I watched in awe as Lori and Lauren went to work in the guest house the next day. They repainted the cabinetry in the kitchen to a deep red color and added a medley of green colors to the bathroom. All of the black and white upholstery was stripped out of the living room and bedroom. Lori and Lauren were sorting through various brightly colored fabrics, matching them with other textures, when a maid arrived to let me know that I had a visitor. I told Lori and Lauren that I would be right back before leaving the guest house. Ed had his legs in the pool, reading a book, but he glanced up as he saw me leave the guest house.

"Who is the visitor?" I asked the maid.

"Courtney Macalester," the maid said. I stopped cold in my tracks. Ed must have sensed that something was wrong, because he left the pool, dried off his legs, and walked up to join me and the maid.

"Is something wrong?" Ed asked me.

"My father is here," I said quietly, trying to decide if I wanted to speak with him or not.

"This is perfect," Ed said. "If he admits to anything, or tries anything, we’ll have a bit more evidence against him."

Ed was right. I knew that my father was snooping around and likely wanting to know what Lori and I were up to. "He’ll be angry," I said. "Don’t let him see you when I go talk to him, Ed."

"Sure thing," Ed said. "I’ll be close by in case things go sideways." I pulled out my phone to text Roman.

’My father is here. Don’t worry, I can handle him.’ I sent the text to Roman, and a second later I received a response.

’If I were there I’d handle Court for you. Be careful, Hannah,’ Roman’s text said. I told the maid that I would meet my father in the main family room, and the maid went off to notify my father as Ed and I took up our positions. I stood by the sofa near the door, and Ed stood behind the furthest open door so that he wouldn’t be seen but could see through the space between the hinges in order to keep an eye on me and my father. The maid ushered an angry Court Macalester into the main family room.

"Where is Lori?" my father asked me.

"Hello to you too, Father," I said. "Lori is fine."

"I didn’t ask you if she was fine, Hannah, where is she?" he asked me again. I remembered his extreme agitation at my wedding where he had pushed Roman and taken a fist to the chin. I wanted nothing more than to punch my father as he stood before me in unbridled anger.

I scoffed. "I should have known you didn’t come here to check in on me and wish me well in my marriage," I said to my father.

Court took a step toward me. "Don’t play games with me, Hannah," he said in a low, dangerous voice. "Tell me where the hell Lori is, right now. You have no right to keep her away from home."

"And you have no right to demand anything of me," I said to him. "Lori is an adult, and she can do whatever she chooses to do."

My father walked toward me now with his finger raised in my face. "You poisoned Lori against me, Hannah," he said. I could see Ed move to the doorway as my father had approached me, but Court’s back was to the door, so he didn’t notice Ed. "You’re selfish and ungrateful, and you’re teaching the Lori to be the same way," he hissed.

"You poisoned Lori against you," I said to him, staring directly into my father’s angry green eyes. "I had nothing to do with that. Lori wants nothing to do with you, she told me herself."

"You’re a liar!" my father shouted at me. "A damn liar and I want to see Lori now. I want to hear it from her."

"You’re not going to have anything to do with Lori after what you did to me, you son of a b*tch," I said to my father. Court raised his hand to strike me, but I was ready. I moved in closer to him and sent my knee straight up into his groin. My father cried out and doubled over. "Don’t you dare threaten to strike me in my own home," I said as I stood over my pathetic father where he crouched, cupping his balls.

"You f*cking useless cow," my father said in a strained voice. Ed was moving into the room, but I shook my head at him, and he stopped.

"I don’t want you here, Court," I said to my father. "No one wants you here, not Roman and certainly not Lori." My father was starting to pull himself together, struggling to stand. "If you ever come near this property again, I’ll have you arrested," I said to him. My father met my gaze, still angry but humbled by the blow to his balls and his ego. "You are a sick man, and you need help. Take some of that money that you got from my husband and hire yourself a psychiatrist."

"Don’t tell me what to do, you ungrateful b*tch." Court spat the word at me.

"You shut your damn mouth," I shouted at my father. "You have no right to speak to me that way. We’re not at one of your clubs where you think you’re in control," I said to him, my fury building. "I’m disgusted to be your daughter, and frankly, I don’t ever want to see your sickening face again. Get out of my house." When Court moved toward me instead of leaving, Ed rushed into the room and grabbed my father roughly by the back of his neck.

Surprised, my father turned to swing a fist at Ed, but Ed blocked it easily. "Get your hands off of me," my father demanded. "Who are you?"

"I’m the guy that’s going to teach you how to treat your child," Ed said as he led my father to the door of the main family room.

"Get him off of me, Hannah," my father called out to me. "He can’t treat me this way." As Ed pulled my father by the neck toward the front door of the house, my father tried to pry Ed’s fingers from his neck to no avail. "I’m cutting you from the will!" my father shouted at me. "I’m disowning you, Hannah!"

I held my hand up for Ed to stop as I walked around and smirked at my father. Seeing my father’s pathetic face made me laugh at the ignorance of what he had just said. "You wouldn’t have any of your precious money to keep away from me if it wasn’t for me," I said to my father. "You can take your will and shove it straight up your ass, Court." Ed took the cue to open the door and shove my father outside. When Ed followed him out and closed the door behind them, I resisted the urge to watch what was happening through one of the windows. I sat on the bottom step of the staircase and pulled out my phone. There was a message from Roman.

’Is everything OK with you and Court?’ Roman asked me in his message.

’It is now. He’s gone,’ I responded to Roman.

Seconds later he texted me back. ’Good. I’ll see you when I get home.’ 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

I responded to Roman with a smiley face emoji as Ed walked back inside the house, closing the door. He spotted me seated on the steps and he started clapping.

"Bravo," Ed said to me. "That was one hell of a talk you gave your father."

I scoffed. "I meant what I said to him. My father really needs professional help," I told Ed.

"He may be able to get it in prison," Ed said.

"That’s the best place for him," I agreed. "I used to feel sorry for him because of the way he was raised, but now I know that his father, my grandfather, made Court into the monster that he is."

Ed sat down on the bottom step beside me. "Your grandfather treated your father the same way that your father now treats your brother," Ed said.

"Worse," I told Ed. "My grandfather was abusive. I saw it when I was very young, but no one knew that I was watching. When my grandparents would visit, my father told me and my brothers to go play, but I lingered behind and I would see my grandfather slap my father, and my grandmother, too."

Ed sighed and shook his head. "It explains a lot," he said.

"He would say such awful things to my grandmother and my mother," I continued. "He would tell them to shut up when they tried to speak, and he would threaten to send them to whore houses where he said they belonged." Tears stung my eyes at the memory. I wasn’t old enough to know what a whore house was at the time, but I remembered the fact that my father never stood up for his mother or my mother. It proved how little my father and grandfather cared about women.

"That’s why Court could so easily sell you the way he did," Ed said to me. "He has no respect for women."

I nodded. "My grandfather should have been thrown in prison," I said. "My brothers don’t have a chance. They’re learning everything from my father."

"At least you and your sister are safe," Ed said. "Speaking of her, maybe you should go back to the guest house and continue helping her to keep your mind off of your prick of a father." I agreed and followed Ed back out to the guest house. Seeing Lori safe and sound in the guest house, fitting upholstery fabric with Lauren, made me smile. I decided not to let my father get to me, and he certainly wasn’t going to get to Lori.