"I had something to fight for, and I was fighting for the love of my life. I couldn't give up or give in—not now. Not after all I'd been through—all we'd been through." ― Shanora Williams, "100 Proof"
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Chapter 84
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Luke

Kade and Levi were the most annoying sons of bitches to ever exist.

They hadn't let me leave last night like I intended, so I had to wait until morning to go and see the footage. I tried sneaking out, but as soon as I turned to grab my keys, I was staring right back into their eyes.

To get my revenge, I made sure to remind them that I hated them extra hard this morning. I waited until Kimberly was up since she was innocent in this, then connected my phone to Kade's stereo in the living room, and woke them up with recordings of monkey screeches that echoed through the house.

They deserved it.

I followed behind the manager as he led me to the surveillance room. The dumbass didn't even ask for any type of identification, but then again, everyone around here knew my face for reasons that I hated.

The manager, short and pudgy, with a head full of red curls and freckles kissing the skin below his eyes and around his nose. He wore a formal uniform with a tag that read Walter.

The security guard, who had obviously just been asleep, was sitting as straight as ever now in front of the monitor. Behind him, I stood with my arms crossed while he searched up the date I told him.

It took a moment for the multi-screens to load, but once it did, I jumped forward so quickly, I knocked the security guard off of his seat. He plopped to the ground with an oomph.

At his groan, I waved him off, "My bad." He'd be fine. Builds character.

Relieved, I observed the monitor over. There were so many views and directions recorded, a part of me was tempted to call Kimberly to thank her, again. I was definitely getting the girl a gift or some shit for this.

My eyes snapped up at a flicker of movement, narrowing back at the screen.

On the top right sat Maggie and my father. The floor was nearly empty with barely any other customers around. My father made it that way for a reason.

My fingers tightened around the corners of the table at the sight. That son of a bitch had no right to lay his fucking eyes on what was mine, let alone talk to her.

The first thing that I caught was something that nearly had my temper through the roof. My dad's security threw, then shoved Maggie back into her chair when she tried to leave the first time. It didn't look too rough, but that wasn't what got me.

The fucker still put his hands on her. If he was brave enough to do it to an innocent woman, I wanted to see if he had that same mindset when I stepped up behind her. Through my stir of a mind, I made a mental note to handle that shit later.

"Where's the volume?" I threw over my shoulder.

"Our footage doesn't capture volume," the security guard with a bruised ass responded. "Only film."

I whipped a glare at him. "How the fuck don't you—" I huffed with a shake of the head; I needed to calm down to get through this.

Rolling back the toxin of rage, I relied on my vision alone. I knew my girl enough to do that.

My eyes narrowed at the screen as I hit a fuck-ton of buttons to fast-forward the footage. I didn't stop until the video showed the check part.

Maggie, who was red in the face, and with my most favorite, most familiar sexy rage burning in her eyes, tore the check up, dumped it into her glass, then threw it onto my father. It would have made me laugh if I didn't remember that something had to have happened after this to make her come back.

Though, this part of the video confirmed what I already knew: Maggie never took the check.

Now that I had seen the video for myself, though, I knew that Vance had just taken the picture at the time that Maggie picked the check up before ripping it in half.

Despite the picture Vance threw in my face, not a second of belief came from me. There was no technicallys or bare truths in this other than what I knew about Maggie, not only as my girl, but as a person, in general.

To accuse her of something like that would basically be me going back on every single ounce of respect I had for her. That wouldn't happen. I knew her dignity, her morals, her. She would have never taken it.

But, why in the hell did she act like she did?

My heart skipped with the familiar ache it had gained the moment she walked out after saying what she did. This was the part that scared me most, more than all else. If I were doing this all for no reason, and if she had really just wanted be free of me.

Sighing, I pushed the feeling of doubt down and continued on with the video. I wouldn't know unless I tried.

Through the next couple of minutes, I watched Maggie's shift, carefully. She was half way gone from her and my father's table when he said something that made the fear creep up on her face as if it were all she knew. Then, panic, and finally pain.

There was something else I noted, too, something that made my breathing labor at its significance.

My dad offered Maggie a second check. It was minutes before she left, after saying whatever he threatened her with.

She didn't take it.

She definitely could have, since the deal was already done and she had nothing holding her down any longer, including me never finding out about it, but she still didn't take it. I didn't even know how much the amount was, but she didn't even look at it twice before she pushed it back toward my father's side of the table, her expression sunken with sadness, and left.

