I walked up the few steps of my parent’s old Brownstone and rang the doorbell. My pulse raced as I waited for the door to be answered. I had pored over the papers that Alejandro had given me last night, and they had made for very interesting reading indeed.
If they were genuine, then my father’s explanation for my forced marriage to Alejandro just didn’t make sense. If what I’d read on those papers was true, it seemed that my father had an entirely different reason for marrying me off to the King of L.A and the heir to the Montoya family business.
Of course, I knew that paperwork could be faked but I had an awful feeling that it hadn’t been, and that Alejandro was the only one telling me the truth.
I took a deep breath.
I could do this!
I was about to confront my father, the man I had always looked up to, and accuse him of something so heinous, it was unthinkable.
Cassandra, my father’s PA, answered the door to me. ‘Alana?’ she said with a look of surprise on her face. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘I’ve come to see my father, Cassie. Is he home?’
She nodded and stepped aside as she opened the door wider. ‘Of course. Come in, come in. He’ll be so happy to see you.’
I followed her into the kitchen, where my father was sitting drinking coffee and reading the morning papers. I wondered briefly why Cassandra was here so early in the morning, but dismissed the thought from my mind. I had enough to confront him with without wondering if he was having an affair with his PA.
‘Sweetheart,’ he said as he looked up from his newspaper. ‘What are you doing here?’
I shrugged. ‘I just needed to see you, Daddy.’
He folded his paper and stood up, crossing the kitchen and placing his hand on my shoulder. ‘Is everything okay, Alana?’
I blinked back the tears. How the hell was I going to do this? ‘Where’s mom?’ I asked.
‘In bed. She’s having one of her migraines,’ he replied with a roll of his eyes. My mother spent more time in her bed than any other person I’d ever known.
She always had some ailment or other. I thought about asking him to go get her, or marching up the stairs and waking her myself, but I thought better of it. I wondered if she knew what her darling husband had done.
She had always taken his side over mine. He had always been the most important person in our family. Everything had always been about him and his career, and until that moment, I had never even thought to question it.
I looked sideways at Cassandra and thankfully she read the situation like a pro. ‘I’ll leave you two to it. You must have lots to catch up on and I need to prep for our interview later. I’ll see you for lunch?’ she said to my father.
‘Yes. I’ll see you there, Cassie,’ he said warmly and I noticed the way their eyes locked for just a fraction longer than they should have.
It was as though I was suddenly seeing my father without the filter of being his adoring daughter. Maybe my mother’s constant illnesses were due to something more than her being a hypochondriac?
‘It was nice to see you, Alana,’ Cassandra said, snapping me from my thoughts.
‘Yes, you too,’ I nodded politely and watched her walk out of the door.
‘Is anyone else here?’ I asked.
‘Only Paulo. Why?’ he frowned at me.
Paulo was my father’s personal security detail and had worked for him for the past two years. I knew that my father trusted him implicitly and I doubted there was much that went on in my father’s world that Paulo wasn’t privy to. ‘I just have something delicate to discuss, that’s all.’
‘Well, Paulo won’t bother us,’ he said with a wave of his hand. ‘What is it, sweetheart?’
I sat down at the table and he did the same.
I looked at him. His hair was greyer than I remembered, and he didn’t seem as tall either. I used to find him formidable and intimidating, but now he just looked like an old man. Still, he was my father, and I loved him, and what I was about to ask him wasn’t easy.
‘I want to know the real reason why you asked me to marry Alejandro,’ I said, my voice trembling.
He frowned at me. ‘You know why. I would have gone to jail for the rest of my life, sweetheart. He threatened to expose me.’
I shook my head. ‘But with what, Dad? The information he has on you could damage his business beyond repair. Why would he ever expose it?’
His frown turned to a scowl. ‘For lots of reasons, Alana.’
‘Such as?’
He snorted and shook his head. ‘You wouldn’t understand. I’ve always protected you too much, and in doing that, I’ve failed you. I can see that now. You don’t have a clue how the real world works, sweetheart.’
I wondered if he actually believed any of that bull-crap. ‘But that’s just it, Dad. I do. And what you told me just doesn’t add up. Not to mention that two days before my wedding, your campaign received a three million dollar donation from The Montoya Corporation. So, I’ll ask you again. Why did you force me to marry Alejandro Montoya, because it sure as hell wasn’t to stop him from ratting you out to the Feds like you told me?’
He scowled at me. ‘He’s been filling your head full of lies about me. And like a stupid little girl, you believe him?’ he hissed.
‘I’ve seen the papers myself, Dad. And I am not a stupid little girl.’
