Tell Me With Flowers

40. What do you say?

MILES

"So, I heard that you got back with Shelly at that Valentine's Day party." Dad said, raising his eyebrow at me. His wrinkled lips were curved up at the sides and the way his chin pointed at me told me that he was sure about this.

I clenched my hands into a ball. I didn't know how he got to know about my whereabouts even when he wasn't even in the country.

He always had that ability in him. To know certain things that happened in my life even before I had thought about it.

He had phoned me the very first time I had a thought about quitting business school, lecturing me about how I should put my head into school rather than behind the ugly utensils. He had walked in on me when I had first hooked up with Shelly. He had called out on me when she had packed her bags ready to leave me. He was the one to point out that Shelly had craved a big hole in my savings account when I was too drunk to even notice it.

Even though I admit that he was right about those things that dealt with Shelly, I didn't want him poking his nose in my life, trying to make me live according to his rules and conditions. I knew I had made mistakes, but I was learning from it. Wasn't I?

"No, I didn't." I said, my teeth gritting together from shouting at him.

"It was all in the papers." He said, as he walked towards my kitchen window. "I thought you had reconciled from the new one. If you ask me, it's just like jumping from one frying pan to an another, in your terms."

With my anger raising up in high spirits, I tried to keep my cool. "Okay, then. You tell me, what should I do?"

He turned to look at me, impressed. He ran a finger down the window pane and blew on it, pushing the dust away. "Now, we are talking." He clapped his hands twice, as a new look formed on his face. "Quit this cooking nonsense, Miles." He said, walking closer to me. "Finish your school. There is an empire behind you. Not here. You have potential. Listen to me and get into the hotel business. It's high time."

I looked at him dumb folded. "What about Megan?"

"Megan?" He asked, dejectedly, waving his hands in front of him. "Look, Miles you have played enough. I have never said a word when you were with Shelly. But now, I can't sit quiet. Megan is as destructive as Shelly, it's only a matter of time." He lifted his hand up and patted on my shoulder. "I'm getting old, son. I just want to make sure that you can handle this before I can close my eyes peacefully."

I had loved my dad with all my heart once. He wasn't this cutthroat back when Mom lived. But ever since she died, my dad had turned into a monster lurking behind money and status. A part of him had died when he had buried my mother, leaving behind a guy I didn't know. But now... it was going out of control.

I took a deep breath. "Dad, you know I'm managing hotels without any degree and it seems fine." I started. "As for my relationship, why don't you let me handle how I want to live my life? I love Megan and she's going to be a part of my life, whether you like it or not."

There was a sadistic laugh from his end. "These were the same sentences that you used when I warned you about Shelly Morgan." He walked towards the door, putting a hand on the handle. "It's only a matter of time you understand it, son. She'll only leave you more heartbroken than before."

"Why the hell do you care?" I asked, lifting one eyebrow at him, challengingly.

"Because, I don't want you see you in the Jacuzzi tub with a glass of rum in your hand again, son." He said. "I think those kinds of hardships must end in my generation."

With that, he walked away, shutting the door with more force than necessary.

---

"So, do you understand?" Amber asked me, her eyes squinting at me, trying to scare me off. But in all honesty, she looked as cute as a rabbit. For her sake, I feigned fear. "If that ever repeats again, Miles, you are just going to be dead meat."