If I had even for a moment thought that my life would go back to normal Cade had made sure to destroy that. It wasn't hard to see exactly how mad he was about Maddox and I having a quick fuck and nothing more a week before. Cade had solely made it his mission to try to keep me under his thumb. Despite the fact I was clearly an adult, Cade had pretty much taken over my life. My mom had tried to say it was just because he was trying to protect me from everything, Maddox included.

"Emerson, Attention here. Get back to your warm-up."
"Cade, Listen man, Im too fat for this shit and I don't really care about learning how to fight."

Cade took to trying to get me to exercise and learn how to fight. Three days into his get fit and learn to fight program all I wanted to sit down and tell him to fuck off. But, I had promised my mother I would at least try to get to know Cade and do things with him. He was my father after all. Didn't mean I had to like him though. Honestly, right now I didn't even like him at all.

"How are your ribs today?"
"Sore."
"Scale of one to ten?"
"Sore."
"Emerson, fuck give me a break!"
"Six."
"Good, You can start on core strength. At least then you can protect yourself."
"I'd rather not, honestly."
"Emerson. I swear you act like I'm treating you unfairly."
"You don't want my opinion on that. Trust me, Cade."
"Would it kill you to call me your father for once."
"I would call Maddox daddy before you."

The sound of glass shattering made me look at Cade, he had murdered one of my mother's black glass drinking cups she brought from a trip overseas, She was going to kill him for breaking it.

"What the fuck is your incessant need to continuously push that one spot I have until I explode!"
"Fun, Games, a reaction."
"You know what----"
"Your the one who's butt hurt I got dick from your boss."
"You could have slept with anyone else. Why Maddox!"
"You know you could speak to me without yelling at me, You might think I still a child but I assure you im not, Im fucking nineteen almost twenty. You would probably lose your fucking head if you knew what I've done with tons of people."

The backhand that smacked the side of my mouth was not hard enough to bust my lip, but enough to make my jaw ache. I was fuming enough that my bottle of water I had gone sailing at Cade.

"Your fucking done!"
"Oh yeah, How do you figure?"
"Just wait till I show my mother what you did to me."
"You're just mad you got hit for being a cocky brat."
"News flash fuck face, You're not supposed to hit your kids."

The ache in my jaw didn't go away as I angrily walked my ass back into the house from the backyard. My mother was at work, but you could bet by the time she came home my face would probably be bruised and I would make sure she got rid of Cade, or at the very least make him go away for a while. Call me petty or childish, but he had put a horrible strain on our relationship and mom and I were fighting more than ever before.

Grabbing ice from the fridge freezer, I could hear Cade arguing with someone over the phone.

"I hit him, Not hard. Enough to knock some sense into him."

Fucking lier. You did hit me hard. Bullshit. clearly, his standards were higher.

"Diane of course I didn't mean to hit the kid, He was being a cocky prick and---- Diane, you there?"
"Diane?"

My mother clearly hung upon him. Was he honestly that stupid? Of course, she would hang upon him. He told her himself he had hit me. I wouldn't even have to get him in trouble, he did that all on his own. My phone went off on the table in an angry set of vibrations. Flipping it over the screen showed an incoming call from my mother.

"Hello?"
"Are you okay? he didn't hurt you too badly?"
"He hit me. He didn't manage to split my lip but I will probably have a bruise on my cheek."
"Im on my way home, We will have a discussion on this----"
"I don't want to discuss what he just did to me, I'd rather you do something about it!"
"Emerson, don't speak to me in that tone."

Hanging up the phone on my mother I was annoyed with the whole deal.

When she came home a short time after the call she forced Cade and me into the same room. The anger between the two of us would have been enough to probably light a fuse. Cade's hand was wrapped up with a towel out of the kitchen and his face showed annoyance every time he looked at me.

"Can we discuss the elephant in the room here."
"No."
"Emerson, we are having a discussion."
"Why don't you discuss with my father why hitting his children is a horrible thing to do!"
"Then why don't you tell your mother about how you said you call Maddox daddy before you ever called me father!"
"Your so damn butt hurt about that aren't you!"
"Enough!"

My mother was fuming now. That wasn't a good thing ever, Id only ever got on her bad side once before I learned to not do that.

"You're both going to say sorry and apologize or you both can get the hell out of my house!"
"Im not apologizing to him, He fucking hit me!"
"Your mouth brought it on, If your fucking mother wasn't standing there I would do it again you little mouthy fuck."
"Do it! I dare you!"

Cade was absolutely vibrating with anger when he stood up off the couch and started to walk towards me. He backed me into the wall, His fist cocked back and when he threw his punch it landed mere millimetres from my head in the wall. He pulled his hand out of the wall and backed away from me. My heart thundered in my chest as I stood there in shock.

He could have really hurt me with that punch.

"Cade Bennett! Get the fuck out of my house and don't you dare come back. And stay the fuck away from my son!"

He didn't stay around any longer than a few seconds more. He slammed the door so hard the door shook and a few pictures fell off the walls.