Cats In the Cradle

55. Daniel

I was sitting down in the prison visitation area, with just a thick sheet of polycarbonate glass separating me from the man who'd forced me into my mother's womb.

He looked rough.

Handsome still, but in a rugged, tired way. He was more muscular than I imagined he'd be at his age, but I suppose he did have quite a bit of free time to exercise over the last 20 years.

Plenty of time to work out and to write harassing letters to me and my family.

His green eyes were fixed on me with a penetrating stare, a small smirk playing on his lips. Like he knew exactly why I was here. Like he could see right through me.

Like he liked what he saw.

"I can't believe how big you've gotten, son."

"Don't...call me 'son'. I don't even know you."

"Perhaps. But I know you very well. I've been keeping an eye on all of you since your wonderful mother got me thrown in here. And I have to say, you're the one who's impressed me the most. For a moment there, I was thinking it might be Ana or even Kayden. Sweet little Aaliyah is a bit too soft, like your Grandfather Ken. But maybe our little father-son talks when you were young actually stuck."

Yeah, I don't think so. I barely even remembered anything about the brief time my mother and I lived with him. It had been less than a year.

But I wasn't here to fucking reminisce with this maniac. He was wasting my time.

"Fascinating. Now let's just cut to the fucking chase. Why are you harassing my mother?"

He smirked again, and I wanted to reach through the glass and wipe his stupid, cocky smirk off of his face.

"I'm not exactly sure how I'm harassing her. Checking up on her, keeping track of her whereabouts, just sending some occasional reminders that she still belongs to me... What's so wrong about that?" He smiled innocently, waiting patiently for my rebuttal.

I mean, ok...

I...may have been doing the same things with Emma.

But she was raped not even a year ago. I promised I'd always protect her. She asked me to call her every day. I took her virginity, lived with her for a month.

She had my name permanently branded onto her body.

There was absolutely no denying that she was mine.

So it wasn't the same. Not really.

"Mom didn't ever want you. And she still doesn't." His nostrils flared slightly.

"It's been 20 fucking years and—"

"And that changes NOTHING. You wouldn't even fucking exist if it was up to her. I had to force her to conceive you and the triplets. She wanted a fucking family, and I gave her that. I gave her everything. And I'm supposed to let her just walk away, just move on when I sacrificed so much, and she threw me in here?"

His mask of indifference was slipping rapidly. His nostrils were flaring wildly now and his condescending smirk had turned into a threatening snarl.

"She knows she still belongs to me, just like I know it. She's always fought it, but she knows it. That's why she hasn't dated in so long. That's why she still won't fucking marry her little fuck toy Rurik, even after I encouraged him to pursue her and gave him pointers."

"What the fu—"

"But she didn't send you here. She doesn't even know you're here, does she?"

I rolled my eyes again, mirroring the angry glare from the eyes that were nearly identical to my own.

"I tell her everything. So she will know. I came here as soon as she told me about the letters you've been sending."

"The ones you haven't opened yet."

How the fuck would he know that?

"You're going about it all wrong with Emma."

"How the hell do you—"

"Please. I told you I'm keeping an eye on things. You need a private investigator. Tracking software on her phone. Do you even know how to fucking Google? That's still a thing, right? Why are you still driving 2 goddamn hours to go see her, creeping into her room at night like a fucking amateur. You're a DeSantos, son. Work smarter, not harder."

"What the fuck are you even ta—"

"Emma. Your wife. From that lovely community of people who've been trying to get me out of here for years. Damn shame about Orion dying. He was finally making some headway. Wonderful guy." I scoffed, ready to just go before I did something I'd regret. Something that would earn me a place in here, right next to my insane sperm donor.

"Alright, well, this has been extremely productive, b—"

"Don't wait too long to rein her in, son. You give these bitches too much freedom, let them come out of the basement after only a month or so of hard discipline, and look what happens."

I almost laughed. That was literally so fucking absurd, I had to wonder if he was kidding. Maybe this was where Kayden got his sense of humor.

"I'm not locking anyone in a fucking basement, you sick fuck. She needs time—"

"But the broken ones are so much easier to control. She doesn't need more time! You need to get her to stop going to that fucking therapist, isolate her, and just dive into that pussy. Knock her up, before someone else—"

"There will never be someone else. It will never come to that, even if I was a fucking psychopath like you, because nobody else is ever going to fucking touch her. They'll never even have the chance to."

"Ok, son. You can keep pretending that we're not exactly the same. Keep acting all high and mighty, giving your woman her "space" and time to get her head on straight."

I put my phone down and stood up to leave, shaking my head in disappointment.

It was a massive waste of time for me to come meet him, this garbage can of a human being who somehow hadn't changed even a little in all these years. All this time for meditation and personal reflection; his everyday surroundings a constant reminder of the sins he'd committed.

And he was exactly the same.

He tapped on the glass, indicating that he had one more thing to say. Urging me to pick up to hear whatever he desperately needed to tell me before he never saw me (in person) again.

I'm not sure why I decided to go back and pick up the phone.

Maybe I hoped he'd apologize for being so shitty, raping me into my mother and abandoning me. Leaving me fatherless, with fucked-up genes I was still sometimes struggling to smother.

"What is it?" I growled, not wanting him to know that I still held out a bit of hope for him.

"I love you. And I'm very proud of you. Very proud of you working so hard to take back my company."

Where the fuck was he getting his information from?

"But nice guys never win. Nice guys don't get the pussy or the asshole or whatever the fuck you're into. Don't listen to that cuck, Rurik. Listen to your father... If you want what's yours, just fucking take it."