Freed: Fifty Shades Freed as told by Christian novel Chapter 2

I glance at the clock—it’s 12:28. It’s too late in the day for this talk…in every sense. “Dad, I’m tired—”

“No. You are not avoiding this conversation.” His voice is stern and his eyes narrow to pinpricks as he peers at me over his glasses. He’s mad. Really mad.

“Dad—”

“Quiet, son. You need to listen.” He sits on the edge of his desk, removes his glasses, and begins to clean them with the lint cloth he pulls from his pocket. I stand before him, as I often have, feeling like I did when I was fourteen years old and I’d just been expelled from school—again. Resigned, I take a deep breath and, sighing as loudly as I can, place my hands on my hips and wait for the onslaught.

“To say I’m disappointed is an understatement. What Elena did was criminal—”

“Dad—”

“No, Christian. You don’t get to speak right now.” He glares at me. “She deserves to be locked up.”

Dad!

He pauses and slides his glasses back into place. “But I think it’s your deception that disappoints me the most. Every time you left this house with some lie that you were studying with your friends—friends we never got to meet—you were fucking that woman.”

Christ!

“How am I to believe anything you’ve ever said to us?” he continues.

Oh, for fuck’s sake. This is a complete overreaction. “Can I speak now?”

“No. You can’t. Of course, I blame myself. I thought I’d given you some semblance of a moral compass. And now I’m wondering if I’ve taught you anything at all.”

“Are you asking a rhetorical question?”

He ignores me. “She was a married woman and you had no respect for that, and you’re shortly to become a married man—”

“This has nothing to do with Anastasia!”

“Don’t you dare shout at me,” he says, with such quiet venom that I’m silenced immediately. I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard him this angry. It’s sobering. “It has everything to do with her. You are about to make a huge commitment to a young woman.” His tone softens. “It’s a surprise to all of us. And I’m happy for you. But we are talking about the sanctity of marriage. And if you have no respect for that, then you have no business being married.”

“Dad—”