‘I can’t believe you would believe that animal over your own father!’ he spat.
‘You think he’s an animal?’
‘I know he is!’
‘Then why the hell did you sell your only daughter to him?’ I snapped.
He jumped up from his chair. ‘How dare you come into this house and accuse me,’ he shouted, spittle flying from his mouth. ‘You ungrateful little bitch. I tried to give you a better life. And it was no easy feat either, convincing him to take you on.’
‘What?’ I looked up at him as my legs started to tremble.
‘Yes, that’s right. I had to do a real sales job on him. I convinced him you were some fun-loving Manhattan socialite who would be able to hold her own in his world, instead of a boring bookworm who would rather spend her Saturday nights working than going out with her friends. But of course, you don’t have any friends, do you, Alana? You never did have.’
I stood up until I was staring him in the face. ‘I never had friends because you insisted on making me work on your campaign every spare hour I had.’
He laughed in my face. ‘I did that to give you some purpose in your life, Alana. Without me, you would be nothing. I arrange your marriage to the King of fucking L.A and even that’s not good enough for you. And now that he’s seen you for who you really are, he’s tossed you aside. So, you’ve come crawling back to me trying to blame me for the fact that he doesn’t want you. I hope he realizes he doesn’t get a refund for returning you. You’re used goods now, sweetheart!’
I felt the sting of his words like a slap to my face. I choked down a sob. He would never see me cry.
I was Alana fucking Montoya!
‘You couldn’t be more wrong. Alejandro loves me because of who I really am, not because of who he tries to make me be, or who you tried to convince him I was. You sold me to him, Dad. You sold your only daughter to a man you knew to be a ruthless killer. You call him an animal, but you are a monster.’
He raised his arm and brought the back of his hand crashing down against my cheek so hard that my head snapped backwards. ‘You ungrateful little whore,’ he raged at me.
I backed away from him as he advanced towards me with his fist in the air.
Paulo came through the kitchen door so fast that I hardly had time to process the fact that he was in the room until he had my father in a choke hold.
My father struggled. ‘Get off me,’ he sputtered as he flailed against Paulo’s superior strength.
‘If I let you go, are you going to sit your ass down?’ Paulo snarled.
‘Yes,’ my father choked.
Paulo released him and my father stumbled to a chair, rubbing his throat. ‘What the hell are you doing. You work for me,’ he rasped.
I looked at Paulo and he nodded at me. ‘Actually, I work for Mr. and Mrs. Montoya,’ he said as he glared at my father.
‘What?’ my father snarled. ‘But you’re my security.’
‘I am. But I am employed by The Montoya Corporation. I was selected by Mr. Montoya himself to protect you, and also to keep an eye on his investments.’
‘You’ve been spying on me?’
‘Keeping an eye on Mr. Montoya’s interests,’ he replied.
‘Does that mean me too?’ I asked Paulo.
‘Not until today, ma’am, when Mr. Montoya told me that you were coming into town. He asked me to make sure no harm came to you. I’m sorry I didn’t respond sooner,’ he looked down at his feet and I wondered if he was worried about Alejandro’s reaction when he saw my cheek, which was sure to be bruised after the smack my father had given me.
‘There’s no need to apologize. I appreciate you intervening when you did,’ I said and then I glared at my father. ‘You sold your own daughter and you tried to convince me that Alejandro was the monster. You made me marry a man because I believed he was blackmailing you, all for a campaign donation. You make me sick,’ I spat. ‘And I never want to see you again.’
He glared at me and I could tell he wanted to respond but he was still sitting under the heat of Paulo’s intense gaze.
‘Does Michael work for my husband too?’ I asked Paulo, recalling the driver who had picked me up from the airport and brought me here.
‘He does now, ma’am,’ he said with a nod. ‘Would you like me to call him for you?’
‘Yes, please,’ I said. ‘I’ll wait outside for him.’
I sat on the steps of the Brownstone while I waited for the driver to return for me. I felt the hot tears streaming down my face but I didn’t bother wiping them away. My whole world had been turned upside down.
I had never really known my father at all. Everything I believed about my life and all that I’d done had been a lie. He wasn’t a good man. He wasn’t a good father.
He was the monster.
I looked up at the blue New York sky and watched a bird swooping overhead. Suddenly, I realized that I was free. For so long, I had lived my life out of a sense of duty and responsibility, and now I was completely free to do whatever I chose and not what anyone else wanted or manipulated me into doing.
I wiped the tears from my eyes and smiled to myself, because for the first time in my life, I knew exactly what I wanted.
