Daddy Dearest Page 10

  “Hey,” she said awkwardly, and I offered her a lame smile. “Do you think we should head home?”

  “What else is there to do?” I asked her, shrugging. “Mom will kill us if we’re not home. We shouldn’t be siding with either of them really, but I guess we have no choice. We have to go home either way.”

  “Okay,” Kendall said lamely, and I took her hand on impulse, gently squeezing it.

  “Hey, don’t worry,” I told her. “It’ll be okay. We’ll get through this just like everything else.”

  “I guess,” she said, biting her bottom lip nervously.

  We walked out of the school hand-in-hand, with Kendall even choosing to bail on her after-school stuff. She’d always taken on way too much anyway, I’d always told her so. I never understood why she had so many activities. She was a shoo-in for an Ivy League university even without it.

  Once we made our way outside, my eyes went to the red Lexus right away.

  Levi was standing in front of it, his back against the car, his arms crossed in front of his chest.

  I felt shivers go down my spine, my body wanting to submit fully to the man I’d called Daddy just to tease him. But now, I was done with teasing. I would call him Daddy to get us both off, if only he’d let me. So far, he’d been way too focused on Kendall, but I’d make him notice me too, one way or another. I had my ways of getting men’s attention.

  He looked so handsome with the sun going down behind him. He wore dark tinted sunglasses and one of his trademark suits. His hair looked more gray than usual, his beard perfectly trimmed and neatly styled, giving him the look of a model. God, he made my knees go weak. I never understood it, but it had been true from the very beginning.

  “Hey, girls,” he told us once we approached him.

  I’d noticed Kendall’s hand had gone clammy and hot in my own. He had the very same effect on her as he had on me, and I was jealous that her affection was returned by him. Why was she beating me at my own game? And with this man, with Levi – the only one that really mattered. I wanted so badly to have him for myself. Once again, jealousy reared its ugly head, and I looked at the asphalt of the parking lot to hide my inexplicable rage.

  “I thought I’d take you home,” Levi said. “I hope that’s okay. I just want to make sure things are okay back there. I’ve been worried sick all fucking night.”

  He looked at Kendall for confirmation, and she looked at me.

  “Let’s go,” I said easily, and we piled in the car.

  Kendall sat with me in the back, and I was grateful for it, because I wasn’t about to fight her for that front seat. We drove home without any of us saying a word, and a song playing loudly on the radio. The sun was setting behind us and it illuminated the whole highway in a glow that took my breath away.

  But my appreciation was over as soon as Levi pulled into the driveway in front of our house, because Mom was already waiting on the doorstep, her arms crossed, her face wearing a scowl so angry I knew we were all in trouble. Nobody scowled like Barbara Violet.

  “Where the fuck have you been?” she snarled at us the second we got out of the car. “How dare you take a ride with him?”

  “Everything’s okay,” I told her placatingly. “Levi just picked us up from school.”

  “Did he now?” she snarled. “And what gives him the right to do that?”

  “Barbara,” Levi said calmly, rounding the car and taking his sunglasses off, offering her a smile. “I didn’t mean to step on your toes in any way shape or form. I just wanted to–”

  “What?” she barked. “Replace me as a parent? Make sure they liked you better? You dream the fuck on, Levi! You’ll never turn my own children against me!”

  No, I thought bitterly. You’re doing a mighty fine job of that yourself, Mommy dearest.

  “I never meant to do anything of the sort,” Levi said. “Why don’t we take this inside?”

  Mom stormed into the house and the rest of us followed, with me and Kendall tagging along last in line, feeling sheepish. Once we got into the house, all hell broke loose.

  Mom shouted and screamed at Levi, accusing him of shit I knew for a fact he’d never done. She was losing it, screaming like a banshee, threatening to hit him, threatening to hurt herself. It was a nightmare to watch, especially because she kept involving my sister and me, trying to blame us and make Levi feel inferior.

  I sneaked a look at Kenny, finding her with tears in her eyes. God, this whole fucking thing was a royal mess.

