“Oh, Mila, not right now. Everett is busy. He’s just about to do a live interview with –”
“Put – my dad – on – the phone,” I demand, vehemently spitting each word.
“Wow. Where did this attitude come from?” Ruben asks loftily, chuckling to himself. “Doesn’t sound like you’ve learned much about that famous southern hospitality!”
“I need to talk to my dad,” I repeat, calm again before my killer punch. “And that means right now, or I’ll let your favorite gossip columnists know that Everett Harding has locked his daughter away for the summer in case sheembarrasseshim.”
Ruben quits laughing. He is momentarily silenced, perhaps in shock that I seem to have suddenly grown a backbone. “Mila. . . C’mon now. . .” he says warily in an attempt to de-escalate my rage. “Let’s not make threats—”
“NOW, RUBEN!”
“Keep your hair on,” Ruben huffs. “I’ll see what I can do.”
I hear him cussing under his breath, and then there’s the muffled sound of Dad’s phone being passed around. A few moments where I think I can hear hushed voices speaking fast, and then the call is picked up again. It’s not Ruben anymore.
“Mila,” Dad says. There is no warmth in his clipped tone. “This is really not a good time. What are you doing making wild threats to Ruben?”
“Hi, Dad,” I reply, as falsely cheerful as Ruben. Then, no preamble, I tell him, “I – know – everything.”
Silence again. I can hear a lot of commotion in the background, most likely Dad and Ruben are backstage of some TV talk show, but then a door clicks shut, and the noise disappears. I think Dad is alone now.
“You knowwhat, Mila?” he prompts, his voice a steely calm.
“I know it was your decision to lock me up on the ranch,” I say, still pacing the cabin. I freeze on the spot for a second and stare outside into the yard where Blake is wrestling the ball out of Bailey’s mouth, but his eyes are on me, watching. In an even harder, colder voice, I add, “And I know you cheated on LeAnne Avery with Mom.”
The weight crushing down on my chest lifts. It feels like such a relief to finally face up to Dad, even though I know this conversation isn’t over yet. The old Mila knows she should be afraid of Dad’s reaction, but the Mila I’m becoming? She’s different. She needs more than to be a prop in Everett Harding’s life, picked up and put down in her place by Ruben. She needs her own life.
Dad is quiet for an awfully long time. All I hear across the line is his shallow breathing, and I imagine him pacing back and forth the same way I have been, his mind racing to calculate the most effective method of damage-control. At last, he heavily exhales and says, “I can’t do this right now, Mila. Really. I’m working.”
“Sorry, I forgot – everything is aboutwork, right?” I sneer. “You’d rather get rid of your daughter than risk her daring to do anything that embarrasses you.” I pause, gathering my strength. “And you had anaffair! Does it make you nervous that LeAnne Avery never signed that non-disclosure agreement? Are you worried one day she’ll tell the world that you’re a cheater? Nowthatwould be embarrassing.”
My name sticks in Dad’s throat, like his airways are tightening. “Mila,” he rasps.
“Dad,” I mimic.
“Why are you doing this right now? What exactly do you want?” he questions in a small voice, a trace of panic lacing his words. “Do you want to come home? Is that it? I’ll get Ruben to book you a flight first thing tomorrow.”
“No. You can tell Ruben not to book me a flight until the day before school starts, because maybe I don’twantto come home,” I say. “At least the people here arereal. Oh, by the way, there’s something wrong with Popeye’s health, but you would know that already if you actually paid attention to your family.”
“What?” he whispers.
A deranged laugh escapes me and bounces around the cabin, and Blake shoots me a wary look. “Dad, please don’tbother acting like you care now. You should call him more! You should visit! Not because there might be something wrong with him, but because youlovehim. He’s your father, remember?”
“Mila, you should come home,” Dad mumbles, uneasy. For once, he doesn’t have the upper hand. I am the one with all the power right now, because Iknow. And Dad seems – and I can hardly blame him – afraid of what I may do with all of this newly discovered information. “You shouldn’t be out there in Fairview.”
“Maybe before you shipped me out here,” I hiss, “you should have thought more carefully about which of your lies I’d uncover.”
And then, without another word, I do something I have never done before – I hang up on my father. I want the final say. There are no excuses for what he’s done, and I don’t want to hear him attempt to conjure up some. All I want is for him to know that I’m not in the dark anymore. I’m old enough now to know these secrets – they are about my family, my past, the future of the people I love – and I don’t want to be lied to. It’s as simple as that.
Blake notices me end the call, and jogs over to join me inside the cabin while Bailey remains scampering outside. “No tears. That’s good. How did it go?”
I release a long, deep breath that I’ve been holding on to and collapse onto the couch, letting my phone slip through my fingers to land on the floor.Did I seriously just talk to Dad in such an assertive, confrontational way? Adrenaline is pumping so fast through my veins that I feel lightheaded.
“He’s unsettled. I threatened I’d talk to the press.” I sit up and widen my eyes at Blake, wishing to reassure him that I’m not the kind of person who would betray my family in such a way. “But, honestly, I would never,everspeak to anyone about him. Dad should know that I wouldn’t do that, no matter what.”
“Still. You did it, Mila,” Blake says with a growing smile as he sits down next to me. “You spoke to him on your terms. Not so behind the scenes anymore, are you?”
Without thinking, I rest my head on his arm and sigh, full of mixed feelings. My body is in a tumult. A distraction wouldn’t go amiss. I look up at him from beneath my lashes. “Can you play for me now?”
