Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 33692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 168(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 168(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that you might not be in this spot if you learned how to treat women with some fucking respect. Maybe, if you’d been a decent person, Cassie never would have left you in the first place. Your current situation is because of decisions you made. Because of things you’ve done. But you refuse to take responsibility because you’re too busy blaming other people. That’s what I mean. Learn to take responsibility for your own shit, kid. Learn to be a better man and a better human being overall. Do that and you might just be able to hold on to somebody as special as Cassie.”
“Whatever. You don’t know shit.”
He glares at me for a long moment, looking as if I just slapped him across the face. He’s not hearing what I’m saying. He’s still too busy playing the victim to accept that he has a role—that he’s the reason, actually—behind Cassie leaving him. What happened between them is his fault. Period. Plain and simple. And it appalls me that Zane, my son, not only treats women like garbage but is such a punk that he can’t take responsibility for his actions. Like Cassie, I’m disillusioned with him, to say the least.
“You’re not the person I thought you were,” I say sadly. “I honestly thought you were better than this. But you’re not even a decent person. I can see why she couldn’t get away from you fast enough. It all makes sense now.”
He recoils, surprise and hurt on his face. He quickly recovers though and puts that petulant, angry expression back on his face. He folds his arms over his chest.
“You want a relationship with me?” he asks.
“I would. But if we’re going to have a relationship, you need to work on yourself.”
He waves me off. “I’m not going to be able to have a relationship with you if you’re with her,” he says. “She hurt me. Badly. I can’t have that constant reminder in my life.”
“What are you saying, Zane?”
“I’m saying that if you want us to be able to move past this and work on having a relationship, you need to break it off with her.”
I shake my head, the anger bubbling black and hot in my gut. “Are you fucking serious right now? You’re trying to force me to break things off with Cassie?”
“Unless you can convince her to take me back, yeah. Like I said, I don’t want the constant reminder of the pain she caused me—that the two of you caused me—in my life,” he tells me without the slightest hint of humor in his voice. “I don’t think I’d be able to have a real relationship with you with that kind of resentment still running around inside me.”
“You’re serious.”
He nods. “I am. Either break things off with her or convince her to come back to me.”
“Even if I were inclined to do that, I never would. You don’t know how to treat her with the respect she fucking deserves.”
“Then cut her loose and be done with it,” he says with a shrug. “It’s really the only way I can see us building a relationship together. I know you don’t like it, but I’m being honest with you.”
“Wow. That’s just…unreal.”
“Like I said, I’m sharing my honest feelings with you. I’m trying to take your advice by taking responsibility for how I feel.”
His ability to twist my words and warp them to suit his agenda is remarkable. It’s also manipulative as fuck.
“Yeah, I’m not going to play that game. I don’t negotiate with terrorists,” I say. “And that’s exactly what you’re behaving like right now—an emotional terrorist.”
“Suit yourself. But you came here. You wanted to know what it was going to take to rebuild our relationship. Well, that’s it. That’s my price.”
“That’s a shame, kid. It really is,” I say.
“Why’s that?”
“Because there will be a day when you find yourself wishing you had a family. Remember, you’re the one who sought me out. And you did that for a reason. I think it’s because you wanted a father. A family. And you need to remember that you’re the one throwing it all away because you’re a petty, jealous, insecure boy, Zane. I honestly believed there was a decent, good person deep inside of you, but I guess I was wrong. You’re behaving like a child, and in your tantrum, you’re pissing away what you really wanted,” I tell him.
“If you say so.”
I shrug. “Maybe I’m wrong. That sort of thing requires a level of introspection and emotional intelligence that I’m not sure you’re capable of. You certainly don’t seem to have the ability to take responsibility for yourself, so perhaps I’m wrong about the rest of it, and you’ll be fine going through life alone and without any meaningful relationships. Without anybody who cares about you. Relationships, be it with family or a woman, require sacrifice and honesty. I’m starting to think you don’t have those things in you. Like I said, it’s a shame.”