Chapter 177: Free Not Broken

Lex's POV

I could see the defeat in his eyes when he landed on the floor and stood up staring at me. He seemed to have lost the will to fight as he stood staring at me while I waited patiently for him to come at me again. I had no atom of pity in me for him anymore. I did not want to let him be a burden in my life, and this was the deciding moment when I either proved to him that he had power over me and that I had taken powers in my own hands or I could do the things he wanted to do, like him controlling me like a baby.

"Is that going to be it, Father? "Aren't you going to fight me a little bit more than this before we decide who the winner is? Because as much as I can remember, I just threw you to the ground, and if we are deciding now, I already won," I said to him, but instead of responding, he suddenly burst into laughter.

The laughter lasted for about a minute as he was also almost choking on his own amusements.

"You are getting way ahead of yourself, Lex; you really are getting ahead of yourself, and I wonder where this road is going to lead you because I promise you it is not going to end well for you, and it might not be me who brings it down, but I'll make sure I put things in place that will make you come running back to me."

With the way he was speaking to me, I could see that he was already sounding defeated and the will to fight had completely left him, but instead of responding, I walked over to the couch where my jacket lay and picked it up, aggressively turning my gaze to him again.

"We have a deal now, don't we? 'I either go out there and figure out things for myself while you leave me alone or you try to break the deal and come fighting me again, and then we are going to really die in this,' I said to him, my hands pointing at him, but he wouldn't say a word; he was rather interested in staring at me like he had seen a ghost.

"I wonder what your mother would have said if she were still here right now to see you fighting me like I am the enemy you were supposed to fight. I wonder how disappointed she's going to be in you, seeing that she really was very proud of you and she told herself that she was bringing up the most responsible son that the world would ever have, but it turns out it was completely the opposite kind of son that she was bringing up. Or do I blame this on her absence? Perhaps her absence really affected you to the point that you do not know what is right and what is wrong anymore, Lex?"

He asked me that question, and if it was a different occasion, I wouldn't find anything to laugh about in that statement, especially because my mother was being mentioned in it, but at this point and from the person it was coming from, I found everything he said funny.

"You honestly think that you're going to use my mother's affection and her trust in me to blackmail me right now? "Why don't we talk about you, Father? Why don't we leave my mother out of this and talk about you and what you have invested in me because I'm pretty sure I know very well the things you have invested in me, and there are so many of them I could lose count," I said to him, wrapping my hands around my chest as I stared at him.

"You know, as much as I am concerned, Lex, I did nothing wrong to you. You are such an ungrateful child that you do not see things for the way they are. I have invested my entire life in our wealth, trying to build a sustainable future for you, but all you've done is resent me for it and refuse all of the good things that I have been doing for you for years, so I don't care about you anymore. Go out there and face the real world, but when everything comes crumbling for you, remember that before I take you back, I would make you go through my own hell." His voice was loud now; he was raging, but that was nothing to me anymore.

"You know, I was just going to tell you the things you invested in me, and the top of the list is anger and hatred. You've invested so much anger and hatred in me that the mere mention of your name and the fact that I am your son annoys me so much that I wish I could switch parents even with people who have nothing. You talk about investing so much in our family's wealth and trying to build me a sustainable future, but what about me? How would I be able to enjoy this sustainable future you're trying to build me if I am not myself and if I am constantly being traumatised by your very own presence and tyrannical nature?" I asked him, staring at him, and there was a brief silence between us for almost ten seconds.

I was waiting for him to say a word, but he didn't say anything. All he did was put his two hands in his pocket as he stood there staring at me.

"You know you were right; we have gone past the father-son conversation, and we shouldn't be having anything like that right now because I am no longer interested in mending things with you. You are too damaged to be fixed, and I have just come to realise that now. All these years I thought it could work out, but no, it can't, and you know I am super grateful that I found Lisa because apart from her in my friends right now, nothing else makes sense."

"And what would you do if you didn't have her anymore?" He asked me.