“Oh my God!” I yelped, jumping towards him.
I wrapped my arms and legs around his body, dropping the envelope. Dorian staggered back, holding me while I peppered his face with kisses.
“Where did you find it? Where?”
Dorian reached down, grabbing me at the waist and peeling me off of him. He went on to tell me that when he went to my apartment searching for me, he found the ring on the floor of my bedroom. He still held it in his fingers. Seeing it again caused a lump to form in my throat.
“I-I thought I’d lost it.” I began, fighting back a surge of emotion. “It’s all my dad has to remember my mom by and…”
Dorian shook his head. “That’s not true, baby, not even close. The ring isn’t the important thing here. That’s not how your father remembers her. He remembers her through you.”
That was all it took. I started crying, heated streaks running down my cheeks. I collapsed into Dorian, hugging him and kissing his perfect lips. When we separated, he passed the ring to me.
“Okay,” I began, trying to collect myself. “I’m just going to go on the record here and say that while I love you for doing this, you’re a bastard for teasing me.”
“I know,” he said, smiling. “Somehow, I’ll learn to live with it.”
I smiled back at him before glancing in the direction of my father. While I did, Dorian bent down and picked up the envelope I’d dropped, passing it to me. I took it from him and held it up between us, pursing my lips.
“Well, I should get over there. Wish me luck.”
He shook his head without any hesitation. “You won’t need it.”
“You don’t know my father.”
Approaching my dad, I waved at him before taking my now familiar seat on the other side of a plexiglass wall.
The worst part of the whole thing was the old phone receiver. Those things grossed me out. I am not even kidding. The guard told me once they cleaned them in between visits, but I never saw a single person wipe one of them down.
After the first visit, I always brought my own disinfectant. My dad thought it was hilarious. I didn’t care. Once I’d sanitized everything, I picked up the receiver and smiled at him.
“How are you?”
He smiled at me. “Oh, about as good as can be expected, I guess.”
Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I hadn’t seen him since that night in Vegas. We’d a lot of tense conversations since then. Once everything happened at the warehouse, he dropped the rumor about the hitman. I didn’t ask why. I figured if he wanted to mention it again, he would. I wasn’t going to do it.
“Whatcha got there?” he said, gesturing towards the envelope in my hand.
I squeezed it.
Oh man, here we go.
Now that the time had come to discuss it with him, I really had no idea where to start. If not for the fact someone like Dorian was behind it, the whole thing would seem insane to me. What were the odds of the CEO of a major insurance corporation buckling under pressure and getting my dad out of jail in exchange for keeping his reputation intact?
“Tempest,” Dad said, his voice firm. “What is that?”
Oh the hell with it.
Without hesitating, I got it over with, telling him everything. After all, there wasn’t any point in being cute about it. It was what it was. He would either go for it, or he wouldn’t.
“No, no,” he said, shaking his head. “You know I raised you better than that.”
I bit my lip, conflicted by a need to remind him of everything that had happened.
“Do you remember how much we both suffered during that time? How much we both went through?”
Glaring at me, my dad eased back into the chair. I continued while he stared at me in silence.
“You know, all of your attempts to get a parole hearing have failed. Every. Single. One.”
I pressed my index finger to the envelope, making my point.
“This man… He’s the reason you’re in here. You know that you were only doing the right thing, trying to save Mom.”
He cut me off. “It doesn’t matter, Tempest, I broke the law.”
I rolled my eyes. “I get that. But Dad, while mom is gone, I’m still here. I’m the one that’s left to deal with all of those unpaid bills from lawyers that went along with everything that happened. Me!”
My dad held up his hand, showing me his palm. “We’ve discussed all this before, Temp. Whatever the costs, no matter how long it takes, I will make sure that you are compensated for everything I’ve done. Is that what this is about?”
“No!” I said slapping my hand on the table. “This is about you getting out of this place, while you still can.”
My dad exhaled into the receiver.
“Tempest,” he began, shaking his head. “I know what I did. I’m going to deal with the consequences. I’m not going to be blackmailing anyone. That’s the end of this discussion.”
The tone in his voice said it all. I reached down for the envelope, closing it again. My dad took the opportunity to change subjects.
“Did you bring the ring?”
I nodded and leaned back in the chair, slipping my fingers inside of the front pocket of my jeans. Pulling out the ring, I held it up and placed it against the pane of glass separating us. My dad looked at it for a couple of seconds and then lifted his hand to the glass, placing it over the ring. Not long after, he started to tear up, eventually dropping his hand back into his lap.
That look in his eyes… Ugh, I felt like my heart was gonna break.
“Dad, please don’t be upset. Please.”
While I spoke, the expression on his face changed from sadness to the look of determination.
“I’m not sad, Temp. There’s nothing wrong, nothing at all. I’m going to do whatever it takes to get out of here alive, but I’m going to do it on my own terms.”
He paused, gesturing towards the ring, which I still held between my fingers. “I want to be able to hold that again, as a free man.”
I nodded and glanced at the ring. Now that he’d changed his mind, I had a new problem. “Okay, what do you want me to do with it?”
“Keep it safe,” he began, easing back in his chair. “Who knows? Maybe you can use it one day when you get married.”
Breaking eye contact with my dad, I looked at Dorian. It wasn’t for long, but it was long enough. By the time I turned and met my dad’s eyes again, he was staring at me.
“Is there something else you need to tell me?” he asked, a suspicious tone in his voice.
I shrugged. Where the hell would I even start?
He didn’t give me a chance, leaning forward and resting an elbow on the table in front of him. “I know Todd is dead…”
I swallowed hard. I’m sure the fact that I had no emotional reaction to his words didn’t help calm his suspicion.
“Dad, I…”
He gestured for me to stop talking, raising his hand in the air. “I don’t care what happened. In my heart I know you weren’t involved.”
He stopped talking and gestured towards Dorian. “I can’t say I believe the same thing about him, though.”
I matched my dad’s posture, leaning in also. “Dad, if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be alive right now. Not just because of what happened with Todd but… Listen, it doesn’t matter. He’s saved me more than once. That’s the truth.”