Fuck.

Irritation pinched my eyes. I swallowed past the lodge of emotions in my throat, rewinding the video back, then perching my phone up next to me. It was time to compare the employees, now.

As I had thought, my father made sure to request a waitress. Once I had a good look at her face, I compared it to the list of employees with shifts that night. It didn't take long to find her. Carlie.

I turned in the seat to look at Walter. "Is your waitress, Carlie, going to have a shift tonight?"

Bright eyes swept over the door, I guess for an escape if he gave me the wrong answer. I rolled my eyes; he was so dramatic. I wasn't going to bitch slap him unless he pissed me off.

"Her next shift isn't until Thursday afternoon," he finally revealed.

"Call her in," I said. "Tell her I'll pay her a week's salary, plus whatever the fuck else she wants. Just get her here."

Walter blinked back at me in shock, like a fucking idiot. I didn't have time for this shit, not right now. I wanted to be with my mom when they transferred her to the private institution, as well everything else I needed to go perfectly.

My gaze transitioned into a glare as I snapped, "Either do it or watch this place burn to ashes before the clock hits midnight."

My threat was genuine; it would only take one call. I'd still sleep the same after an 'accidental' fire to the place that watched a girl get dragged inside against her will.

At the blank paste of honesty he saw on my face, he mustered out a quick agreement and swept around to complete the request. Finally.

A weight had been lifted off my chest for sure, but a new one had replaced it, altogether.

The first being that, as I knew, Maggie didn't want to leave. Whatever reason she did, though...it originated to the person who was hell in human form.

I had to lock my fists to my lap to stop from punching the ever living daylights out of this computer monitor. I needed to hit something, though. Soon.

My dad did this. He tried to take her away from me, because he knew it'd be the one thing to fucking kill me.

Darkness clouded my blood, and mind alike. My vision had already blurred right along the lines of fiery red and a pitch black knockout.

Out of everything my father had done, this was the one that had dug him his own grave. Out of every beating, every threat, and fuck else, this, Maggie, was the thing that made me snap.

As I said, my dad knew where to hit me where it hurt. Her. And, he'd done it.

Everything was over.

There were no more boundaries, now. No love or family ties other than his blood. No waiting or hoping for something to tell me that my dad would change. Nothing.

The fucker was going down.

***

I passed by Kade with a quick handshake. "You knock him out?"

As soon as we separated, he shrugged. "I left that one for you."

I nodded in appreciation, stepping over the mess of glass Levi had probably left behind. "Good."

A day had passed ever since I got the surveillance footage and talked to Carlie. At her manager's request, she came in, and as skeptical as she was, it took a list of stretched reassurances before finally giving in.

From what she told me, I now knew that my father had lost his shit minutes into his and Maggie's conversation. Carlie mentioned that she and the rest of the staff heard my dad spewing shit about bastards and whores, too.

That gave me exactly what I needed.

As a kid, those labels were all I knew when my father acknowledged my mother and I. I wasn't even sure if he remembered my mother's actual name at a certain point, because of it.

Regardless of the anger it ignited inside of me, it gave me the clear as day realization. My father had threatened Maggie with my mother.

He had threatened me with the same thing time and time, again. Over the years, though, he had never actually acted upon the threats, because of me. It wasn't because of love or any humane, sweet shit, though. It was because of fear.

If he went through with ending my mother, then I would go through with ending the things he cared about most: his career. I would go public about my true parentage, as well as the timeline from the very moment he took me away from my mother. There would be no coming back from that.

And, like me, he would lose everything. It was a lose-lose situation, no matter how he looked at it.

Which was why, when my mother was smothered, I was confused. As I said, if I go down, then he sinks, not vice versa. The fucker would have to be on his deathbed to admit it, but he needed me more than I needed him.

I had been on my own physically, emotionally, and financially, for years. The only tie all along was my mother, yet he had been willing to risk that all of a sudden.

The best guess I had was him realizing that I had gained the things he thought I could never obtain : hope, love, care and every beautiful thing beyond it. He knew it'd turn the both of our lives upside down, since for the first time in my life, I had gotten to the belief of me being worth so much more than what he told me I was. He wanted to stop it, by any means necessary.

I needed the confirmation that my suspicions were true, though. Maggie was too startled from my dad's threat to risk it, so she wouldn't tell me, and there wasn't even a question with my dad, so I had to find another option.

