Free Escape: A Stepbrother Romance by Jessica Ashe Page A

unlikely to take me seriously.
    “It’s an important language,” Sheri said, sticking up for my father. “And if you can speak Mandarin you will be in the minority of lawyers. You’ll be able to progress so much faster.”
    “Sheri’s right,” Dad said. Of course she was; Dad had told her to say that. I could tell from the awkward way in which she spoke. “My firm always has to deal with contacts in China, and it’s so hard to find someone who can speak to them directly. You wouldn’t believe the hassles caused by difficulties in communication. You can be the solicitor to deal with all the China work. It would mean you’d have a very lucrative and busy practice right from the start.”
    “How exciting,” Caiden said. “You could even go and work for your dad’s firm. I bet you didn’t think of that, eh Roy?”
    “Can I at least think about it?” I asked. “There might be other things I can do this summer that will be just as useful.”
    “I’ve already enrolled you on the course and Sheri went to a great deal of trouble ordering all the books you’ll need.”
    How much trouble could it be buying books? She probably just went online and ordered them with the click of a few buttons.
    “I really do not want to spend my summer learning Mandarin,” I pleaded, although I knew it was hopeless. “What about seeing my friends? We’re all going off to different universities or travelling the world and won’t be able to see each other as much. I’d like to spend time with them this summer.”
    “This is not up for discussion,” Dad said. “You’re going to learn Mandarin and that is the end of it.”
    “That’s not fair,” I said softly. I knew I sounded meek and feeble, but I couldn’t bring myself to yell in front of Sheri and Caiden. “You don’t have the right to dictate what I do and do not do.”
    “Excuse me?” Dad said. His raised eyebrows made it clear he was surprised to hear me speak back to him. It was a reminder of how pathetic I usually was that this was the first time I’d really pushed back on anything.
    “I’m an adult now. You might not realize that, because you missed my eighteenth birthday, but I don’t have to do what you say anymore.”
    “Oh, now this is getting interesting,” Caiden said. “Why did you miss her birthday, Roy? Big case to work on at the office? Or were you just busy screwing my mum on your desk?”
    “Caiden!” Sheri yelled. “Don’t you dare speak like that to Royston. You are a guest in his home and you better damn well act like one. Apologize to him now.”
    “The day I apologize to him is the day he shows some respect to his daughter.”
    “You don’t know anything about respect,” Sheri said. I’d never seen her so angry. She always looked so calm and collected on TV. Even when something went wrong, she would laugh it off and carry on as if nothing happened. “And if you think you can sit around here and watch TV all summer then you have another thing coming. I’m going to think of something for you to do this summer as well.”
    “No you fucking aren’t,” Caiden replied. I gasped at his choice of words and wished I had the confidence to speak like that to my father. He actually deserved it, whereas in my opinion Sheri did not. “Just because he treats his daughter like a project to be developed, doesn’t mean you can do the same with me. If you think I’m going to be under your thumb this summer just to impress your latest man then you have another thing coming.”
    Caiden stood up and I decided to as well. There was no way I was going to use the same language as him, but this was one time when associating myself with what he said might work in my favour without me actually needing to scream at my father.
    “I’m not going to learn Mandarin this summer,” I said again.
    “What time do the pubs open around here?” Caiden asked me.
    I looked at the time on my phone. It was twenty to eleven. “They’ll be open in twenty