Dismissing Dakota | ✓

»20. Come to a Stop«

Silvia's P.O.V.

Breathing heavily, I couldn't get out of my current shocked state. Out of everyone in this town, Dakota's brother was the person my father decided to talk to after his short trip. For what? What could they possibly be talking about? Were they talking my relationship with Dakota? Or was it something else?

"Don't turn the car off." I ordered Dakota when his hand floated to the key. I wanted it to remain in the ignition. "We're not leaving this car."

"The hell we are."

"No, Dakota. We're not. Have you forgotten that my dad doesn't like you?"

His eyes gleamed in bemusement. "You don't like him. I think I can live without his approval."

I touched his wrist before his hand went back up to the keys. "We should leave. Intervening into their conversation won't end well."

"I wasn't going to intervene."

"We're not watching them either." My body went ridged when he flicked the key in the ignition, letting the engine cut off, and glided his thumb over the horn. "Don't do it, Dakota."

He flashed a dimple. "I wasn't going to." He left it at that and twisted the keys, then drove back on to the street and off the shoulder of the road.

The sight of seeing my father with Dion whirled in my thoughts for the rest of the day and into the night. What were they discussing? Did my father ask to talk with him or was it Dion who contacted him?

When I first met Dakota, his dislike toward my father had to do with the case that put his dad in jail. My father and his law firm helped put Dakota's dad behind bars, something I didn't know until weeks after moving here. Regardless of his unpleasant relationship with his own father, I knew this made Dakota not like my father for what he did.

"What did your dad do to get himself in jail?" I asked Dakota one afternoon at lunch. It was just the two of us on the football field, eating the meatless Monday meal we were served from the cafeteria.

"That was random." Dakota choked on his water, closing the bottle by putting the cap back on. "Um, he got charged for one count of first degree manslaughter, attempted murder, and arson."

"He...caused a fire?" I asked. "The one that left burn marks on your mom?"

"Yeah, that fire. To this day, my dad pleads his innocence. He doesn't claim he started the fire. He says that he was nowhere near my aunt's house, but your dad found evidence to trace it back to him." Dakota pulled on the brim of his blue hat, blocking out the sun. "The scenario they painted in court said that, after a heated fight with my mother, he followed her to my aunt's house and lit the place on fire. My mom survived that night and said she saw his truck speed off. My aunt didn't make though so my mother was the only eyewitness."

"Did you think he did it?"

"My dad's not a good person, but I don't believe he did it. However, I can't say I'm one hundred percent certain either. I was really young and hardly remember that night." Dakota murmured. "I do recall the fight. They had nasty arguments in the past, but nothing as bad as this one. There was something inherently evil about how he was that night."

I didn't ask what the fight was about. I could put two and two together, given that Pierson had told me a bit about Dakota's parents relationship before. Another reason as to why Dakota despised my father was because of the town rumor that my father had an affair with Dakota's mother.

It was before Evelyn was in the picture, meaning it must've been when he started taking many trips to California when I was eight. He was married to my mother still at the time and lived with us. He took business trips often, being a nationally recognized prosecutor. My mother didn't question these long visits to different states.