This one wasn't first choice, but it would work.

My father's top bodyguard, ass-kisser, and right hand man, Chance. The fucker probably hated me more than he did, honestly.

Without his suit and position, though, he was just a little bitch who had thrown and shoved my girl down into a chair against her will.

After I got home from the restaurant, I made a call to Preston to disable the security to Chance's home the next evening, which hadn't been as fantastic as I expected, but if only made it easier on me. Kade and Levi had broken in, gotten the fucker down, and tied him up while I was making the calls for my father.

I had that part already planned out, and now, it was just a matter of playing it out. In less than twenty-four hours, Ryan Vaudest would go crashing down.

I studied Chance over. Kade had gotten the fucker real good in the face, and Levi was having the time of his life nearly tearing his hair from his scalp.

I flicked my head at them. "I just wanna say, I really appreciate the both of you for helping me with this."

Understanding cracked past Kade's mask. "Despite the fact that I still owe you for everything with Chivo, we've got you. Always."

I nodded in appreciation. Levi dismissed me with, "Like he said, it wasn't a problem." A silly grin danced across his lips as he added with a shrug, "If you really wanna show appreciation toward your brothers, though, you could treat us to a steak dinner."

Kade tipped his head at that, pushing out a small sigh of thrill. "Shit, that sounds good. I think I deserve my own plate of lobster, too."

Levi shook his finger at him. "You sure do man, and with all of the drinks we can think of too, right?" Kade nodded back with enthusiasm, his grin matching. "Hell yeah. Maybe with a dessert or three to finish it off, too?"

Amused, I glanced between the two. "You two just love to run me dry, huh?" For the shit they helped me with in the past week, I could definitely give them this. "Be ready to go for all of that shit, and all of the drinks and desserts you can think of Saturday night. It'll all be my treat, yeah?"

They both nodded, eager grins in place. Humored, I rolled my eyes before stepping forward to confront the main issue.

This would be quick. I wasn't worried about Chance reporting us, or anything like that. Besides the fact that there wouldn't be much liable evidence without the cameras on, he was going down with my father, as well. I would be the last of his worries in a couple of hours.

I kicked the side of his leg. "Wake up." When he remained still, I motioned to Levi, who got it immediately.

Jerking his hand back, he brought it down to Chance's cheek, but with his palm size and the force, it was more of a punch. Chance's face jerked to the side, before he jumped out of his slump with a yelp.

"Jesus," Levi chuckled, yanking him back by his hair until he winced. "You nearly blew my eardrums out with that shit, man."

His bruised eyes could barely part, but I knew he recognized me by the hatred that followed the moment we met eyes. They scanned over the living room next.

"Luke?" he croaked. "What are you doing—"

I grinned back. "Nice to see the tables turned, huh?"

"You..." Anger flashed over his expression. "Luke, when your father finds out about—"

"Take a picture for me when he does, if you can, because about at the same time, you're both going to be locked together for life." My grin widened. "Just like you wanted, right?"

His glare built, but he didn't respond. The longer he didn't, the more excited I saw Levi grow.

His eyes shot up to mine, and I immediately recognized the glint behind them. "Can I?"

"Be my guest, Wallace."

The punch he threw nearly knocked Chance clean out of the chair. Blood was already smeared over his face, but now, it was beginning to drip over his priceless, Persian rug. It was satisfying, considering how our places had been swapped not too long ago.

As I had said, he was my father's main bodyguard, but he considered him more of a son than me. He had been around for as long as I could literally remember.

When my father wasn't around to go through with his punishments, though, he would have Chance give them. I was a child, far too young to defend myself at the time, so now, I definitely took enjoyment in this shit.

The only reason Levi was doing the physical damage was because he knew I'd need my hands for tomorrow.

I flicked my head at Chance, who was definitely seeing stars from the hit. "July 10th."

"What about it?" Chance groaned out, head lolling around the back of the chair until Levi smacked it back into place.

"You, my father, and whoever the fuck else took Maggie—"

A sly grin showed the row of teeth I was possibly about to knock out of his mouth; it depended on his next response.

"You mean the raven haired bitch with big tits and —"

Kade knew to move back for this one. Levi shook his head with a chuckle, and did the same so that I could make my next move.

My punch was so hard, a tooth went flying. His head thumped against the wood of the chair, but I didn't let it stop me.

