramrod straight and primed for attack. "You need to go somewhere and just sleep this off."

"How dare you speak to me like that," Mike hissed, taking another menacing step forward. He was drunk and angry, but he wasn't stupid enough to actually touch Zayn. He ruled his house with fear and intimidation and he knew that if it came down to a real fight he'd lose, so stopped just outside the man's reach. "I am your father, young lady."

Lauren bit her lip and shook her head, blown away by the fact that after everything he'd done to her that he would still try and use that line on her. At this point, he was no more her father than Zayn was.

"Like hell you are," Camila said, stepping out from behind Lauren and glaring at Mike. She had been shocked into silence by the vitriol in the man's voice, at the harshness of his words. Lauren had told her that Mike was an angry, violent man, but knowing and seeing are two very different things and now that the shock had worn off, she would do everything in her power to protect Lauren from that seething mess of a man who just made the mistake of claiming to be her father.

"Excuse me?" Mike said, his voice flat and cold.

Camila stood straighter and stared him in the eye. "I said, like hell you are. You gave up that right when you walked out of her life three years ago. Hell, you gave up that right when you gave her thirty minutes to pack her bag when she was fifteen fucking years old."

Mike grinned. "And what do you know about it, little girl? You're just as bad as she is. You're going to hell, both of you."

"And you're not?" Camila laughed, squeezing Lauren's hand that was wrapped around hers before she twined their fingers together. "Please. If I'm going to hell for loving this beautiful woman who managed to become so selfless and loving and wonderful despite your fucked-up influence, then what about you, you child-beating bastard?"