Desire ch. 25 - I don't...

[itztigress3]

Chapter 25 - I don’t…
POV: Zac / Emily
Word Count: 5460


October 6, 2009; Tuesday

My brothers and I were in the studio working on a new song; it was going very well too. We had all the lyrics written and perfected and were working on the actual music and beat that would accompany it. I had not told Taylor or Isaac about the albums she found, it was not important they know about them. There was still something distant in her eyes and I could not place it still, it bothered me that she wouldn’t really tell me either.

It was rounding noon and we were about to take a break when there was a frantic knock on the door and Isaac got up to get it. Stephanie came bursting into the room like a crazy woman and she came right to me.

“You have to get up there right now! Some guy is beating the hell out of the door! He’s screaming for Emily for open the door and she won’t.”

I exchanged glances with the other two and the three of us all went up-stairs, sure enough we could hear the pounding our main door was taking, Emily was standing in the hallway just outside our door.

“Emily?” I asked.

She looked at me. “I called Craig and Christopher; he was securing coverage and should be here soon.”

“Why?”

“Who is beating the door?” Ike asked.

“My father.” She said.

“Your father is here?” I asked.

“He called me when we didn’t answer the door at home, I told him to go home that I didn’t want to talk to him and he came here.”

I stood there a moment. “No, we’re not waiting for Christopher or Craig.”

I got her hand and she followed me to the door, I intentionally shoved it open so he’d be surprised and he was. He paused, mid-air before dropping his hand.

“Emily.” He said.

“I told you to go home.” She said.

“I told you we were going to talk, I am sure that Zac wouldn’t mind letting you talk to me alone for a little bit.”

“Actually, I would mind.”

He looked at me. “I really wasn’t giving you the option to mind or not. She is my daughter and not yours.”

“She is my fiancée and she will be my wife in a few months. I believe I have every right to mind if she talks to you or anyone else.”

He looked pissed but ignored me and looked at her. “Emily, we need to talk.”

“No we don’t. I found the albums and I saw the pictures. I am not a child anymore and I know exactly what the stains were.  I know Adam did not have those because he would have mentioned them.”

“Emily Isabella.”

I felt her tighten her hand in mind.

“I’m sorry Dad; I’m not giving them back to you. I know you won’t be calling any police to come get them either, because let’s be real you know the police would frown upon them.”

He stood a little straighter, puffed out the chest like it would make him bigger. “They are not your albums Emily. You will return them.”

“No. Whether they are your albums or Adam’s, the pictures are of me and they are not appropriate enough for Adam he doesn’t even deserve to remember that week, let alone have photos to relive it. As my father you should not be looking at such photos of me either, fathers do not do that. They belong with me and that is where they’ll stay. I will decide what to do with them after the New Year.  I may keep them or I may burn them all, I haven’t decided.”

I saw the absolute fear when she mentioned burning them; it was something we had discussed already. He feared losing them because they’re not replaceable at least the ones of her at fourteen, it was unclear if Adam had copies of the others ones anywhere else.

“Emily, why are you doing this? You were not so uncooperative until you met him.”

He’s gestured toward me with a flick of his head, I felt like I didn’t even matter to him. Honestly, I probably didn’t matter to him.

“I was uncooperative before but you never allowed it. I didn’t realize or come to terms with who I am until I left. I realized that you’re my father but you’re not my boss or someone who has the power to control every aspect of my life. You were going to marry me off at 16 to a man who was convicted of raping and killing a girl.”

“He will be a good husband to you and you know that. He was just upset and angry when he came over. Emily he has apologized to me for hurting you for a year. He has tried to reach you and believes if you’ll just talk to him he can explain what happen.”

“He raped me multiple times; he beat me more than once. I don’t need an explanation from him; he was pretty clear on what his intentions were. Did you know he was applying for a marriage license that Tuesday? He was just going there applying and moving on, he wasn’t even planning to tell you.”

