Page 129 of Open To Negotiation

“You don’t control me. You don’t get to decide this. Damn it, Theo, I can’t believe you.”

“My father was ruthless when he wanted something.”

“So why tell me now? Because your father’s dead?”

“I’ve been working on sorting it all out. I got Jaxson and Will involved but it took some time. It would have come to a head even if my father was still alive. I couldn’t just pay off your father’s debts. I needed to dismantle Warren’s power piece by piece and ensure your father stepped up and admitted what he’d been doing.

“Your father has turned himself in, he has forty-eight hours to present himself to the RCMP for processing.” His words deflated me, my mind was spinning with all the information I didn’t know how to process.

I slumped back in my chair, running a hand over my face. “Are you expecting me to be grateful to you?”

“No, I’m not expecting anything, I just wanted you to know.”

Shaking my head, I looked over at him. “I can’t believe you hid this from me.”

“I couldn’t risk you getting hurt in the crosshairs of my father’s sick need to control me. I’m so—”

“I don’t want to hear your apology.” I stood up and turned my back on him. My anger wasn’t directed only at him, but he was the one here for me to focus on at the moment.

“Quinn.” Smart man, he knew now was not the time to use a nickname because I would’ve lost it.

“This is the stupidest business proposition I’ve ever heard.” I didn’t turn around to look at him. “Do you just like seeing me hurt?” My voice broke as I tried to pull myself together so I didn’t cry.

“I wanted to—” I heard him moving and I turned around with my hand out.

“Do not come near me.”

“Okay.” He held his hands up. “I want you to know—”

“Please stop.” I finally made eye contact with him. “I’m barely holding myself together and I apparently need to go face my father. That is literally all I can handle right now.” I turned around with tears in my eyes and walked out of his office, not looking back.

Déjà vu from when he walked out on me not so long ago.

“Q.” I heard Asher call after me, but I just shook my head and left the office.

I’d pulled outside my dad’s place ten minutes ago, but I sat in my car staring at the house trying to figure out how to sort my head out.

Things weren’t adding up for me. His house was rundown and dirty. But from the size of his accounts and the money I’d given him, he could have afforded something much nicer. Everything I knew about the man was a lie and I didn’t even know how to start unraveling this mess. I took a breath and walked up to the door.

“Quinn.” My father didn’t seem surprised as he opened the door. He looked disheveled which was nothing new for him honestly. He had bags under his eyes, and his clothes were wrinkled. He looked me over and let out a sign. “You know.”

It wasn’t a question.

“You need to explain to me what the hell is going on.”

He held the door open and gestured for me to go inside. It looked like he’d cleaned up recently, there were no dishes lying around and no dying fruit on the counter.

“I have to head out soon. Don’t want a warrant to be issued for my arrest.” He said it like it was an accusation as he sat down on the couch. I took an arm chair across from him, sitting on the edge of it.

“Stop the bullshit, don’t sit there acting like I did this to you.”

“From what I understand that boyfriend of yours got involved,” he grumbled as he took a sip of a brown alcohol.

I bit my lip. “Not my boyfriend. I need you to tell me everything, no more lies. Please.”

He scrubbed a hand down his face, letting out a sigh before he started talking.

38