I took Levi's grip, my hand going to the nape of his neck and yanking it back.

"Acknowledge my girl out of her name, again, and we'll see who's the bitch then, yeah?" Under my grip, his strands ripped from his scalp until a painful grimace grazed his face. "Being my dad's lapdog won't get you shit, but crippled in this room."

Kade knocked into my shoulder. "Chill out and hurry it up, Luke. I have to get back to Kimberly soon." Levi nodded in agreement, taking his position, again. "You know what you came here for, man. Let the rest of the karma come for them tomorrow."

I hadn't realized how dark my mind had grown at hearing him disrespect Maggie until I tried to climb back out of the deep pit. I knew they were right, though.

"My dad." My jaw ticked, the temptation of stomping his face in this very second growing. "What did he say to Maggie?"

His green eyes, all lazy and trippy, still managed to sweep me over. A smirk upturned his lips, one that lit the last match that was stopping me from breaking something.

Fine.

"Wallace," I called. His green eyes raised to mine, already edged and giddy for my request. "Let's start small, yeah?" Kade chuckled from my side. "Snap a finger for every ten seconds that he stays quiet."

"Shit yeah." He clapped Chance on the shoulder, making him jump. "Don't worry, buddy. I won't let the shock knock you out too soon. We'll start from the pinky, and go on up—"

"Wait!" Chance cried out, his body pressing into the chair as far as it could. "Please, I-I—"

"You're grown," Kade snapped, rolling his eyes. "Speak the fuck up."

Chance's widened eyes jumped in between all three of us. The panic had made his skin go ghostly white, and it looked as if he were about to faint any minute now.

Funny. I would have taken the time to laugh if I actually could. I hadn't found the ability to genuinely do so ever since Maggie left.

As soon as Levi jerked Chance's hand to him, he cried out, "He told Maggie that he'd kill your mother if she didn't leave you!"

Everyone in the room stopped. My heart wasn't an exception.

Kade side-glanced me, then nodded at Levi, since he knew I was too stunned to do it myself. "Break the hand he put on Maggie."

Through the blood thumping in my ears, I heard the snap, then Chance's scream, but I could barely manage to understand much else past what he told me. What the fuck?

"He..." I choked on that single word until my jaw threatened to snap from how hard I clenched it. "He did what?"

Chance's hand was bent in an awkward position, now, but he had realized that if he didn't speak, another would follow.

The tears in his eyes only emphasized the red streaks behind them. "Your dad...he threatened her. He's been planning it ever since the event, when she jumped in front of you," he rushed out, chest heaving with fear. "When she didn't accept the money, he told her that he would suffocate your mother to death. Even had a whole setup at the hospital, and everything. It was all your father's idea. He told her to leave you, even gave her a script of what to say to you and everything. The documents, they're in a folder under the sofa cushion—"

Levi shut him up with a slap that sent another tooth flying. Kade walked over to the sofa, and after lifting the cushion, pulled out said folder.

When he passed it to me, I ripped it open. There were two pages of documents inside, but it wouldn't take long to read.

My eyes scanned the writing over, carefully. The first page was a script of some sort. It was some of the things Maggie had said to me when she left. Some of it, the most hateful and vile things my father had ever said to or thought of me, were the things she hadn't said.

The folder was full of something heavy, or maybe it was the tremble of my hands making it that way. I blinked down at it, my chest full.

My dad gave her a fucking script on how to break up with me.

My nostrils flared as I flipped to the second page, which had a black and white image of a check on it. It was kind of faded since it was printed onto a blank page, but I couldn't miss the amount.

There was another copy of a check underneath it, the second one my dad offered Maggie. The amount was nearly half a million this time, double than the first check my dad gave her.

I stared down at the images for so long, my eyes started to blur.

I had to stop myself from stumbling back from the swing of shock thrown at me. I figured that the threat had been something along the lines of this, but now...I had the confirmation of that, and so much more.

Maggie had been willing to sacrifice her own happiness and safety, for mine. She had wanted to save my mother's life. My life. And not only that, she rejected two checks, one that was more than the last, despite not knowing how any of this shit would turn out.

That did it. Ryan Vaudest was dead to me.

And, shit was Maggie Norris in trouble.

She can bet her beautiful fucking ass that she's in for a whole lot of shit with me. Before all else, I'm chewing her out for leaving and having me lose my goddamned mind without her for not only a day, but nearly a whole month. With the way it felt, it might as well have been an eternity.