“I already knew Emily. Adam had the balls to come ask me unlike your current fiancé who either lacks the balls or disregarded it all together. He never asked me for permission to marry you.”

Who the hell did he think he was? I didn’t lack the balls; I just knew it was pointless. “I knew you would tell me no and I knew that your reason would be Adam, which in my opinion is a bullshit reason. So, I asked her brothers instead.”

“No one asked you to speak.” He snapped.

“Free country, I’ll speak if I damn well want too. You should watch your tone because I am not afraid of you.”

I held my ground even when he stepped forward. I felt Emily let my hand go and then she was in front of me, seriously she was going to protect me from him?

“He’s not afraid to press charges and I won’t take your side. It’s best you back up.” She said.

He did back up some; Emily knew I could handle myself.

“It doesn’t matter what you think about Zachary. He is the man I am marrying in March. Honestly, I don’t really care whether you or any of my brother’s wants me to or not. The fact is this is my life and I will do and marry who I want and not who any of you want. I am glad that my brothers approve and you should too. Zac’s not going to hurt me like Adam will.”

“Adam won’t hurt you either. I believe the best person for you is Adam; the man has loved you since you were born Emily. He cannot make that claim. Only Adam can.”

Craig’s car slide to a stop beside Taylor’s and he and Christopher got out, her father looked back and just gave them a disgusted look, he evidently knew about them too.

“Adam cannot claim that either, he was ten when I was born. He wasn’t old enough to even grasp what love was and really the older I got the more he just wanted to use me. He didn’t love me, he doesn’t love me, he just wants to use me and hurt me.”

“Father.” Christopher said.

He came around to her side but she didn’t allow him to get in front of her. Craig went to the door to the studio rather far away.

“Why are you here Christopher?”

“Because she called me and told me you were here banging on the door. Have you lost your mind? This is not Georgia and the police here aren’t very friendly.”

“I am here to talk to Emily not you.”

“You won’t change her mind about marrying Zac or giving those albums back.”

Those apparently were fighting words from him, as they started some very heated argument which kept on for fifteen minutes. Christopher gave him reasons why I was better than Adam, he retorted with some bullshit reasons why Adam was better. It seems that the albums were not even the subject anymore it was our wedding and I could see that it bothered Emily.

“Stop!” She yelled.

Christopher turned and looked at her and so did her father.

“You don’t have to worry about my wedding Daddy. I dreamed about my wedding for years, could always image you walking me down the aisle and handing me over to the man of my dreams, and could image that father daughter dance.”

I could see the tears gathering in her eyes, fuck she was killing me with those words and I surely prayed he wouldn’t say something stupid.

“Emily, I will be at your wedding, but I believe it should be Adam and not him.”

Craig finally walked over beside me. “Emily?”

“Honey you are my only daughter.” He said.

A few of the tears that had gathered in her eyes finally broke free and slid down her face. Suddenly, reality hit me on what she was doing. She had dreamed and talked about those moments since we started planning out wedding, days after the engagement. She was hoping he would come around and even if he never liked me, that he would at least give her that. It was all she really wanted from him. To walk her down the aisle and give her away and dance with her once, she said she wouldn’t even care if he left for the actual ceremony.

“I don’t want you there anymore.” Her voice was lower than normal and strained.

The words shouldn’t have affected me, they weren’t said to me but they still cut through me like a knife as I finally realized what had been hidden beneath the surface for days now. That undetectable emotion was her fighting with what she wanted for so long.

Her father stood quite like everyone else.

“You are my only daughter Emily Isabella.”

She looked at him. “It doesn’t matter anymore. You clearly don’t care about what I want. Don’t worry about it, I’ll just…I’ll uh…”

She turned and ran inside; leaving us standing outside. I started to go after her but only took two steps before his voice sounded behind me.

“It is clearly his fault she will not listen to me.” He said. It was directed toward Christopher I was sure. But, I turned around anyway.

