Roses

Chapter 10

Adam

"You did what?" My father stares at me with wide eyes from the opposite end of the table, asking me the same question for the third time. I take a deep breath and close my eyes briefly.

Last night, until the moment Zoey had stepped into my home I'd been bliss in ignorance, believing I had the upper hand. Believing I will always have the upper hand.

But then she had walked in and proven me wrong without speaking even two full sentences to me. She made me realize that as much as I wanted to be her undoing, it may very well be me that came apart in her hands.

First it was her avoidance that pricked me. Then I couldn't tame down the pangs of jealousy that came over me everytime someone else got her attention. Someone who wasn't me. And by the time she was about to leave, I knew full well she had penetrated at least one layer of the armour I wear on the daily and I would not settle for anything less than her full attention. Not when she was living like a parasite within me.

So I offered to drive her home. I don't know what I had expected to come out of that short ride, but the offer I'd made her to be my father's paid companion had not been planned at all. I just sat there thinking how she's always going to be keeping her distance from me and the idea simply came to me. Now that I think about it, it was fucking brilliant.

If there's one thing I've learnt so far about Zoey, it's that the topic of her parents is a sensitive subject. But one she no longer wishes to bury. Instead now, she is going to lengths to find out more about them.

I mean, I just made the perfect offer. She knows my father is probably the best person in town to ask about stuff concerning her parents, and now she can get paid to do it! Why would she refuse it?! She hasn't given me a definite yes yet, but I know it's coming.

I was very happy with myself up until ten minutes ago when I mentioned about it to my father. He's acting like he has never heard anything crazier. And I don't understand why. Wasn't he fond of her?

"We had talked about a caregiver anyways," I speak nonchalantly as I take a bite out of my toast. "When I found out Zoey Kirby was looking for a job, I just offered the job to her."

"First of all, I do not need a caregiver. Second of all, I thought she was trying to be an author in New York, not studying to be a nurse." My father's stern expression doesn't change.

"I thought you enjoyed her company." I drop my toast and level him with a stare, done with beating around the bush.

"I did."

"Then what's the problem?"

"If I don't need a caregiver and she's not qualified to do it either, what will she really be doing, Adam?"

"Don't tell me you wouldn't like her companionship. Last night, you would've made her stay if you could."

My father closes his eyes and takes a pause. I have no idea what's going through his head but I know I don't want to hear it. Why is he looking a gift horse in the mouth?

"Then why do I get the feeling offering her this job is not for my benefit?" For the first time in a decade, his eyes, his voice, and everything else about him radiates with authority. Guess I shouldn't be surprised it's always going to be her that brings about this side of him. "It's not for her benefit either, is it?" He tucks in this last question in a low voice, so low it's like he's speaking to himself, wondering aloud what's going on.

Too bad he won't get the truth. But he will get a choice--a rigged one, so he chooses exactly what I want him to choose.

"Do you want me to tell her no? Take back the offer?" I watch as his eyes immediately shoot to mine. And there it is, the fear. He didn't even have her company and now he's afraid of losing it.