Fall For My Ex’s Mafia Dad
Chapter 142

I jump awake at the sound of the alarm clock, gritting my teeth and hating that thing. But it's silenced almost immediately and I raise my hand to rub at my eyes, feeling cramped and horrible and terribly sad after my night alone in this stupid chair. But as I start to come awake I notice that there's a blanket laid across me - my favorite thick, velvety red throw blanket that I definitely hadn't spread over myself before I fell asleep.

Realizing what must have happened, I turn to peek around the corner of the chair and see Kent on the

I watch him for a minute, taking in the hunch of his shoulders, the way his head hangs.

And part of me wants to feel victorious about it, but the only thing I actually feel is a great deal of sad

To face him? To let him win? To be the first one to reach out and apologize?

of his bed, one foot on the ground and the other leg bent in front of him as he stares down at the clock in his hands, unmoving.

see him looking so terribly unhappy. But as he starts to move, I pull my face back, not wanting...I don't know.

Because what he said to me last night was incredibly shitty. And I haven't forgiven him for it. And I don't want to be comforting him if he can't even muster up the energy to apologize.

I can be just as stubborn as he can, after all.

So I curl back up in the chair, pressing my eyes shut and pretending I slept through the alarm. Even though that's an impossibility.

I hear Kent place the alarm clock back on his side table, and then I hear his soft footsteps come over my chair, but I do my best to stay perfectly still, pretending to be asleep. If he wants to talk to me, he can damn well wake me up. Kent pauses next to me, and I can hear him inhale a deep breath and then sigh it out.

And then, to my shock, I hear him walk away.

My eyes flash open and I peek around the chair again, watching him disappear into his closet, getting ready for the day. And he doesn't even look my way again as he changes into his suit and then heads through the door to his office. And, as I watch him leave me alone again without a word, my heart sinks. And I really start to worry.

Have I...have I lost him?

Is this seriously the end of this?

I uncurl myself from my horrible little bed, not bothering to neatly fold the blanket the way I know Kent would prefer and instead leaving it in a heap on the chair. Then I head through the secret door and mope through the passage, my eyes on my feet, feeling terrible and lonely and worried.

Worried that I've lost him. Worried that we're all going to die.

I sigh as I come through the wardrobe into my room, glancing at my bed to see that Daniel is still, predictably, asleep. But there could be one bright light on my horizon...

I head directly for my desk, pulling open the top drawer and grabbing my phone, flicking the screen on with my thumb.

And my jaw drops again when I see that....

That Ivan hasn't responded. Not a single word.

And then I sink down into my desk chair, completely overwhelmed, burying my face in my palm and working hard to take deep breaths.

Seriously?

Nothing?

Nothing from Kent? Nothing from Ivan? Nothing from either of them?

Have I seriously lost both of my boyfriends in a forty-eight-hour period?

And, as tears start to stream down my face, I make myself stand up and go into my bathroom where I turn on the water for a very hot shower. Then, after I strip off my clothes, I sit down in the middle of the tiled floor, right above the drain, right where the water can pound against my back as I cry my eyes out.

I'm the first one to crack.

I thought I could be stubborn. I thought I could be cold.

But two whole days pass with Kent ignoring me completely, and as night falls at the end of that second day I'm an absolute mess.

And I guess...well, ignoring me completely isn't quite right. Kent has given me every opportunity to give in, or to apologize, or to tell him that he's right, or to agree to his terms in our relationship. He has created opportunities for me to agree to the idea that he has all the power and I'm not allowed to ask any questions.

At breakfast yesterday and today, Kent came and placed my plate in front of me, as he always does. And then he leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest, and stared at me.

Which pissed me off. A lot. So both mornings, I just pushed the plate of food away and picked up my coffee, ignoring him and having a liquid breakfast before driving myself to the stables and spending all day there alone with Healthcliff. Both days I stayed until it was dark, until Jerome came and got me, shaking his head at me and not asking any questions.

Both evenings, as I climbed the stairs, I saw that the door to Kent's office was open, which it never is at this time, and that the lights were on, which they never are. And I could hear him moving around in there.

It might not be obvious to anyone else in the house, but to me the invitation is clear: I'm here, if you're ready to give in.

But until now, until I've been sitting on my bed staring angrily at the wall for forty-five minutes, I've been able to resist.

"Okay," Daniel says, clapping his hands and making me jump and look at him. "What is wrong with you, Fay?" he asks, shaking his head at me in wonder.

"Your dad's a dick." I answer sharply, turning away from him to stare at the wall again.

"Yeah," he says, frustrated. "No shit, Fay. What did he do?"

"Nothing." I snap, not wanting to bring him into this.

"Seriously?" Daniel asks, coming to sit next to me. "He did nothing?"

"I already told you," I say, turning to look at him, my face expressionless. "He was a dick."

Daniel shakes his head at me slowly. "I believe you, Fay," he says after a minute. "But if you two are playing some kind of game of chicken here? Each waiting for the other one to apologize first?" Slowly, he shakes his head. "You are not going to win."

I glare at Daniel, newly renewed in my determination to literally never speak to Kent ever again if that's what this takes.

Daniel correctly interprets the expression on my face and just laughs at me a little, patting my leg before standing up and heading for the bathroom, probably to take a shower. "I'm serious, Fay," he says as he goes. "If you think you're stubborn? Kent's got 10 times what you've got. You are not going to win."

I turn to look at him, hoping to hell he's not right. Because I...I can't take this much longer.

Especially if we're all going to die this week, according to Ivan. Is this seriously how we're going to spend our final days, when we could be doing something to prevent this? I sigh, exhausted, worried, overwhelmed.

"Apologize, Fay," Daniel says, pausing by the door and shaking his head at me. "Even if you don't mean it. Kent just wants you to crack first. He'll give in."

"How do you know that?" I ask, shaking my head at Daniel. "Has ever done that for you?"

"No," Daniel says with a shrug before passing into the bathroom. "But he's not obsessed with me."

My mouth falls open to ask what the hell he means by that, but the door closes before I can ask anything.

And then, acting more on my desire to stop feeling so incredibly horrible than anything else, I stand up and move immediately to my wardrobe. There, I pull together an outfit that doesn't really make sense. There's a lingerie body suit in here, all sheer except for black satin panels over the breasts which barely come up to cover my nipples.

Because if I'm going to eat crow in front of Kent? I'm damn well going to look good while I do it.

And then I pull a pair of jeans on over the body suit, because I have to walk through the house - and I can't...well, I can't walk through the house in my underwear.

I pull on a pair of black heels without letting myself think too much about the whole look. Then, stopping only for a little bit of eyeliner and to run a brush through my hair, I slip out of my door and hurriedly walk down the stairs, trying to make as little noise as possible.