“I can’t believe your such a selfish bastard, for the last five months all she’s talked about is having you walk her down the aisle, having that one fucking dance with you because despite everything you did to her as a teenager she still loved you. Despite finding pictures of herself that you’ve used as porn for years she still loved you. Yet, you’re being such a selfish fucking bastard to want her to marry someone she fucking hates.”

Craig and Christopher both looked shocked and her dad did as well. I heard the door to the studio open, figured it was my brothers.

“I will never give her away to you; I will never dance at her wedding to you. She can beg me all she fucking wants too the answer will always be no. You need to give up this silly little obsession you have with my daughter. You will not be her husband.”

I heard the gasp and turned, Emily was standing at the door her eyes wide and I knew his words had cut her very deeply. Anytime he’d come up in the context of planning it was for those two things and he’s just bluntly said they’d never happen. The look on her face truly pissed me off and I turned back to him.

“I don’t give a fuck what you think, I love Emily. I will marry her next year with or without you. You can get the fuck off my property now. Don’t ever come back here again.”

“I came to talk to my daughter not her lap dog, her brother, or her faggot friend.”

“You don’t deserve to talk to her anymore. You can go back to Georgia and deal with it.”

“Zac...” Christopher warned. Craig even looked a little concerned.

“She is MY daughter!” He yelled.

“I don’t care what she is to you. She doesn’t need you; she hasn’t needed you since she was 16. Get over it. I’m going inside now to see what emotional damage you did this time. Do not show up at our wedding, you’re formally disinvited.”

I turned to go inside to see about her. I felt his hand come down rather hard on my right shoulder; he spun me around and was right in my face.

“I can guarantee you that you will not be marrying my daughter. You don’t have my permission you little bastard.”

I looked right in his eyes. “I’m marrying her. I only asked her brothers out of respect. Respect that you don’t deserve from me, not after the sick things you’ve done. Now, you can take your hands off me before I make you.”

Again, he straightened up but even being taller than me didn’t bother me, hell my own brothers were over my head and they’d never intimidated me. He surely didn’t because I’d seen those photos. He finally moved his hand off my shoulder. I started again to turn but I saw him raise back to hit me and it shocked him when I grabbed his fist before he connected with my face.

“You really need to reconsider your actions Mr. Daniels. I am not your children and I am not afraid of you. You are nothing to me.”

“I’ll be your father-in-law.” He snapped.

“No you won’t, I will never consider you my father in law, and at this point you’ll be lucky to ever see her again.”

“You cannot keep her from me!” He yelled

“Want to bet? I know more about her than you do. You just hurt her very badly and you can guarantee that I am not going to beg her to forgive you; I won’t make up any excuses as to why she should overlook your comments. I also won’t be allowing anyone else to do that. If she forgives you, it will be on her own terms. But, I wouldn’t look forward to it. Now, I’m going to overlook the fact you tried to hit me, but you need to leave right now.” I tried to remain calm.

I let his hand go and stepped back a foot to turn and go back inside, again the door opened and it was a quick glimpse to see Taylor coming out with Isaac. I felt the shove then, stumbled forward and caught myself before falling.

“You can go get my daughter. She can come home with me where she belongs.”

“Dad, you know Emily won’t go.” Christopher said.

“Emily will not have a fucking choice Christopher. She was obedient when she lived with me but your little gay friend here turned her into some whore.”

I could vaguely hear Taylor calling my name, he wasn’t very far away but he sounded far off. I could hear the blood pumping in my ears as something seemed to snap. Craig moved out of my way, stepped to Christopher.

“She is not a whore! She’s only ever said yes to one person and that was me. It is your little candy ass boyfriend that couldn’t accept no for an answer.” I yelled.

I heard Taylor and Isaac both yell my name but I was more focused on him, when he came charging at me I was ready. He wouldn’t treat me like his sons; I wasn’t going to back down to someone like him. He wouldn’t hurt her again. The first impact hurt the most and I only allowed that incase the police were called, four witnesses could say he hit me first and I was defending myself.

