Chapter 174 Two Options

Chapter 174 Two Options
Lex's POV

I should try to protect her from him; that is exactly what I was supposed to do. I should walk out of that door and never look back, knowing already that I decided within myself that I was not going to have a father anymore, but something kept holding me put in that position as I stared at him, and the look on his face showed that he was not bluffing at all.

If it was just the both of us, I would never be scared of any threats that he throws at me, but now he was taking it off with Lisa, and this was way beyond what I bargained for. I was still trying to get over the idea that I was about to take her on a mission that is going to ruin her life if things don't go as we expect, and now he's posing a direct threat to her and expecting me to pick out of his two miserable options.

"Father, I thought we agreed that we were not bringing her into this, and if you want to fight anyone, you need to fight me directly because this is not her fight; this is between you and me. Why the heck are you being so pretty?" I asked him, staring at him as I wondered how he had moved right now from the conversation we just had about him facing me directly, so he was using her as a threat to me again.

"That's right, son, but I have just realised that you do not care about anything anymore, and you wouldn't even care if I locked you up in a cell and beat you until you began to cough out blood, and she seems to be the only part of you right now, and that is meek, which is why I am going to be using her henceforth," he said to me, and the part of me was boiling in absolute anger because what the heck was he talking about? Me? Why was he being such a jerk?

"Dad, I am not going to take this from you. You are not going to touch her. You are going to face me, and you are going to fight me. She has no business in this. Stop acting like a crazy person when you are supposed to be sane." I asked him, 'The anger within me is rising now as I am already burning inside.'

"Oh please, Lex, you need to take a chill pill because this is just getting started, and I need you to be very quick with your response and also stop asking me a series of questions, like if I am sane or insane. Aren't you the one who just called me crazy and accused me of being used by a little girl who is only giving everything she has to help a mission that I want to be successful?"

"You do realise that I am a human being, Father, and you cannot just wake up and decide to use me for business despite how much I am trying to not comply with you. You do realise that this is not right and you are abusing me?" I asked him, trying to be more rational with him, but he seemed too crazy to even think straight at that point.

"You are my son; you are a Lexter, and it is your duty to take over the empire after I am gone. Hence, I am going to do everything I can because it is going to be such a shame if when I am there I watch from the other side and see how incapable and incompetent you are all because you refused all the trainings that I tried to give you before you take over the empire; it is going to really be a bad thing for my name, and that is what I do not want," he said to me, and at that moment something suddenly clicked because I finally realised that all of this had nothing to do with me but my father was only concerned about the legacy he would leave behind as regarding his business and how he managed it.

"So this isn't even about me, Father. Even after your death you are still thinking about yourself? What if I tell you right now that I am not interested in your empire? I am not interested in inheriting anything that you own, and I just want my freedom from you. Are you going to leave me alone then?" I asked him even though I knew the cost of what I was giving up and how it might not be the very best option, but if it was going to grant me my freedom from him as soon as possible, then I was going to go for it without looking back.

"I do realise that you are your own person, son, but you are the only son of this family, and you are the only heir to this empire. If perhaps you had a sibling, a brother who could take your position right now and inherit everything that you are about to renounce, then it would have been a very different story from this, but now there is no one else who can do that, so you cannot be making such decisions because it's not just about you; it's about the future of this empire, and you owe it to the future generation just like everyone in the past had given up something for it."

"Tell me what you gave up, Father? I dare say it was my mother, but no, it can't be her because you were never even appreciative of her when she was alive, so tell me, what is it that you had given up so much for in this empire? What did he lose?" I asked him, and this time I was staring at him very intensely, waiting to hear what it was he was going to mention, or maybe it's not someone, maybe it's something, but whatever it is, I wanted to know.