  “I want you out of the house, Levi,” Mom snarled. “We’re fucking done.”

  “Good,” he said calmly. “You sure you can kiss the money goodbye, Barb? We both know you’re a stickler for those dollar bills.”

  “Fuck you!” she cried out, grabbing a vase from the hallway and hurling it at his head.

  Kendall screeched and Levi pulled her aside. The vase missed her narrowly. If he hadn’t pulled her to safety, Mom’s misjudged throw would’ve hurt her, and badly so.

  We stared at each other incredulously.

  “Kenny, baby,” Mom said, her voice trembling. “You know I didn’t mean that, you know it was meant for him, don’t you baby? I’m so sorry, Kendall, I’m so sorry.”

  Kendall stared at her with a stoic expression and Levi’s arms around her. This upset Mom even more, and she glared at Levi, throwing her hands in the air.

  “What in the hell are you still doing here?” she shouted. “Can’t you just fucking leave?”

  “And leave them with you when you’re like this?” Levi asked, shaking his head. “Not until you calm the fuck down, woman.”

  “Fuck you!” Mom shouted, and Kendall’s bottom lip trembled.

  “You can’t kick him out, Mom,” I begged her. “Please. Let’s just talk about this calmly, like adults.”

  “You’re fucking eighteen,” Mom threw at me. “In no world are you a fucking adult, Amanda.”

  “Don’t kick him out,” I begged again. “Mom, please. Don’t do this.”

  “Watch me,” she snarled, giving Levi a threatening look.

  “If you’re throwing him out, I’m going with him,” Kendall piped up. “I’m not staying behind.”

  “Baby,” Mom said, looking outraged. “He’s not your fucking father.”

  “He’s all I want,” Kendall said simply. “And I’m not staying here. I don’t feel safe.”

  Levi’s arms tightened around her and I watched Mom staring at them, fury and hatred turning her eyes black her pupils were so dilated.

  “You want to fucking leave?” she asked slowly, her voice menacing. “Fine, get the fuck out of my house, both of you. I don’t want either of you here. Levi, you’re a fucking perverted piece of trash. And Kendall… What do you want me to say? You were always his favorite. So get the fuck out if that’s your choice.”

  “Goodbye, Mom,” Kendall said pointedly, turning on her heel.

  She gave me one desperate glance that made me feel so fucking guilty I felt tears pricking at my eyes.

  “Mandy?” she asked in that voice I knew so well, her little girl voice, the one she always used when she wanted my permission to do something.

  It never hurt as much as it did right then and there.

  “I’m sorry,” I muttered, staring at the floor.

  And then Levi was pulling my sister away and Mom was shouting obscenities at the door as it shut behind them.

  And then we were alone.

  Maybe it was the way it was meant to be.

  “I never should have trusted that bastard,” Mom muttered in a drunken slur.

  There was a half-empty bottle of Scotch on the table. I sat on one of the dining room chairs with my legs curled up on it, and she sat chain-smoking across from me. I’d never seen her this angry, or this desperate. It was a really depressing sight, and I couldn’t even bear to look at her properly.

  “At least I know you’ll never leave, Mandy,” she slurred again. “You’re my favorite, always have been.”

>   I wanted to speak up, but I swallowed my words instead. What was there to say anyway? It was all ruined, everything taken away from me before I’d had a chance to make things right.

  “I knew you were always on my side,” she told me. “Always knew it. And we could have had all that money.”

  “Mom, money isn’t everything,” I said lamely.

  She rewarded me with a bitter laugh, knocking back another glass of Scotch.

  “What the fuck do you know, anyway,” she told me. “You haven’t raised two girls on your own. You’re fucking nothing without your mother, always remember that, Mandy.”

  I set my lips in a thin line. I wouldn’t give her the pleasure of seeing she’d hurt me.

  “I had it all worked out,” she muttered. “The plan was airtight. It was supposed to work perfectly. Oh, of course I knew about Levi fucking around. And I remember when you told me, baby, the first time you saw him. You were crying. And the plan was put into motion.”

  “Mom,” I said. “Can we please not talk about this?”