I really wasn’t trying to hurt him badly though, not like I had Paul. He was her father after all and regardless I couldn’t say how she’d feel. After three hits, two to the abdomen and one to the face I tried to back away but he wouldn’t relent, he kept coming at me. Screaming that she was his and she was coming home with him. I ducked at one punch and landed a rather hard hit to the gut, which caused him to stumble backwards some. He straightened up and he was actually going to charge me again when Emily was suddenly between us both.

“Stop it!” she yelled.

His focus shifted to her, as did mine because she was there. She yelled again for us to stop and it seemed like slow motion, he slapped her right across the face, screaming that she wasn’t to ever raise her voice to him. Her fall probably took seconds but it felt like hours to me, and that was much more than I could take. My ability to control what I was doing dissolved. He had hit her for no reason and that was unacceptable.

He didn’t expect it, the spear to the mid-section completely knocked him off his feet and he didn’t get back up. Craig tried to pull me off once; I heard the grunt when my elbow connected with his abdomen. I heard Taylor and Isaac and eventually it took both of them and Craig to pull me off him. I knew they didn’t mean to throw me to the ground as roughly as they did though. Taylor and Craig put knees to my back to keep me down.

“He’s unconscious Zac he’s not fighting back. Stop it.” Isaac said.

I tried to twist myself around to get up but couldn’t. Taylor and Craig were holding me as still as they could. Isaac leaned down and lowered his voice.

“I understand you’re pissed but Emily needs you right now. Think about what she needs not what he does.”

I looked around and I didn’t see Emily anywhere.

“Where is she?”

“She went inside as soon as she got up, she locked herself in your office and she won’t let us in.”

“You can let go, I’m ok.”

They slowly let go of my arms and then one at time they got up. Isaac helped me up and I glanced back at him once.

“Go ahead and call the police, he’ll probably need an ambulance.”

I then walked inside; Christopher was outside our office door begging her to let him inside, to open the door, to say something. He looked at me when I came inside. But he stopped me, indicated the bits of blood on my shirt.

“Clean yourself up first, she doesn’t need to see that.”

I took the button up shirt off and pushed past him, I needed to check on her. I got into the room easily but didn’t let him inside and the door locked as soon as it shut. I knew he was worried but I didn’t want him to smooth anything over, if Emily was pissed off at me then he didn’t need to make it better. She was sitting on my stool, headphones on and I could tell they were loud. I could already see the discoloration in her face from where he hit her. I walked over and sat down where she could see me, she was just staring at a blank sheet of paper in front of her. I’d never seen her draw just doodle on the margins. She finally reached over and turned the volume down and removed the headphones.

“You shouldn’t have done that.” She said.

“He shouldn’t have said what he did, he shouldn’t have hit you. I won’t apologize to you for that.”

She looked up at me and then back down to the blank sheet of paper. “He won’t be there, will he?”

“No. If he does show up, he won’t be there the reason you want him to be. I’m sorry Emily, I know now much it meant to you. You talked about it a lot.”

She got up from the stool and moved a few feet away. “It’s fine, I’ll get over it. I should be use to it actually, he didn’t come to my graduation why something more important?”

I got up and pulled her to me, held her close. “Are you mad at me?”

“For what? Doing what none of my brothers had the guts to do? Aaron’s only hit him once and that’s because he saw him hit me.”

“They love you Emily, they’ve experienced the same kind of beatings too. It’s ingrained that they love and respect him. You can’t be mad at them.”

“I hear the sirens; I assume we should face the police?”

“You don’t have too. I’m the one that hit him.”

“But you showed restraint until he hit me.”

I kissed her forehead. “He shouldn’t have said those things Emily. I know it hurt you when he said he wasn’t going to be there.”

She put her arms around my waist and squeezed me as tightly as she could, which was always comforting to me.

“I’m not mad at you or even my brothers, I’m mad at him for believing I’m someone he can control. For believing I’d be giving those pictures back just because he’s in front of me.”

