When we reached the hall just outside of the dining room, Papá crossed his thick arms over his broad chest and raised his eyebrows. “Go ahead then.”
I squinted. “Go aheadwhat?”
He lifted one arm and twirled his index finger in a circle. “Ask me for whatever asinine purchase you’re wanting to make. Maybe you want a new car? A trip perhaps?” He folded his arm back across his chest. “Make it quick. We are trying to celebrate Colin’s accomplishment.”
I bit back the urge to scoff and shoved my hand into my interior jacket pocket, grabbing the letter, and then thrust it into the space between us. “Here.”
He took it, unfolded it, and began to skim his eyes over the brief letter. “Hmph.” Then he folded it back up and held it out to me. He saidnothing.
I didn’t take the letter. “Well?”
Papá arched one bushy, salt and pepper brow. “Well what?”
I hitched my shoulders way up to my earlobes, incredulous. “I did it. I finished. I raised my GPA, and I’m cleared to graduate.”
His brow dropped back into place. “You are just shy of six years spent on a degree that takes theaverageperson onlyfour. So what do you think that makes you,niño?”
My hands fell to my sides as a sharp pain sliced through my chest. “A fuckin’ college graduate. Likeyouwanted me to be.”
“In the most basic sense of the word,” he said, his tone flat. “It’s long overdue, so I suppose I am impressed that you are not a completely ignorant disappointment. Nevertheless, I am disappointed that it took you so long.”
My shoulders drooped, and I snatched the letter out of his hand, balling it up and shoving it carelessly in the pocket of my slacks. I said nothing because fuck him. Fuck this. Fuck itall.
Papá drew his gaze up and down my form for a second, his disdain palpable, and then he did a slow pivot back toward the dining room. Just before he slipped through the doorway, he turned back toward me with his brows high on his creased forehead.
“By the way,niño. If you have any intention of asking me for an upper-level position at the company, don’t fool yourself. You will be given anentry-level position, and you will work your way up the ranks with no favors from me.” He paused, lowering his brows as he glanced toward the dining room and then back to me. “Colin, on the other hand… when he completes his MBA, I will be offeringhimthe position I had originally reserved foryou. Long before you decided to waste more than half a decade’s worth of tuition on parties and chasing women.”
With that, he stepped away and returned to the table.
And fuckthatmore than anything else in this situation.
I didn’t even bother going back to join them.
I didn’t bother telling Mamá until well after the graduation ceremony had come and gone without me walking the stage. I didn’t bother trying to go to work for Papá’s company. I didn’t bother with anything.
There was literally no point.
THERE’S NO POINT IN this either, and now I’m just ready to leave.
I close the lid of the box and nudge it across the coffee table away from me. “Yeah, you go ahead and do that. I’m sureEllewill love having a mafioso’spistolain her house now that they’ve got a toddler running around.”
Papá steeples his fingers at the level of his chin as his eyes flash with the anger I’m all too familiar with. “Further proof that the concepts of honor and tradition are completely lost on you. Suffice to say I am disappointed yet again. Although not at all surprised.”
A sarcastic huff explodes out of my throat as I stand up, because fuckthis,too. “Yeah, well, that makes two of us.”
I march toward the door, and he calls after me.
“Do you honestly expect this marriage to work, Joaquin? Or are you just being stubborn because you were intoxicated and made a stupid mistake and refuse to admit it?”
I pause with my hand on the door knob and look at him over my shoulder. “It wasn’t a fuckingmistake.”
“Ohno?” Papá laughs coldly. “I wouldloveto know the reason why you believe it isn’t.”
My response is a pure, guttural reflex, but as soon as the words leave my lips, I know they’re the truth. “Because I love her.”
He narrows his eyes to slits, but he says nothing. Jerking the door open, I leave and slam it shut behind me.
Marching back to the dining room takes a good ten minutes, and the whole time, I replay my own words in my mind.
