And so, so ashamed.
I swallow hard. “Oh my God, he lost everything.”
It fully sinks in. Instead of going off to Harvard and his promising career, Caleb took over management of some… some downtown Dallas sex dungeon.
I literally cannot even fathom it.
All Caleb’s friends were set for the Ivy League, too. Couldn’t they have helped him? My eyes dart back and forth, searching for answers.
But of course, no answers are to be found in the dirty metal of this prison visiting room.
My fury turns back on my father—well, not athim. But at the circumstances.
“You don’t belong in here. You’re an innocent man!”
Silas gives me a sardonic look, one eyebrow hefted. “We both know that’s not true. I might not have done this particular wrong, but I’m far from an innocent man. As far as I see, I’m just reaping what I sowed.”
He leans forward on his elbows. “Harper, I failed you in ways that are unforgivable. If karma saw fit to revisit my sins on me in this life—well, that’s a little less hell I’ll have to pay in the next.”
“Dammit, stop being so—” I tear up and reach out—only for my knuckles to bang into glass. I cling to the phone instead.
“Whatever you did wrong, you’ve more than made up for. I forgive you. You proved to me that peoplecanchange.”
The big man starts to tear up right as the guard comes to get him, while I’m in no mood for leaving.
“I love you, Dad,” I cry into the phone as he’s forced to drop his when the guard pulls him back roughly from the chair.
“Love you, too, kid.” His shout as he’s carried away still echoes in my head as I stumble back toward the waiting room.
How long will he have to survive behind these walls, and what other sacrifices will he have to make along the way?
SIX
July 2020
Zedekiah
“Bye, babe.”I pause at the door for a lingering kiss.
Harper laughs even though she’s tired.
“Mommy. Mommy!” The kid grabs at her legs from below us, but I don’t let her go, deepening the kiss.
“Z,” she laughs again from underneath my mouth. “He needs my attention.”
“Maybe I need your attention more,” I growl against her lips, pressing into her hips with my hard-on. “We could put on another Cocomelon episode. We’ve got time for a quickie.”
“We don’t actually.” Harper reaches down and squeezes my aching cock with an arched eyebrow. “You’re already running late. But nice try.”
I groan. “You gonna send me out on my long haul aching like this?”
She just shakes her head at me. “I already emptied you once in the shower this morning. How on God’s green earth are you like this again already?”
I lasso her around the waist and tug her close again, smirking into her mouth. “I always want you. You know that.”
Her lips quirk up, and I fucking love it when she looks at me like this. Eyes so open and full of adoration.
Most people’s lives have taken a one-way ticket into the shitter during this pandemic, but mine all of a sudden has gotten sweet. At least as far as me and Harp are concerned.