  “Talk about what?” she asked, pouring another glass. “Your fucking failure to deliver?”

  “Mom,” I begged. “Please. It wasn’t right and we both know it. I couldn’t go through with it.”

  “Oh, come on, you little bitch,” she snarled. “You fucking give it up for any guy with a hard-on, and you couldn’t sleep with Levi?”

  I swallowed hard. I couldn’t even meet her eyes. I always thought my crush had gone unnoticed.

  “Don’t play coy with me, girl,” Mom laughed. “I always knew you liked him. Held a candle for him, almost as bright as Kendall’s, except she wasn’t fucking horny for her stepdaddy.”

  Oh, if only she knew.

  “Your stupid little idea didn’t work, did it?” she asked me roughly. “That fucking letter. He didn’t even read it. And before you could try again, he walked out. You’re fucking useless. Even with your looks, your fucking age, you couldn’t tempt him. Useless little girl.”

  She kept on drinking and I stopped trying not to cry. She didn’t even notice.

  “All it would have taken was one scandal,” Mom slurred. “One night of fucking indecency. All you had to do was fuck him, Mandy. Fuck him, and we’d have all the money we wanted. I’d get the divorce and shame him into giving us even more when my daughter came crying, saying stepdaddy used her. And you fucking blew it.”

  “Mom, I didn’t want to,” I said through the tears. “I didn’t want to do that.”

  “Well, too fucking bad,” she snarled. “Sometimes all of us have to make a sacrifice for our family.”

  She got up abruptly, getting another glass from the cupboard and slamming it down on the table in front of me. She poured the amber liquid into it and it sloshed over the rim.

  “You better drink now, baby,” she said viciously. “Nothing left to do now that you’ve fucked it all up…”

  15

  Levi

  She was quiet on the ride home.

  I kept glancing at her out of the corner of my eye, and Kendall kept staring ahead with her mouth tightly closed and her eyes distant and vacant. I didn’t try to understand what was going on inside her head. I didn’t even want to pretend to understand how hard it must have been to walk away from her mother and sister.

  But Kendall was eighteen now, and so was Amanda. They could make choices of their own.

  While we were driving, I reached over for her hand and pulled it onto my lap. Her dainty little fingers rested on my knee, and she seemed to relax a little. I knew it wouldn’t be an easy night for her, but I wanted to do everything in my power to make things easier for her.

  I was driving us to my apartment in the city, one Barbara didn’t know about.

  About six months ago, I’d realized my marriage was well and truly doomed. I knew a divorce was imminent, it was just a question of when Barbara would let me off the hook. But once I came to terms with it, I’d bought the penthouse apartment in the city, meaning to move into it once I finally sorted out the mess that was my private life.

  “We’re here,” I told Kendall once I parked up, and she gave me a simple nod but kept sitting unmoving in my car. “Baby girl, come on, let’s go upstairs. We can talk there. I’ll make it all better, I promise.”

  I reached for her and tucked her hair behind her ear. She flinched when I touched her and I hated myself for it. She was so fucking vulnerable after the fight with her mother, and I felt like a prick for pushing her. But what else was there to do? We needed to move past this shit.

  “I can’t believe she just let me leave like that,” Kendall said quietly, and I stroked her cheek. “She’s my mom. I thought she’d want me to stay.”

  I decided to keep my opinion of Barbara to myself. It wouldn’t help Kendall to tell her I thought her mother was a grade A bitch.

  “She was upset,” I said placatingly. “That’s all baby girl, it will all be better tomorrow. I promise. Why don’t we go upstairs and get some rest?”

  She gave me a small nod and I got out of the car, helping her out on the passenger side. I took her hand and led her into the elevator, her hand small and shaking in mine.

  If Kendall was surprised by the apartment, she didn’t show it, apart from one quick questioning look in my direction. I realized when we walked in that she didn’t have a thing with her, and I made a mental note to order some stuff for her online once she went to bed.

  “Where am I going to sleep?” she asked softly, her hand gliding along the white leather of the sofa.