The moment I see her next is the moment she gets the longest fucking scolding and speech of her life. The hours after that were the ones where I'd make sure her ass was sore, and as red as could be for the next couple of weeks as a reminder that she, me, us?

We weren't going any fucking where.

My heart ached in all of the right and wrong ways, though. The wrong being that she should have never had to do any of this shit, and I should have never had to feel the shit I did these last few weeks, just as I was sure Maggie was experiencing, too. The person who made her do it, though, who tried to tear us apart just because he knew it would break me, hadn't expected this, though.

I should have known that he'd never let me keep happiness for too long. Just having him think he had the right to even look at Maggie, let alone threaten her and hurt us would be the very reason I was going in where it hurt most.

***

I finished up the last of my cigarette the moment I saw my dad and his colleagues enter the hallway of his building. They were just coming back from lunch.

His regular bullshit image was in order. A tailored, expensive, black suit that only added to the elegancy of his sleek dress shoes and a priceless, iced Rolex gleaming on his wrist.

Seeing him so casual made the rage in my blood roar, but I couldn't focus on that. It would be gone in a matter of minutes. An hour, at most.

I had gotten to his building an hour ago, and waited in his office. Molly, his assistant that was really just his favorite girl to fuck in the mansion while Beatrice was gone on retreats, had looked at me as if she seen a ghost.

I could understand why. I had never visited my dad's businesses or his office before, because I wasn't allowed to. I had tried it once as a kid to give him a Father's Day present in hope for reconciliation that I should have never had to seek myself, and it didn't earn me shit, but a black eye. I hadn't been back since.

I told Molly to not tell my father about my visit, though. I wanted to surprise him.

I threw my cigarette over the carpet, not even bothering for the rest. I hoped it burned this motherfucker to the ground.

I glanced over the time, again. 6:48. I would be getting to Maggie and getting the scolding part done at 8:00. I would be kissing her like a starving man at 8:30, fucking her in every position ever thought of, and probably even creating our own until my name's the only one she knows to scream at 8:37, then making sure she's a beautiful, moaning, trembling mess from under me for having me go without her this long in the first fucking place at 8:39.

Then, I would be telling her I love her for...well forever.

Regardless of the darkness swallowing my mind up at my dad, the thought of my baby changed it all. I hadn't told her that I figured it out yet, because I wanted to wait until the threat was absolutely gone, first. It was just us, then.

I had to stop myself from doing cartwheels the longer I envisioned her soft lips against mine. The giddiness was of one I couldn't resist. My heart wasn't an exception of that.

A dazed expression slipped over my face before it fell back into a frown at the sight of my father.

Through the one-way glass, I could see him in the room across the hallway. He was in the middle of a meeting with at least a dozen other colleagues that were eating every word of bullshit he served them.

I grabbed my folder from my dad's desk. Kade and Levi had done a good job at the organizing of the documents, but when Kimberly suggested she check it over, she had rearranged them a bit, and it came out perfect, much to their annoyance.

They had texted me to say, not ask, but say that they were all coming by my house later on to celebrate. The entire group would be there, but it would practically be a lost for them.

I was keeping Maggie to myself for the first couple of hours, and I didn't give two shits who didn't like it. Fuck them. 

The flash-drive I had with me was burning my palm. This was the key to a number of things, but especially the repeat of history that I had only found out a week ago.

I rolled back my shoulders as I walked to the room of the meeting. My nerves were all fucked, and I was getting close to it, too. It wasn't that I was scared, because physically, I had never been afraid of my dad.

It was the emotional part of it. As I had said, I could have ruined his career and stopped everything on multiple occasions, but I hadn't, simply because I held onto my hope in him.

A year ago, I would have never seen myself anywhere else other than under my dad's foot. Despite what I endured in that spot, I knew it was safe there, simply because of its familiarity.

In that place, I thought I had a chance at still being loved and cared for by him. By my blood family. If I escaped it, I thought I'd have nowhere else to go, and no one else to be. I thought I'd be alone. My father thought that too, and that was why he had extra pleasure in digging his heel into my back the way he did.

Now, though, I knew. I knew who I was, and that I deserved to be it with the girl who made me want to be it. Life had only shown me the cloudiest, gray days for so long, and I hadn't ever considered the possibility of a new setting until I started to wake up next to the brightest light of them all. Maggie.

