In Need of You

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Elisha went against the protests and pleas his family berated him with; especially Sabrina's. But it had to be done. He took the last drag of his cigarette, savoring the stingy yet cooling return of the nicotine filling his lungs. The sun peeked through the heaviness of the gray clouds as they snailed their way across a once blue sky. Jonah always had to make a slow entrance.

He tilted his head backward with his eyes closed. Faint remnants of cigarette smoke escaped the corner of his lips. Letting the cigarette butt fall to the ground, he leaned against his black SUV, inhaling and exhaling the clean air into the lungs to purge the smoke he filled them with.

Hearing a car pull up, Elisha opened his eyes. A smirk pulled at the corner of his lips. Dad finally showed up in a car with dark tint, but no telling him, it could have been Kevin driving the car. He waited, watching the driver's side open. One by one, a pair of black loafers stepped onto the ground. A head of whiteish gray hair appeared from behind the door. Jonah scoffed while shaking his head. 

"I'm surprised my bullshit excuse for a soon kept his word," he said walking toward him. 

Elisha pursed his lips and nodded. "That doesn't surprise me, Jonah."

"Oh! So, now you're calling me Jonah now instead of Dad?" he sneered. "I didn't see that one coming. I guess screwing the brains out that little ni--"

"Call her that, and I'll shoot you dead."

"Quick to draw too, I see," he scoffed. "Wow, son. You've finally grown a pair."

"My balls still aren't as big as yours though." Elisha stood from the SUV and stepped toward him. The figure sitting in the passenger's seat captured his attention. The figure seemed too short to be Kevin, but then again, it could have been him. The one, and most important, rule that he learned from Jonah was never to expect the expected. Unexpectation was primal in the game of war. 

Elisha sided more on the art of war more so than the primal nature of it. Maybe that was the main reason Dad hated him so much. He would rather try to solve a problem the right way than decimate his opponent without knowing the facts first. That was probably due to Dad's oversized ego. 

"I would apologize, Elisha, but--"

"I don't need your apology."

Jonah stiffened, then smiled. "I guess I did raise you right."

"Just tell me something, Jonah," Elisha said, stepping closer to him.

Jonah looked away from him and scoffed. "I have to say that I'm really getting tired of you disrespecting me."

Elisha smiled. "I was never the son you wanted anyway, right. It shouldn't bother you so much."

Seeing the frown lines and creased eyebrows appear on his dad's face amused Elisha. That must have been the feeling that Dad felt when he used to mock and verbally abuse him when he was a teenager. That must have been the power that rushed through his veins whenever he got his way. 

Elisha had to admit that it felt good to be on the other end of the spectrum, but he couldn't, by any means, treat his children in that way. His stomached bubbled from the thought of mocking Madeline and Nathaniel. Those children were his life; those children were the reason why he had to end his relationship with his father. They didn't need to know the monster that reared him. 

Elisha smiled. "Tell me why you hated me so much."

"You were weak."

"Really, Jonah?" Elisha asked. "Or, was it because Grandma and Granddad gave me and Amber the money that you begged for before your company went belly up?"