  She looked up at me, and for a second, I was mesmerized by her beauty. She was really a looker, and not just that, Kendall was a girl I’d loved for her personality before I even saw her as someone I wanted to sleep with. She had an innocent, sweet kind of beauty that I couldn’t help but want to ruin. I wanted to break her. I wanted to own her. And I was going to do both just as soon as I got the chance.

  “Next to me,” I told her, taking a step towards the bar in the living room and pouring myself a glass of Scotch. “Where you belong, baby girl.”

  She looked at me for a long moment, and finally, a slow smile spread over her face.

  “My mom’s going to kill you,” she said gently, and I laughed out loud.

  “I can take your mom,” I told her with a grin. “Now your sister, I’m not so sure about.”

  It was her turn to laugh, and the sound of her melodic giggle put me in a better mood instantly. Kendall really was fucking special. I’d never felt this way about a girl – about a woman – before. It was like she finally made me realize what I’d been missing all along, in every relationship I’d had before her. They were all a fucking waste. All pointless now that I had Kenny in my arms.

  “Do you want to go to sleep?” I asked her. “We should get some rest. And I’ll figure out what we’ll do for school tomorrow, okay?”

  She came up to me, taking my hand in hers and giving me a sweet little look that fucking had me melting.

  “Will you sleep with me?” she asked. “I’m scared, I don’t want to sleep alone.”

  I pulled her closer, kissing the top of her head softly. God, she made me want to fuck her. My whole body responded when she was around, eager and desperate to have her wrap her lithe limbs around me. But I knew the moment wasn’t right, I knew I had to give it some time and wait before I got her into bed with me.

  “Of course I will,” I promised her.

  It seemed to calm her down a little, and I walked her into my bedroom. I wondered what she thought of my apartment, surprised to find I actually gave a shit. Maybe it was because I fully intended on keeping her there, making her live with me and submit to my every whim and desire.

  Once we were in the bedroom, I came up behind her, my arms wrapping around her waist.

  “Put your hands on the window, baby girl,” I muttered into her hair, and she moaned and did as she was told.

  Fuck, even when she was shaken up like this, she was still such a fucking perfect g
irl for me. I couldn’t get enough of her. She was intoxicating.

  “I’m going to take your clothes off now,” I told her, and slowly peeled off her shorts, slipping them over her tight little ass and tracing a finger between her cheeks.

  She kept moaning, sinful little sounds that made it nearly impossible to resist her young body.

  “Arch your back for me, Kendall,” I muttered, and she did, her body submitting to mine in the sweetest way possible.

  My mouth filled with spit I wanted to put inside her, but I resisted. I couldn’t push her too far. It was her first night alone with me, and I didn’t want to scare her. I wanted to keep her for a very long time, and I had no intention of fucking it up on the first try.

  I pulled her top away from her next, and her little body shivered under my touch. I reveled in it.

  “Arms up,” I said next, and she raised them, wrapping them around my neck from behind.

  I exhaled slowly, trying to keep myself in check, but just as I slid her bra off, she turned around in my arms, her sweet eyes searching my own for answers I couldn’t give her.

  “Why won’t you fuck me?” she asked, her voice so young and so shaky. “Don’t you want me anymore, Levi?”

  “Call me Daddy,” I growled. “Kendall, call me Daddy right the fuck now.”

  She smiled, knowing the power she had over me. God, I was fucking addicted to her already, and it had barely been a few days.

  “Daddy,” she whispered, and I crashed my mouth against hers, claiming her in a kiss that took so much self-restraint I had to dig my fingers into her pale, creamy skin.

  She was a little siren, her call so fucking lustful I could barely keep my hands off. But I knew if I gave in to my desires, I wouldn’t be able to hold back. I’d fuck her the way I wanted to, not the way she begged for it.

  I’d rip her tight, young little holes apart and she wouldn’t even have a fucking say in it. I couldn’t do that to her. I loved her too much.

  I stopped amidst our kiss, her lips still eagerly responding to my unmoving ones. God, I did, I fucking loved her. There was no running away from it now.