Page 88 of Broken Beauty

Forty-One

Ariella

Present

My father told me to go wait in the office while he turns the car off and gets the rest of his things.

My leg is bouncing up and down from how nervous I am.

I can't help but worry about what my dad will say or think. The way he looked at Ash was scary, he looked like he was seconds away from stabbing Ash in the eye.

I don't know how or when this feud between Ash's dad and my dad started.

I have heard about my dad complaining about Levi Jones since I was a toddler.

I remember my father getting mad talking about him during dinner time and my mother scolded him and said he shouldn't worry about Levi.

I don't know the story behind my father and Levi Jones's relationship but I know it's filled with hatred.

But I also remember my father talking about Levi Jones's son and how the case with him was filled with headaches and how Ash needs to go into a mental institute.

If only my father saw what I saw the other day in his bathroom.

The door of the office opens making me turn my head. My father walks in, he is wearing a usual suit with a tie on.

I know he probably just got back from work and didn't get to change before his flight.

I thought that my dad was supposed to come home in a few weeks because of my birthday.

I didn't know that he would be here earlier, if I knew that I would have had Ash nowhere near my house.

My father sits in the chair behind the desk and then he crosses his hands over one another and looks at me.

“Ash, fucking, Jones, Ariella. Levi Jones's son?”

“It's not a big deal. You are making this thing with Ash and his dad so extreme. I don't get what the issue is between the two of you.”

“I told you I don't want you anywhere near that family, Ariella. Did I not?”

“You did but-“

“No buts. I don't want to hear it, Ariella. You disobeyed me. How long have you been talking to Ash?”

“I told you before, we started talking at the beginning of the summer-“

“No, when did you start talking to Ash again?”

My father's expression is serious, and I know that he probably wants to break the desk in half and scream at the top of his lungs yelling, “Fuck you Levi Jones!”

Again, I don't understand what the issue is with Levi Jones. I don't think I ever will because my father probably won't tell me a thing about his past with him. All I know is that he definitely doesn't like Ash because of the case no one will tell me a thing about.

“He moved to LA at the beginning of the semester.”

“I'm going to fucking kill Jones.”

“Dad, what does Ash have to do with your vendetta against Levi? Ash barely even acknowledges his father. I never once heard Ash speak a word about Levi to me.”

“Ariella, if you were there, hearing everything from that trial you would stay far away from him. Ash isn't someone you want to be intimate with. Plus, he is a Jones.”