“Did you forget the part where it was also true?” I ground out between gritted teeth.
Shrugging again, my father shook his head. “How was I supposed to know you got overpowered by a woman?”
“A woman who crashed right into the driver’s side of my car.” The memory of the moment before Jannie’s car hit flashed in my mind. I would be seeing that image for a long time, but I pushed it away for now. “She could’ve killed me.”
“She—”
I held up my hand, showing him I needed another minute. “She crashed into me to incapacitate me and then loaded me into her car. You know how you could have known that? You could’ve listened to Stephanie.”
“That woman—”
“Enough!” I yelled, feeling the rising anger bubbling over. This was why I was here, to talk to him about Stephanie and his behavior today. “That woman, as you call her, saved my life. She was the one who was there when I needed help, who found me all by herself because you sent the cops on some wild goose chase.”
“I was expecting a ransom, Jeremiah. Not a woman who couldn’t let go of her dreams of carrying on with the boss’s son,” he spat out.
“I don’t want to hear it, Dad,” I said, blinding rage creeping up from my gut. “I care about Stephanie, and she cares about me. Clearly, since she was the only one who bothered to figure out what was going on and where to find me.”
“Save it, Jer. It was a lucky guess. Don’t go making her out to be some kind of plus-sized saint.” My heart plummeted at his words while the rage flared up inside me. “She just—”
“I said I don’t want to hear it. While we’re at it, I never want to hear anything like that from you ever again. You will not say one fucking negative word about her from here on out, you hear me?”
I got right in his face, shaking my finger against his chest. “I care about her, and she’s going to be in my life, whether you like it or not. The more names you call her and the more you go off on her, the further you push me.”
“Push you?” He narrowed his eyes, clenching his jaw. “You’re my son. I can push you as much as I want.”
“Try it, Dad. After the shit you’ve been pulling lately, I’m not sure there’s anything left to salvage between us. Especially given the way you treated and have been treating Stephanie, who’s an innocent bystander in all these things between us.”
“All the shit I’ve been pulling?” His eyebrows jumped, but he didn’t look overly surprised. “And what about all the shit you’ve been pulling? Slacking off at work to fuck your secretary, blowing off your responsibilities to fool around with those friends of yours. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, you need to pull your head out of your ass.”
“Says the man who thought his son was sleeping off a hangover when he was kidnapped by a former employee and told about it by a current employee. Only one of us has a great view of our colons from the inside, and it isn’t me.”
“Get some sleep, Jeremiah,” he bit out. “You’ve had a long day. Don’t say anything else you’re going to regret.”
“I’m not going to regret this, Dad. It’s been a long time coming. Today just cemented it for me. You’ve already lost Jack, and you’re about to lose me if you keep pushing. I’m not him, Dad. I’m never going to be Jack, but you would also never have treated any woman he cared about the way you do Stephanie. And I bet you wouldn’t have said he’d gone on a bender when he got kidnapped. You keep telling me to pull my head out of my ass and be more like him? That’s not going to happen.”
“Grow up, Jeremiah.”
“You sound like a fucking record player that got stuck. I’m all grown up, father. I came to work for you because you needed me to, and I bust my ass every day I’m in that office. But if you can’t stop comparing me to Jack and let go of the idea that you can somehow mold me into him, I can’t work at Williams Inc. anymore.”
“Are you quitting on me?” His voice was as cold and callous as ever. I didn’t have any clue why I’d thought him too fragile to hear this for so long, why I tried to protect him.
I shook my head, shoving my hands in my pockets as I made my way back to the front door. “It’s your decision to make, Dad. I’m done trying to be my brother. It’s not who I am. If you can accept that, then no. If you can’t…” I shrugged. “Then you already have your answer.”
I left after that, resisting the urge to race all the way home. One accident a day was about as much as I could take. I was relieved I’d finally done it though, laid it all out and thrown down the gauntlet. One way or the other, I would know what my future held soon.