I kissed her forehead again. “I love you.”

“I love you.”

We stood there in the room for another fifteen minutes, she was calm.

“Expect an emotional crash sometime in the next day or so.” She said.

“When we get home you can beat the hell out of the drum set.”

She leaned back and looked at me. “Or I could bang the hell out of you. That sounds like a lot more fun to me.”

“Either is fine with me. I’m not going to complain either way. But, you do need to really deal with this here. I know it’s hurting you. So, however you want to handle it is fine with me.”

She smiled at me. “I say I surely made the right decision when I came back to you.”

“I’ll say you did.”

“We need to go handle this now, I can hear the police have arrived and you need to tell your side.”

“Ok.”

We walked to the front where Taylor and Isaac were leading an officer inside.

“We asked them to come inside, they’re going to separate us into rooms so that you and Mr. Daniels aren’t in the same room. This way we’re not outside and we need to show them the video.” Isaac said.

Sure enough they separated us all. An officer sat down with me in our office, but Emily did not come in with me. I explained what happened and that if he agreed not to press charges, I wouldn’t either.

-Emily-

I followed an officer down to Taylor’s office, since he wasn’t in there. We went over what I remembered but I didn’t mention the pictures I just said it was a family issue that caused problems. When he said my father wanted to press charges I asked to speak to him alone. He agreed since I wasn’t present for most of it, he led me to the small room on the right and the officer stepped outside the room.

Zac had done a decent job on him, his eyes were swollen, lip was split but I didn’t notice anything broken. He would probably have some bruises as well.

“Emily, you should pack a suitcase and come back with me. He’s violent can’t you see? I’m not the only man he’s beaten up.”

“No, he beat Adam up in Atlanta for trying to force me to come with him. He beat Paul up in Texas for touching me inappropriately. He beat you up for slapping me. Do you see the theme there? Every time he’s violent, it’s to protect me.”

“Until he turns on you.”

“I’m not going back with you. I live and work here and I am happy with my life. Speaking of which, Zac and I will not be pressing charges against you and you won’t be either. There is video surveillance and it will show you came after him first.”

I knew the police weren’t far away so I felt safe being this close, he wouldn’t dare hit me here with so many officers right by the door and in the hallway.

“I have dreamed about the day you’d walk me down the aisle since I was a little girl, the perfect white dress and you in that black tux. Walking me to a man who loves me and is just perfect for me. I dreamed about that day until I saw those albums, until I realized Adam was right, you are worse than him. It would not take much to determine the man responsible to jacking off to those pictures, I am sure the seams contain enough for DNA sampling.”

“Emily.”

“Shut up David. You are going to not press charges, we’ll call it hot tempers and we’ll move on. You will take yourself to the airport and go back home. If you continue to push it I will show them the albums and tell them where they come from. I’ll make them do the testing and you and I both know that Adam never had possession of one of those. Is that clear?”

He looked pissed off and he started to raise his hand and realized there were police officers.

“It is. But you are making a mistake Emily.”

I straightened up and called the officer and he started to tell him he was, but then changed his mind saying that tempers had flared and he had in fact charged Zac first. There wasn’t much they could really do beyond there and unless the prosecutor decided to file charges they didn’t need to do much else. Isaac let them take a copy of the video and let them out.

I was by my office door; Zac, Christopher, and Craig were inside sitting down trying to relax a bit.

“Emily.”  Dad said.

I turned and looked at him, a few feet down the hallway. “I wasn’t lying David, you need to go now.”

“You never call me David, it is Daddy.”

“Not anymore. I overlooked the teenage hitting, but let’s face it George was right. You were hitting me not because I did something but because you wanted to do a lot more and you just knew I’d tell one of them about that, you knew they’d do something then. You hit me to stop yourself from doing anything beyond that. I am not my mother, she may have bended to you but I am not.”

“You would have if you’d have never met Craig.”

“Blame whoever you want David. I left on my own, I went to someone I trusted and that could help me. It’s time you go; I’ll even show you out.”

