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Chapter Sixty-Three: Maggie

My father, Wayne Carter, is here. He's fucking here.

I felt the room spin as I stared at the man before me with a slack jaw and wide, dumbfounded eyes as if I had just seen a ghost and not my actual father.

I tried to rattle my mind of possible conclusions of how he could be here when he should be in New York, living his best life without a family to burden him anymore.

So I can't understand for the life of me as to why he's here, in the flesh, talking to Tiffany like she's the enemy in this situation and not him.

I was basically numb at this point, and I couldn't seem to move my feet but Tiffany had managed to pull herself together faster than I could as she shook her head and spoke back to my father, her tone firm but her eyes spoke otherwise. She was terrified of him.

"I-I'm sorry, but I don't necessarily remember inviting you, Wayne. Much or less permitting you to tell me that my son's engagement will not be happening." she hissed as he smirked back at her, his gaze cold and daunting.

"I also don't remember granting you permission to have my daughter engaged but oh well, look where we are now." he shot back as I watched Tiffany gulp while he took another step forward.

Even though Tiffany was the one with the microphone it felt as though my father's presence dominated the room more than hers, as he once again spoke with so much animosity in his voice that I'm pretty sure every guest flinched with every word that slipped past his mouth.

"Who the fuck do you think you are getting my daughter engaged like she's some property you can just buy and own?" he scowled "I will not stand here and see my child get auctioned off to your family and let her get married to your filthy excuse of a son."

His spiteful words directed to Evan and how he spoke so belittling of him snapped me out of my trance as I felt something inside of me flare-up, all the while as I looked up to see Evan staring at the scene, in disbelief still, but it was obvious he was affected with what was just said about him.

The pain in his eyes visible as the rage boiling inside of me finally hit its peak; as I then diverted my attention back at my father, marching my way towards his direction with clenched fists and my teeth gritted, absolutely seething as I drew closer.

"Who the hell do you think you are coming back here?!"

My dad wasn't able to collect his bearings when I aggressively shoved his chest, causing him to stumble back as tears started to spill out of my eyes. More so from anger than it was from hurt, but by now, I don't know what to feel anymore.

Do not cry, don't you fucking cry right now. Don't you dare allow this man to see you act weak, for once, you need to stand your ground and not let him have his way with you.

He was silent after that, for the first time stripped away from his dominant facade as he watched me seethe in anger, and just then I noticed that he still looked about the same as he did when he left us, his hair brown with a few strands of gray hair showing.

I locked eyes with him, the same eyes I once stared at with immense hatred, and this time not much different. If anything, the loathing intensified.

How can he have the audacity to show up here and act as if he was a father who cared about his daughter, in the first place? When it wasn't that long ago when he walked away from his family like it was so easy for him to just abandon us. As if we meant nothing to him.

The stinging memory of it all hurt like no other, it pierced through me and made my chest ache along with every part of my body, but the one brewing inside of my rib cage was the most unbearable out of them all.

The utter boldness of this man was incomparable, it shocked me the most because I was certain the day he left me and my mother was the last time we would ever see him. But it seems as though we were wrong.

With how he just waltzes in here demanding me not to proceed with the commitments I've made as if he had more say in what goes in my life than I did, despite barely being there for me, was what crossed the goddamn line for me. He has no right to come back and act as if he gives a damn. Like he cared about me, his family, at all.

The silence that stretched across the room was so painstakingly long I'm sure people were still doing their best to recollect themselves, but after a while, I felt familiar callous fingers grazing the skin of my wrist and I turned around to see Evan tugging me back against his chest.

"Baby, calm down," he whispered as I felt my inhibitions falter, staring at his worried gaze.

But it soon vanished when I sensed the burning eyes of my father as he glared at Evan and the way he was touching me "Get your hands off my daughter,"

Without expecting it, I was wretched out of Evan's gentle hold and into the cold and merciless hands of my father, eliciting a surprised gasp out of me.

It felt as if I was pulled out of a warm place of passion and comfort that I grew accustomed to the second my father snatched me from Evan's embrace, one that felt like a daydream too good to be true, only to wind up being sucked into the same harsh reality I had actually lived in.

The harsh reality I was so sure I had finally run away from, only to come back sprinting after me like a shadow that's just never going to disappear and will always follow suit.

But I tried, I tried to reject his advances and once more shoved his chest with closed fists as I glared so fiercely back at him, retracting from his grasp like his touch alone burned me.