I don't deserve to lose that, no matter how much my dad claims I do. He didn't deserve me, and I wouldn't let myself think otherwise, ever again.

My mind pulsed with adrenaline as I approached the door to the meeting. He doesn't deserve you, Luke. He never did.

The chant held me over as I blew out a breath for good luck, then lifted my leg.

Without knocking, I threw my foot forward, causing the door to hit the wall with a loud thump.

Everyone in the room jumped, startled by my entrance. Especially my father.

With his mouth hanging, the shock on his face built until it lost its original color.

"Hey, dad." I cocked a grin. "Nice to see you."

"Luke," he breathed out. When he remembered the others, he turned his eyes back to him, and attempted to lock his shock away. "Son...what are you doing here?"

"Just thought it was a real beautiful day to see my loving father." I cast a chuckle to the group of gawking people. "I'm sure you're all aware of how much of a family man your mayor is, yes?"

They glanced between the other with uncertainty, then back up to my dad, who had regained his color, but too much of it, apparently.

Now, he was as red as the blood I was planning to spill from him, both mentally and physically.

Without a word, I took the seat that was supposed to be his right at the beginning of the long table, placed my folder down, then threw my feet on top of the table with my ankles crossed.

Everyone remained silent.

I grinned at my dad, who was barely holding his temper under a sensitive seal of perfection.

"Don't be shy." I motioned to the PowerPoint on the board. "Keep going."

I knew he hadn't expected my arrival, let alone at his office. Even with a sane expression, I could see the forewarning of events that he thought would play out. The bastard didn't have any idea of my own.

"Well?" My head lolled around until I finally glanced in my dad's direction with a mockery smirk. "They don't have all day, dad."

Snapping out of it, he raised his eyes and offered a strained chuckle to the group. "Please, do accept my apologies for my son, ladies and gentlemen." He motioned to me. "Sometimes, he just gets so enthusiastic about spending time with his father, especially right before the election—"

"I am pretty predictable, aren't I?" With a growing smile, I turned it to the group of businessmen and women. "Did any of you predict this?"

They all slowly shook their heads.

It made my smile turn into a grin before I sat up fully to grab the open laptop being used for my dad's presentation. I didn't even know if it was his or one of the others, nor did I give a shit.

"Wanna know what else you probably didn't expect?" I grabbed the USB stick from my pocket, then sat the laptop in my lap. "Definitely not this—"

"Luke," my dad forced out past clenched teeth, his eyes blazing. "I don't think this is the appropriate time—"

"You wanna know what's not appropriate?" Chuckling, I clicked away at the keyboard while I finished, "Threatening my girl, and thinking that I wouldn't come right behind her even harder."

The tension in the room grew paper thin. It was already stretched tight, but this? It was slicing right through my father's bullshit.

His mouth fell agape at the realization that I was aware of exactly what the fuck he did, now. I couldn't blame him for being surprised.

For as long as I could remember, I had wanted something, anything from him to convince me that there was a chance of him loving me, or finding me worthy enough to actually be treated like a son, like a person. When I couldn't have that, I wished, fucking begged for a change, or at least an explanation as to why I wasn't enough.My entire life, I had been as quiet as a mouse about everything, because I knew and wanted better.

Now that I had Maggie in my life, though, the negatives had been lost, and only the positives were left behind ever since she found in me what I had in her. A home. A person who had given me so much love, so much insight and so much understanding to another life and to myself, it made all of the years I went without it seem worth it.

She brought out something in me that I had never thought could be mine. Love. I wasn't losing it, nor was I letting my dad take the exact thing he had claimed for so long thatI didn't deserve.

I believed I deserved it. I knew that I wasn't perfect at that, but I was willing to learn, and had been willing to change the ways I only saw right in before. Me not being perfect at it, but still trying my hardest to do it anyway was an achievement on its own. And, everytime I saw the gleam in Maggie's eyes, or when she made my cheeks stretch from the smiles and happiness she brought of me. Everytime she woke up in my arms. Everytime I woke up in hers. Everyday I was hers, as she was mine...

Those were the times where I knew I was doing something right. I knew that perfect in love was impossible to accomplish, but selflessness, good, and, healthy and beauty in it was not. That was something I knew I deserved to feel, as well as for it to be given back to me.

That was what made every doubt my father had given me burn to nothing. I wouldn't ever let him think they could be recovered, either.

