Redemption | A Drake Duology (2016)

18 • Family Affair

a/n: sorry in advance, especially if this chap seems all over the place. & just to clarify, her father is Angolan so they speak Portuguese fluently.  translations will follow the sentence or be placed under it. enjoy!

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I stared out of the window of my über as I was being transported home. I decided to end the trip early. Since Lance and I's moment in the kitchen, he'd been acting a way. Suddenly, he was rude and wasn't open to any conversation so I saved him the trouble and came back home. The amount of interest I had left for him was gone. The way a man reacts to rejection shows what kind of man he really is and I was tired of fuckboys. He obviously couldn't handle my honesty. We never even made it to Dubai but it was still on my list of places to visit at some point in my life.

I gathered my bags and exited the car. To my surprise, my driveway was full. My eyes scanned each car stopping at one in particular—a brand new Porsche Cayman. If anybody loved Porsche cars more than life itself, it was my father. What in the hell was he doing here? The entire situation had Logan's name written all over it.

I took a deep breath in and entered my home reminding myself to take my key back from her. The moment I dropped my bags, Tanya, my step mother rushed in to hug me.

"Oh my gosh, are you okay?! I was so worried!" She sniffled hugging me tightly. I'm sure they've tried contacting me on multiple occasions but I looked at my phone less these days.

"I'm fine, mamãe," I whispered hugging her back. She pulled away and looked me over. I could see the fear in her eyes, I knew exactly what was coming next.

"Just nod and say okay," She encouraged. She was the only one to notice my father's unfair treatment and would usually come to my rescue. She kept him in his place but sometimes, he could be uncontrollable.

"Roman!" His voice boomed from around the corner. I swore that I felt the floor shake. I approached the living room passing Logan as she mugged me.

"sim, pai?" I answered standing in front of him.
[ sim pai?: "Yes, father?" ]

"Take a seat," He demanded.

"I'd rather stand," I said quickly. "May I ask why I wasn't aware that there would be a gathering at my house?" I looked back at Logan with a frown on my face.

"Should've answered your phone," Logan mumbled.

"You should be considerate of other peoples property," I rolled my eyes turning back to my father.

"I'm tired," He huffed. "All of this bickering back and forth is ridiculous. Why am I getting calls in the middle of the night about you putting your hands on your sister?"

"Why do you feel like you can still discipline me from halfway across the world? I haven't spoken to you in years and all Logan has to do is bitch about one little fight and you come running?"

Before I knew it his hand was colliding with the side of my face. I screamed at the amount of force he used and held the throbbing area. I peered up at the scowl that was all too familiar.

- flashback

I ran down the street ducking and dodging campus security until I reached my block. l couldn't bear stay another three hours at that damned school. Today concluded the last academic day of the semester before Summer break was due and since last night, I've received nothing but bad news. The worst of all was finding out that my best friend, Sadie, was moving across the country so that her mother could pursue a career in teaching. I was happy for Mrs. Bell but there were students here that needed to be taught, especially the black ones like us that the system didn't quite seem to care about.