I think the last time my heart had pounded like this was the day I’d confronted my father on the choice of universities I’d been given. It was his alma mater, or his alma mater. No in-betweens.

I’d lost that argument, of course. I wouldn’t lose this one. Not with Frank by my side. And not with this other man who only seemed to be my father standing in front of me. Sure, I knew objectively that he was my father. But all the lies? The disguise? It was almost too much for me to be able to take any of it seriously.

“I would have preferred,” I continued, “that you wouldn’t keep lying to me, piling up bullshit after bullshit diversion. Do you think this is a fucking game?”

His face seemed to twist more and more each time I swore. “So is that what this last year has taught you? To not respect your father? To not respect me?”

“No, the last two days,” I replied, my voice grating, “have taught me to not respect people who don’t deserve it. I know you’re lying to me, I just can’t figure out what exactly your game is.”

He looked over the rim of his glass at me as he took another swig, this time fuller than the first.

“So you don’t believe me, then? That this was all a ploy to put me away?”

“Why should I? From what Frank and I have figured out, we know Elizabeth was trying to steal your money. We know your assistant Barbara is somehow involved. And we know that somehow M Three Investments has been laundering money for criminals. And believe me, I know there’s no way your baby of a company could get by with that kind of thing without you knowing about it.”

He guffawed. Actually guffawed. “My baby of a company?”

I crossed my arms. “You spent more time in the arms of that company than you ever did in mother’s. You spent more nights and weekends with those people than with me. Always making another deal.”

He sneered and turned to his side, taking another drink. He shot me a glance. “Fine, yes, I did launder the money. But I didn’t steal it! That wasn’t me!”

“Who then? Elizabeth? Barbara?” I took a step towards him. “Is that what those documents are up there?”

“Those documents? Those are everything. They’re all of it, the whole paper trail, showing what both sides did. Me getting involved with these people, me trying to pull out the knife that Elizabeth and Hacks so elegantly placed between my shoulder blades by stealing the money I owed those men and putting it in the Caymans.” He drank down the last of his scotch with a flourish, his eyes back on mine. He’d always had a flair for the dramatic when it suited him. “But what does it matter, anyways?”

“What does it matter?” I asked. “Father, they’re going to put you in prison!”

“No, they won’t! I’ve been assured that, for my favors, I’ll just disappear. All I need to do is hand over a few fees, and I’ll be swooped out of here. I’ve been promised!”

“Well, what makes you think I’d go with you, Father? That I’d want to leave my life behind?”

“What are you going to do? Live without your allowance? Go become a waitress somewhere, live like an urchin? Without me, you have nothing, Ashley. Nothing!”

I took a deep breath as I looked at him, his eyes bloodshot, the words coming from his mouth borderline insane. “If it came down to a choice between the two,” I said carefully, “then yes. I already told your bitch of a wife that I don’t want anything more from you people.”

He rocked back a little on his heels. “You people?” he asked, scratching a hand through his beard. “I’m your father. I’m the man who raised you.”

“Raised me?” I asked, faking my shock. “Raised me? Ms. Hilda had more to do with me than you did.”

“Ms. Hilda?”

“See? You don’t even remember the names of the nannies you and Mother paid to raise me!”

He shook his head, finished his scotch. “Whatever your point is, I think you made it.” He waved the empty glass as if he could dispel my anger with it. “I take it you’re staying here, then, with him.”

I looked back at Frank who was just behind me, and reached out and grabbed his hand. “Yeah,” I said defiantly and turned back to Father. “I’m staying with Frank. And, as far as I’m concerned, you’re dead to me. Just like Mother.”

He grimaced like I’d just twisted that knife Barbara and the bimbo had left buried in his spine.

Good. He deserved it for the nightmare he’d put me through over the last year. For the pain he’d helped those men continue to cause.

“You know,” he said quietly, “if I hadn’t been party to it, to the laundering I mean, someone else would have stepped up and gladly taken my place. Money is money, and fees are fees, dear. It’s all green, and it all spends the same way.”

I shook my head. “I don’t care. You could have not done it at all, despite what others were doing or not doing.”

Carefully, he leaned forward and set his empty glass on the coffee table in front of him as a car pulled up out front. “That’s my ride.”

I nodded. “I guess this is goodbye, then.”

“My man will come in, collect the boxes, then I’ll be on my way.”

“Nah, Maxwell. Reckon that ain’t gonna happen,” Frank said, earning him a disgusted look from my father. “Ain’t exactly my job to apprehend you or anything, but I ain’t gonna let you walk out of here with that evidence. Not if what you’re saying is true, that Elizabeth and Hacks were embezzling the money. They deserve to pay for this as much as you do. Y’all are all pieces of shit in my book.”

“Will you stop me, then? Do you have any idea who I am, boy? I can ruin you.”

“Reckon I don’t give a shit. You or your ride step foot on them stairs, I’m gonna have to break your legs. This way, at least you get to walk outta here and Ashley doesn’t have to see you rot in a prison cell. Not yet.”

My father shrank back a little, his shoulders slumping for a moment. It was the closest I’ve ever seen to him being put in his place.

I tightened my grip on Frank’s hand. None of my boyfriends had ever really pissed off my father before. Certainly not like this. It had always been, “Yes sir, no sir.” Pandering for his attention, trying to coerce him into hooking them up with a job, or even my hand.

“So y’all go ahead and hustle on outta here before I call the sheriff and every other wing of law enforcement I can think of. Giving you a pass on that, at least.”

“I don’t believe I’ve ever been so thoroughly disrespected in my life.”

“Yeah? Stick around and you’ll find out how much worse it can get. That’s a promise.” He stepped up next to me and put an arm around my shoulders.

“Fine,” my father spat. He looked back to me, his eyes softening a fraction. “Ashley.”

I nodded. “Father.”

He lingered for a moment longer before returning my nod. He turned and left the room, pulling open the front door.

I released my breath in a heavy sigh and sagged against Frank as my shoulders loosened, as they seemed to unwind like some giant spring that that had been coiled for the last year at the center of my being.

Then, my father yelled and the door slammed shut again as his feet slammed on the hardwood as he ran. “No! No, no, no, no! Shit!”

“Dammit!” Frank yelled as he leapt into action and pulled me towards the back door. “I don’t think that was his ride!”