Page 124 of Mask and the Magnolia
“Then enlighten me,” I say a lot more defiantly than I intended. I can’t help that, though. My entire life has been uprooted and I’ve been beaten down in the process. The fact that I can see how few shits he gives about that is hurtful evenafter twenty seven years of the same behavior. “Please. If you’re convinced I’m playing dumb, why don’t you just?—“
“Enough,” he sneers, his voice low and full of anger. “I was hoping we could do this in a more civilized way, but since you’re the farthest thing from that, I should have known better.” My father walks around the couch and toward the wingback on the other side of the coffee table, pulls his handkerchief from his breast pocket, dusts off the cushion, then sits down.Fucking snob.“I am going to talk, you are going to listen. Do you understand?”
“What’s the point of this if I can’t?—“
”I said, do you understand, Magnolia?”
I nod and drop my eyes to the floor.
I don’t think there’s anything that will change the way I react to my father when he’s like this. Lifelong conditioning, Pavlov’s dog kind of shit, the habit is engrained in me and that’s how it’s always going to be.
“Now then, I’ve spoken to Camden and he’s still willing to take you back regardless of what has happened in the past. He?—“
“He attacked me!” I blurt, unable to hold my tongue. “That pompous leech raped me, he tried to kill me, and you still expect me to marry him? Do you really not care about me at all?”
My father clenches his jaw, his eyes narrowed and with more ice in his tone than I’ve ever heard, he says, “No.”
All the air whooshes from my lungs as he finally confirms what I’ve always thought but refused to really believe. Then he takes it a step further in order to drive his point home.
”From the day your mother told me she was pregnant, my mind was made up; unless you were male, or an alpha, you were undeserving of my time and energy. You meant nothing to me until Carter posed the idea of merging the families, and that is the only reason you’ve held any merit all these years. You can give me what I want, and I don’t care how I get it as long as I do.”
A chill races down my spine as my father echoes the same words Camden threatened me with. How can two people from entirely different gene pools be the mirror image of each other’s evil?
The Dean sighs as he fixes the lapels of his suit coat. “Do you need more explanation than that, or was that sufficient enough to sink in?”
Tears well along my lower lashes but I don’t let them fall as I shake my head and say, “You made yourself clear.”
”Good.” He pulls his phone from his pocket, swiping and tapping away as he speaks. “As I was saying, Camden has been gracious enough to take you back despite the way you’ve embarrassed him. I’m not sure why he’s so willing but I am grateful for the chance to set things right. His only request was that we move the wedding up again, and based on my schedule, the earliest opening I have is…” I watch him scroll through his phone, almost as if he’s annoyed, like this is somehow putting him out. “This Saturday.”
“That’s in less than a week,” I blurt, knowing damn well I’m going to regret it.
“Very good, Magnolia,” he says as snidely as possible. “It’s nice to see all that money we spent on private schooling and tutors hasn’t gone to waste.”
I snap my mouth shut and fight the urge to argue. Normally I can get through this kind of confrontation without making it harder on myself but not this time. He showed up at Evie’s apartment, he invaded one of my safe spaces, and I’m not sure how much more I can take before I get to my breaking point.
The Dean keeps staring at his phone while he continues to poke the bear. “With the wedding on Saturday, that means we’ll have the rehearsal Friday, and since we’ll have to drop the shower and parties, that can double for both. That should cut back on some of the rush orders and juggling locations. You’llneed to go shopping on Wednesday, for both the wedding and formal party the night before, Thursday can be a failsafe in case we need to go elsewhere.” My father sighs and looks up at me with a frown before he goes back to his calendar. “We have no choice but to announce the wedding this evening. It’s not exactly how I wanted to do it but we need to give people enough time to get things in order before Saturday.”
A tear slides down my cheek as I clench my fists at my sides, my anger unable to stay buried any longer. “I’m not marrying Camden.”
My father lifts his head slowly, his tone even despite the shift in his energy. “What was that?”
“I’m not going to marry Camden. I won’t.”
“Is that so?”
I nod and lift my chin, trying to hang onto the hurt and fury instead of slipping back into our normal exchange. “I won’t marry that monster and I don’t?—“
“Monster?” He scoffs. “You thinkhe’sa monster?”
My heart starts pounding in my chest as my father starts to laugh, the sound strange and unnatural coming from him. I take a step back in confusion, fear starting to replace what little strength I had.
I don’t know what’s happening right now but I’m sure it isn’t going to bode well for me.
“Oh, Magnolia.” He claps his hands together once and that’s when his laughter stops, his face quickly morphing into a mask of cruelty I’m not sure I’ve ever seen before. “I had no idea you could be so funny. Calling Camden a monster when you’ve been whoring yourself out to an entire floor full of them for months.”
“What… What are you talking about?” There were probably a hundred other things to say in response but that was the only thing I could force out of my mouth. “I don’t?—“
“Enough!” He barks as he shoots to his feet, coming at me so quickly that I didn’t realize it happened until he has me cornered. “I am sick of the lies, I am sick of the bullshit. I know everything, Magnolia. Every sick and depraved thing you’ve done since you’ve been working at that sorry excuse for an institution, so spare me the act.”