The files from the USB loaded seconds later. I didn't bother to look at the group to know that they were now tuned in.

"Now. If you'll look closely, ladies and gentlemen..." I motioned to the screen with a flick of the hand. "Then, you will see the beloved father, and husband, Mayor Vaudest with his dick up his assistant's ass in the parking lot of a Four Seasons Hotel."

'Oh my god..' was one of the many hushed whispers I heard from behind me. Another followed up with, 'Is that really him?' The next was, 'It has to be. The footage is as clear as day.'

I laid my gaze on my father, who was already burning holes into me. If looks could kill, I would have been six feet under ages ago.

"Turn that—" Flustered, he marched over to me, but I paused him with my hand, "I haven't even gotten to the best part, yet."

I threw a nod to the group over my shoulder. "How about another video? A two for one special, yeah?" I didn't even wait for a response before I went to the next file.

This was the one that my father thought he wouldn't ever have to see, again. He had paid thousands of dollars to make sure of it, too.

When I told my mom of what I planned to do a couple of days back, she immediately gave the file to me through a hidden flash drive. I hadn't even known it existed, because not even Preston was able to find it, but it would only add to the fire, so I accepted it.

In fact, I thought that she would try to talk me out of going through with this, but it was the exact opposite. After telling me to stay safe and to play it smart against my dad, she gave me the okay to beat the fucker's ass for the both of us. That was the final stamp of approval I needed.

This video, specifically, was the one my mother caught on security film all of those years ago. It was of my father and his security breaking into her home, and beating her down while they took me, a newborn at the time, from her arms. My mother, still supposed to be bedridden and healing from giving birth, was begging, pleading, and crying on her knees for my father to give me back, but spoiler alert.

He didn't.

The gasps from behind me only increased my satisfaction, despite the sick curl of blood at the video. The first time I had seen it made me lose the contents of my stomach.

"Luke!" My dad roared so loud, it made spittle land on his priceless shoes. "Turn that off, right now!"

"I'm just giving the people what they want, dad." I shrugged. "That's what the Vaudest name is all about, isn't it?"

With his fists clenched to his side, I knew it was taking every higher power there was to stop him from landing his punches, right now.

He raised his wavering gaze to the growing audience. Some of his other colleagues had come to the door at the sounds, too.

"Get out!" he snarled at them, a glare shoving through the stuffy room. "All of you! Out!"

Quickly, they all filed out of the room since they had gotten their fill of drama. I saw some of them taking pictures and videos of the both of us, as well as the board that displayed the true monster in the room.

Good. I wanted it all to be out as soon as possible.

My father didn't waste a second. Expression outlined with fury, he jerked around to face me. His expensive shoes thumped along the ground as he marched over to me.

"You sneaky little bastard," he seethed, only furthering my amusement. "How dare you—" Nearly shaking in his spot, the anger took him over until it was discarded for an edge that I recognized.

When I saw him raise his fist, I didn't hesitate.

From my position, I caught it without trouble. At it, my father's rage was wiped with shock as he glanced between me and his fist in my hand.

With a malicious grin in place, I tightened my grip, applied extra pressure to his fingers so that they would break, too, and twisted the limb until the bones popped. Even when it did, I continued on until his hand started to throb from under my palm.

My father's bloodcurdling scream echoed through the space. I suppose it would have worried me had I not hacked into his phone to cancel his security for the day.

It was just us, now.

"Remember when you did that shit to me all those years ago after I tried visiting my mom on my birthday?" I released him with a shove until he stumbled back onto the floor, landing right on his injury. "Hurts like a bitch, doesn't it?"

I glanced down at him with a cocked brow when he remained still. "Unless you want a matching cast, I suggest you get the fuck up and find a seat."

His body had begun to shake. I wasn't sure if it were anger, or shock, though. Didn't much give a fuck, either.

With a sigh, I reached down to make a reach for his other hand.

As soon as I grazed it, my father jerked back, eyes widening up at me. "No!"

I shrugged, and took the same seat from earlier. I motioned to the free ones. "Join me, then."

Begrudgingly, he raised himself from the floor. To the speed of a snail, he went and took the seat farthest away from me, right at the end of the table.

With a frown in place, he sank down, clutching his injured hand to him. Fucker wouldn't even look me in the eye.

I breathed in once. Let it out. Repeated.

Then, I met Ryan Vaudest's eyes. "Let's talk."