Marrying Her Older Billionaire

Chapter 11

“Dad,” said Angie, taking the initiative. She knew that Richard was going to have to face the brunt of her father’s anger, and she didn’t want him to have to face that and take the initiative as well. She didn’t want him to have to face all aspects of this.

“We have something to tell you,” she continued.

The peaceful look from Matthew’s face faded somewhat. He started to look a little concerned. “Yeah sure. What is it that you want to tell me? Is everything okay?”

“Yes everything is okay,” said Angie. “It’s just… like… well that everything that is going on is important and that you should know about it. You should realize that what we have been doing… oh I’m doing such a terrible job of this.”

“What Angie is trying to say,” said Richard, stepping in, “is that we have been seeing each other for the past three months.”

Angie loved Richard immensely in that moment. She had been doing such a terrible job of telling her father what had been going on, so Richard had stepped in and handled it for her. He had known that she was having a difficult time of it, and so he had decided to gallantly take the blame for her, to be the one that broke this news to her father.

Matthew looked as though someone had struck him across the face with a frying pan. “What do you mean?” he asked, looking utterly nonplussed. “What do you mean you’ve been… seeing each other?”

“I mean that we have been in a relationship for the past three months,” said Richard. “Neither of us really intended for it to happen. She knew that she was attracted to me, and I knew that too. But at the same time, we couldn’t help it you know. We couldn’t stop ourselves. We couldn’t help but act on our impulses. You have to understand.”

“What the fu*k do you mean?” asked Matthew. “What impulses are we talking about here? You do realize that you are telling me that you have been fu*king my daughter right? How the fu*k am I supposed to feel about that? How am I supposed to feel about the fact that you have been doing this behind my fu*king back for three fu*king months and you are telling me now like it doesn’t mean anything at all? What was all of this? A fu*king bribe? Did you wine and dine me because you knew I would react badly?”

“It’s not like that,” said Richard.

“Dad,” said Angie, trying to step in and handle the situation.

They didn’t know how to proceed. He was reacting so badly to this information.

“Look, Matt,” said Richard. “I’m not just fooling around with her, I swear it. I love her, I swear I love her. I proposed to her, she said yes, we’re going to get married.”

Angie took out the ring and showed it to her father. “Look, dad,” she said. “It’s the ring that Richard got me. He really does love me, and I really love him. We’re not just fooling around, both of us are very serious about this relationship.”

Matthew looked like he was about to cry, but they were not exactly tears of happiness. “How could the two of you keep this from me?” he asked. “How could you. I loved both of you with all my heart. With all my fu*king heart. And this is how you treat me? You… get engaged without even telling me? Do I even matter to the both of you?”

“Matt,” said Richard, trying to console his friend, “We just didn’t tell you because we didn’t know what we were and we knew that you were going to react negatively… we didn’t want to hurt you, we didn’t deliberately shut you out I swear it. I just… I’m so fu*king sorry, man.”

“You’re sorry?” asked Matthew. He laughed a wry laugh. There was no humor in that laugh. No joy. There was nothing in that laugh that even resembled happiness. That laugh scared Angie. It was the laugh of a man that was completely miserable. She had never heard her father laugh like this. She had never heard him like this at all, so angry, so disconsolate.

“You’re sorry that you’re fu*king my daughter?” asked Matthew. “You probably weren’t sorry while you were doing it though. No, not at all.”

“Dad,” said Angie, “I get that we kept something from you, but try to understand. We’re both adults, we are both free to do whatever we want. I’m almost thirty years old, Dad. You can’t be so protective towards me anymore. That’s not how life works. You can’t just keep me in a cage forever, you can’t make me feel like I can’t be with the people that I want to be with. You’re going to have to accept the fact that I am my own person and that I am going to do the things that I want. You’re upset that we didn’t tell you, that’s true, but you don’t have to be this sad. We are telling you now, as soon as something solid happened, as soon as we realized that whatever it is that we have with one another is a lot more than what we had thought it would turn into.”

Matthew laughed the same humorless laugh again. “You’re right,” he said. “I can’t control what either of you do. That’s very true. You’re both adults. But I’ll be damned if the man that fu*ked my daughter behind my back is going to take my law firm. I’m not going to let a man that can’t be trusted run my law firm for me. I guess I’m going to have to come back from retirement. There really is nobody in the whole world that can do the job for me. I’m the only one that can do it. The employees would be rather confused but I don’t think that will be much of a problem. You probably haven’t done all that much in two weeks, I’ll be able to take my seat back in no time. Oh, and I’m firing you Richard. I can’t take away your share or remove your name from the front of the building, but I can fire you as the head lawyer of my law firm. Go and work somewhere else, somewhere where snakes like you are tolerated. I don’t tolerate them.”

He got up and stumbled towards the door. Angie and Richard rushed behind him. “I’m going home,” he said, pulling his arm roughly away from Angie. “Angie, you are free to stay at Richard’s place if you want but I’m not going to kick you out of my home. You are free to stay with me too if you want. Whatever you want. I have to get back home, though. I have work in the morning.”

“How are you going to get home?” asked Angie. “You’re drunk, Dad.”