"Well, well, well," he says once he’s close enough. "If it isn’t the son I never knew about," he says. I feel physically ill when he gets close enough, and I smell the aftershave he wears. "Got to say …" He shakes his head. "I did good with you."
"I am not your son," I say, my hands balled into fists at my sides.
He laughs, and everything from my blood to my bones goes cold. "With that attitude, you definitely are my son." I stand where I am, hoping I’m not here alone. Hoping someone is out there with me. "Your mother …" he starts. "I met her when I was on my way home." He looks up and puts his hands on his hips. "She was so hard to get into bed." I want to throat punch him, but instead, I let him talk. "But when I did, fuck, did she light up."
I swallow the bile that comes up my throat. "I would come home and go back for her. That is how good she was. When she told me she was pregnant, I laughed at her. Like I would take her word that I was the father. From what I saw, she gave it away to everyone." He shakes his head. "She wasn’t stupid, that is for sure. One night, the bitch followed me home. She rang my doorbell and pounded on the door, ranting and yelling that she was pregnant with my child. My mother took her in, and the next morning, my father dropped her off. She took five thousand dollars from them and told them she would get rid of you." He shakes his head.
"Guess she lied about that," I say. "I’m standing right in front of you."
"I should have made sure she went to the doctor. But by then, I was working my way into Savannah’s bed." He mentions Ethan’s mother.
"Your father paid off that situation also, didn’t he?" I look at him.
"My father was always so fucking charitable." The tone coming out of him is as if his father was so stupid.
"Not that charitable." I finally find the words. "Considering that in a month, I’ll be getting all of his money, and you’ll be stuck with nothing." The color leaves his face. I clap my hands and laugh. "Imagine that, the son of a bitch is getting everything." I take a step toward him. "And you are getting nothing," I hiss.
"That fucking money is mine!" he roars out. "It’s all mine. It was me who had to swallow all the shit he threw at me. I had to swallow my tongue every fucking time just to please him. Even when he fucked my wife," he says between clenched teeth. "But no more. I am not going to take anything anymore. And I’m not going to have you step between me and what I deserve."
"Is that why you burned down the barn?" I ask, and his eyes shine as if he is proud of it.
"You aren’t as stupid as I thought you were," he says, a smile filling his face. "Burning the barn was for two reasons. One was a warning for you to leave." He smirks. "Two was because I could."
"What were you going to achieve by burning down the barn?" I ask him. "It wasn’t even mine. I wasn’t even there."
"Exactly, but you’re here," he says. "I knew the minute I told that fine piece of ass that I was in town, you would be out on your ass and no one would be protecting you." He sneers at me. "I thought for sure when I hired that fucker to knock her out, you would have left. But did you leave? No, not my son. Why do I have to have sons who protect their women?" I lunge forward, surprising him, and grab the collar of his jacket, yanking him to me so his face is right in front of mine.
“If you fucking touch her,” I hiss in his face, my nose almost touching his, "I’ll kill you with my bare hands."
"Asher." I hear Jacob walk into the barn taking in the scene. "Don’t do it."
"Oh, look who it is," Liam says, and I let him go. He steps back, smoothing down the front of his jacket. "The other shmuck who got stuck raising my kid."
"You’re a fucking waste," I say. "Your father was right about you." I look at him. "What was it that he put in the letter he gave me?” I take a second to remember it. "You’re pathetic and a swine, nothing like a real man should be." I know the words hit right in the chest. "Nothing like he was. Nothing like he raised you to be. Instead, you were the pussy of the family." I shake my head. "Did you get it?"