"Don't you dare touch me," I hissed, emphasizing every word of disdain like my life depended on it "Don't you dare lay a hand on me and act as if you aren't the only person here I want to be as further away from as much as possible, don't you dare act as if I wanted you here."

Throughout the times I've known my father, he was never one to show his emotions and to make them visible, he concealed it better than anyone I know, better than my mother even.

But there was no doubt the scorned look that clouded over his eyes was there and wasn't just something that I was imagining, almost as if my words actually struck a nerve.

For a moment, I felt a slither of remorse course through me, just a fraction, but as soon as it tried to sneak into my system, I instantly tried to suppress it, refusing to be swayed by his wounded facade, knowing his brief pain would not amount to my life's worth of suffering.

This is the same man who's gone and left more times than he's ever been there for me, and has hurt the ones I've loved without as much as thinking about it, so who am I to give him the benefit of a doubt now? To sympathize with him when he deserves nothing of the sort.

But that pretense went away and just as I had expected, he attempted to assert his control over me by taking a step forward and looking down on not only me but Evan as well.

All the while as he spoke in a grave tone "I am not gonna stand idly by watching my daughter get auctioned off like some sort of prostitute," my eyes widened at his revolting implication as he continued "And if you try to fight me one more time it won't be long before I shut this whole place down and get everyone here arrested for witnessing the marriage of two minors that is illegal due to my lack of involvement as a father."

That's what did it for me, that was the last straw as I immediately tugged on his arm and pulled him out of the venue, our steps hurried as I tried to look for a vacant room we can reside in away from the crowd.

I settled with an empty office. I walked in with him hot on my trail as I loudly slammed the door shut with a bang! as I quickly let go of his arm once we were out of everybody's earshot.

He remained by the door as I put a barrier between us, walking towards one of the office desks as I leaned both of my hands against it, panting heavily.

While our rapid breathing can be heard amidst the dead silence lingering in the atmosphere, I tried to release some steam, thinking to myself if I was gonna resolve this I needed to have a clear mind. But per usual, he made it impossible for me to do that:

"You're acting irrationally, Margaret."

My hands gripped the edges of the desk that I was leaning on for support, still too disoriented to argue back at him and you'd think after all that he's done, is that he would at least have the littlest bit of compassion as to how this is affecting me. Me, his daughter.

But of course, he instead persists "I did what I had to do because if I hadn't intervened, God knows what that rotten family might've done to you, I was trying to save you-"

That's what caused me to snap once more, instinctively letting my hands grab one of the closest things I can latch onto which was a thick, black stapler as I turned around and threw it across the room at him.

All the while as he dodged it before it could even hit him, the object collided with the wooden door behind him with a loud thud that I'm sure my assault might've caused a dent or two.

He was shocked, to say the least, but that didn't stop me as I let the adrenaline brewing inside of me gradually simmer down, but it was of no use.

I was practically ready to murder someone at this point "You have so much nerve to come back here and claim you were trying to save me from a rotten family when you're the only rotten family I'm trying my best to get away from."

I indignantly shook my head at him, but he didn't budge as he locked eyes with me, not going down without a fight like always "It doesn't matter what you feel about me now, Margaret. Whether it may be your clear resentment of me that's making you think that this family could save you and your mother, when I'm just here trying to prevent the both of you from making a huge mistake that could cost you both of your lives."

I scoffed at that "Both of our lives? At-risk? Haven't you ever thought of that when you left us and took the company with you, leaving us almost bankrupt? Leaving mom no other choice but to resort to getting a loan from a family that she barely even knew, but a family that was fucking kind enough to help her back on her feet unlike you?"

"Unlike you who just fucking left us like we didn't matter." I shot back, feeling my voice tremble as I took bold steps towards him as my chest started to heave up and down "As if you couldn't give a damn whether or not we would survive without you. Left us as if we were just a bunch of people you'd be more than happy to see die instead of what we actually are-"

"Your family. Mom, who's your wife, and even if you don't love her, she's the mother of your fucking child, me. Your daughter that you claim to love but somehow I never f-felt-"

I couldn't help it, the tears started streaming down my face as I willed myself to continue with my ranting, but the more I fight the more I inflict damage onto myself than onto him.

I was a mess. I was a shaking, quivering mess of the person I came to be now unlike the person who I was then who had her guard up and had no trouble fighting against her father.

