Find Her, Keep Her (CFTM Sequel)

Chapter 29 (Part 1)

EK: That's hilarious coming from you.

MK: Your mother and I were never going to work out, and for the record, I never brought home my extracurricular activities.

EK: You didn't have to. We all knew what you were doing. Especially mom.

MK: I'm not here to discuss your mother with you. I'm here to tell you my rules if you're going to come to my house. If that girl isn't a significant other, she's not welcome. My associates are family men with stable wives and children. I expect you to blend in. You're only as good as the woman at your side.

EK: Then I'm golden. Alex is my girlfriend, Dad. She's the best thing that I--

MK: I don't care what she is as long as she behaves herself in front of my guests.

EK: And I don't want you acting like an asshole in front of my girlfriend.

MK: Fine. Be at the house . Dress accordingly. Business casual. No street clothes. Are we clear?

EK: Crystal.

MK: See you this afternoon.

Call ended.

I hang up the phone but keep staring at the screen long after my dad's name fades to black.

I should be grateful that he said he'd help me and that he's "willing to talk", but I know better than to believe anything he says. Everything he does always has strings, a thousand little lines that always lead back to him benefitting in the long run.

He isn't in this to help me. He smells a misconduct case in the water, and him and his sharks at the firm are out for blood.

If King, Brooks, and Jones LLC took on the San Diego police department and won, they'd be all over the news. Dad would make another couple mill, and he'd use what happened to me to pave the way straight to his bank account.

Everybody else around the great Malcolm King thinks he's some kind of hero, but I know who he is, who he's always been, which is why I need Jersey here. I need her to know the other half of where I come from, the darker half of who I am, so she understands me. So I don't add anymore secrets between the two of us then there already are.

My mind kicks into overdrive just thinking about everything I still need to tell her--and how every single one of those truths will probably drive her away.

I don't want her to know about Mindy. Or that I nearly had a daughter with her. Or that at one point, I was almost ready to buy into a life, a kid, and a girl I didn't choose.

Jersey finding out how my dad is is one thing. But her knowing what happened with Mindy would break her heart. And I'm not ready to do that again.

Not until I know there's a solid chance that she'll let me fix it.

I turn towards the car, cock my foot back, and start kicking the shit out of the back wheel. I need to hit something. I need to beat out the chaos raging around my head before I drive myself crazy thinking, remembering, and feeling way more than I should.

My chucks crash against the tire over and over again, but I barely feel it. I shift my focus to the rusted metal hub caps and wait for the pain to the drown out the noise buzzing between my ears. I open my mouth to try to scream out my frustration, to yell until the memory of everything that happened since last night disappears, but my sound fades into the silence.

My eyes burn like hell, but I screw them shut before I lose control.

I hate that I feel this small and this weak because of people like my father and that officer. People who drag me under their feet. Who crush me.