I turned to head to the front door and he followed me quietly until we were past the offices and almost there then he got my arm and turned me around roughly.

“You need to start listening to me, you use to do that. Very obedient daughter until you moved out. You need to come home and relearn your manners.”

“Let go of me.”

“No. You can come with me.”

I had no idea what came over me, but I just slapped the hell out of him.

“Take your hands off of me! I am not your daughter anymore and I am not someone that you or Adam can control! Stop trying to tell me what to do with my life! I will do whatever the fuck I want.” I partially screamed, partially yelled.

That of course brought the boys back out of the rooms.

“Emily Isabella Daniels.” He forced my name through clenched teeth.

I stood straighter though, because Zac was right they couldn’t always do this for me.

“No. I am not going with you. You need to leave.” I moved out of his way.

He was surely mad but I wasn’t going. He finally huffed out of the building, slamming the front door. The guys stood there Christopher was confused, Zac looked proud of me.

“So, are you guys going to try to work on the album some more or what?” I asked.

They exchanged looks. “It’s pretty late in the afternoon. I think we can start early tomorrow and be fine.” Isaac said.

“I agree. Maybe come in at 8 instead of 10?” Taylor asked.

“I think that can work.” Zac said.

“So, I guess if you want to cut out go ahead unless there is something else you need to do.” I said.

Given there was nothing everyone opted to head out early. Craig and Christopher came home with us for an hour and then went home themselves. Zac was working on a song while I fixed dinner and it gave me time to reflect really. I was fixing spaghetti and could hear soft melodies in the room.

I had wanted my father to be there when I got married, had dreamed about it. But, considering the implications from those photo albums it was the last thing I wanted now. What I did want was to be married to Zac and I wanted the wedding to be as perfect as possible because he had missed that with her and it was my first and only. I wanted us both to have the wedding we deserved, one that was not full of drama or problems. I could hear the soft music still and smiled to myself, remembered him singing to me the night before.

I was still torn on calling Casey though, because as much as I wanted to please Zac and let him experience whatever he wanted I also wanted that and he was saying no to me. I wasn’t sure if I could really sit there and watch knowing he wouldn’t allow me to join them at any time or ever. It was something I would have to really think about.

When dinner was finished I went to the music room door. “Babe, dinner’s ready. Come on before it gets cold.”

He got up and followed me to the kitchen; we sat there at the little island bar area. He cleaned up after dinner and then we sat down in the living room.

“How are you feeling?”

“Cooking helped clear my head some and I think hearing you play helped too.”

“Always glad to help.”

“I’ll be ok Zac, I promise. It’s just taking it in and processing everything. Never thought he was that way, even after George told me he was, I just didn’t want to believe it.”

“I understand. I know it can’t be easy. I’m here if you need to talk about anything. The drum sets are available here all the time and the studio sometimes.”

He put his arm around me, pulled me up into his lap and kissed my neck. “Or if you were serious about banging me that works too. I’m all available for that.”

I giggled as he kept on kissing my neck. “I could always really do that you know or I could use those handcuffs again, maybe some ice. I could take all my anger out on you in the most erotic ways.”

“I am all for any or all of that. But seriously, don’t bottle it up Ems even if you don’t come to me to talk, just don’t bottle it up.”

I turned and pulled him down and kissed me. “I won’t. I don’t really feel that bad, it does hurt some that he won’t be there but you know I can walk alone or pick a brother, I have enough.”

He smiled. “That you do, since I at least have to be there early, why don’t we crash for the night and maybe we can get ahead and you can tie me up tomorrow night.”

I rolled my eyes. “You like that entirely too much. I created a monster when I tied you down the first time.”

He let me up and we shut everything down and headed up-stairs. After changing clothes, brushing teeth, and just getting ready we climbed into bed and lay down. I curled up beside him and he was asleep pretty quick. I got to lay there for a bit and just think about everything, I finally drifted off as well.