But now, as I've let myself completely unravel all the pent up aggression and pain I've bottled up inside of me for too long, is when I realized that as much as I wanna hide it, it's out in the open

I am hurt more than I am angry, and as much as I would care to admit it I am fucking crashed to see my father not spare the slightest bit of compassion for me, to see him act like a fucking superhero and ruin my moment's worth of happiness and freedom and to just take it all away.

Trying to lure me back into a place of agony, because that's what he does best, kicking down the people whom he deems to care about.

And right now, he's dragged me to the hell pit of where all my weaknesses lie, where I'm injured the most as I watch him pour salt after salt in my wounds. Insult to injury they say, but if anything, he's slicing the injury farther more. This felt like destruction to one's pending demise.

"Y-You... you're so fucking delusional if you think coming back here and reclaiming your role as a father is gonna make you look any less of a fucking monster, and God forbid that you're gonna make it seem like you actually care about me and my well-being-"

"Because I do, Margaret!"

"Since fucking when?!" I shouted "Since fucking when have you ever really became a father to me and not just some manipulative, controlling asshole who not only emotionally damaged his wife but also traumatized his daughter along the way? Since when have you cared about me or mom for you to come back into our lives and act as if you give a shit, huh? Since fucking when!"

My throat burned like hell and I'm pretty sure I was heaving like crazy at this point, but I didn't care, I wanted to show him how much this was hurting me. How much his presence alone is unwelcomed, how much I don't want him here and how his abandonment did this to me.

Turned me into this damaged excuse of a person whose only wish is to be happy for once.

"Maggie..." he drawled on as he took a step forward "I know I wasn't the most responsible father to you, but you have to take into reconsideration that what your mother is doing now is blatant child abuse, she's exploiting you-"

I let out a laugh at that, a mocking, thunderous heap of laughter as I wiped the tears streaming down my face "Fucking comical how you're one to talk about exploiting one's family when you used her clear co-dependence on you as a way to rob her out of all the money you two were supposed to share after the divorce." I told him.

"Mom wouldn't resort to this if you hadn't left her the way you did, which trust me, I know what she did wasn't the best of decisions, but don't you dare try to paint her as the bad guy when she wouldn't have come to this if you didn't take advantage of her and her love for you."

He clenched his jaw at that, his expression indifferent as if being reminded of my mother's hurt over his deception scarcely fazed him "You have to understand me and your mother have had problems way before you were even born, Margaret. I just needed to get away for a while before I settle an arrangement with her and to come back for you-"

"And finally act your role as my father? To leave her with little to no money and take me with you to New York?" I shook my head at him "You have to be fucking on something if you think I'm going anywhere with you and leaving mom behind the same way you did."

"Maggie-"

But I didn't dare listen to him any longer as I rushed past him and out the door, hearing him call out to me but I was quick on my feet and ran to one of the open elevators and got in.

I was struggling to maintain my breathing as I impatiently watched the elevator head down lower and lower to the main lobby, pressing the buttons as if that would make any sort of difference, but all I knew is that I just needed to get the hell out of here.

As soon as the elevator arrived in the main lobby, I immediately sprinted out. Stopping by the receptionist to tell them to inform my mother as well as Tiffany and Mason that I'll be leaving.

I don't know where I'll be going specifically, but anywhere but here.

"Maggie!"

Turning my head, I felt my heart pound violently against my chest not until the familiar sight of Evan's brown locks and troubled gaze came into view.

I didn't even realize my hands were shaking until he came up to me, took them in his, and spoke to me in a soft, serene voice, one he always used when comforting me:

"I was looking everywhere for you, I was so worried."

The tears that stained my cheeks were still there and I'm pretty sure they won't be going anywhere as I released hiccup after hiccup of sobs.

"I-I'm sorry, I just need to get out of here, I n-need to get away from h-him before h-he-"

"Shhh, it's okay, come on." With that, he tugged me towards the main exit as we began to leave the building "We'll go somewhere, anywhere you want, okay? It's going to be fine."

I didn't care where my feet took me at this point, I didn't care where we'll go or where we'll be staying, all I know is that it's better than to be here, with all this madness and destruction.

As long as it's Evan who I'm with, despite all this chaos that's currently unfolding, I'll be okay knowing that it's him I'm walking down this path with.

No one else, just him.

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