Page 204 of My Dark Prince
I blinked up at him from my spot on the floor, my cheek still smashed against the rug. “Dad?”
This had to be a hallucination. He hadn’t entered this building in over fifteen years.
“Unfortunately.” He waved a hand across his scrunched-up nose, a vintage guilloche Patek winking at me from his wrist. “Quite frankly, Oliver, I’m ashamed to admit I had a part in creating …” He nudged my ankle with his toe. “…this.”
“Why are you here?”
And why are you wearing a suit?
The closest he’d gotten to one in the past fifteen years was his birthday suit. And only because showers required those.
He lifted my arm over his shoulder and hauled me up, discarding me onto the leather chair behind my desk. “Sebastian sent me.”
That couldn’t be right. He still held a grudge over the plastic surgery incident. I’d spent our last threeDays of Our Livesbinges in silence, nursing a bottle of booze as he gaped over the devil possessing Marlena without me. On some unspoken agreement, we refused to acknowledge one another’s existence, save for Sebastian retching whenever I passed.
Now I knew I’d hallucinated my dad.
I slumped against the leather backrest, aware my office – usually pristine and orderly – resembled a battlefield. Loose paper scattered across the mahogany desk, some tumbling to the carpet. The partially drawn blinds casted shadows over the room in dizzying slats.
Was this normal? I tried to remember the states Romeo and Zach had been reduced to during their separations from their wives. Romeo lasted three days. Zach lasted thirty. Neither achieved it sober.
Dad began piling empty bottles into a trash bag. “Are you ignoring me?”
“Are you really even here?”
“Excuse me?”
“Where did Eli go?”
“To plant a tree for you to hug. His words, not mine. You let him speak to you like that?”
I wasn’t exactly in a state to protest. I couldn’t muster the energy to fight him. Neither could a wild boar, for that matter.
“Youhired him,” I pointed out.
“To get your ass into shape. Look how that turned out.” Dad tied the trash bag with a double knot, conjured another, and move on to the bottles stacked near the windows. “I wouldn’t have come if Sebastian didn’t send me. He never asks for anything, so I knew it was serious.”
I undid the top button of my dress shirt and loosened my tie, wondering how well it would hold up as a noose. “Why couldn’t I hallucinate someone hotter?”
“It’s Briar, isn’t it? If you miss her, follow her. I’ll hold down the fort.”
The second her name sliced past his lips like a dagger, everything faded. Theclick-clackof keyboards outside. The low murmur of conversations between my staff. Dad’s disbelieving grunts each time he unearthed a new stash of bottles.Vanished.
I didn’t even hear any of his words past her name.
My fingertips itched to turn over the photo lying face-down on my desk. Eli had smacked it down weeks ago, and I never bothered flipping it back over, afraid I’d hop onto a plane at the sight of Briar’s toothy grin and crash her movie set.
Unfortunately, I needed to prove to her that I could handle a long-distance relationship. And even more unfortunate, it seemed I couldn’t.
“Go home, Oliver. Get some rest. Pull yourself together.” Dad rubbed my back in big circles, the first comforting touch he’d offered in almost sixteen years. “Lay off the booze.”
I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, trying to focus. “That’s rich coming from you.”
“You’re right, and I’m sorry.” He kneeled before me, catching my eyes beneath my disheveled hair. “I’m sorry I haven’t been around since your brother’s accident. I’m sorry you had to take on so much responsibility. And I’m sorry your mom and I never stopped to ask if you were okay.”
“Where is this coming from?” I shook my head, unable to form basic coherent thoughts. This felt important. Monumental, even. But my brain – and body – failed me.
The room spun, colors and shapes blending into a dizzying kaleidoscope. I knew I’d forget this conversation in an hour. And worse – that I’d hallucinated the whole thing. But it must’ve come to me for a reason. Maybe somewhere, deep down, I needed to hear this.
