“Lucian! What are you doing out her

“Lucian! What are you doing out here? Your mother’s looking for you.”
He drew up the tail of his shirt and wiped his nose. Scrambling to his feet, he bowed his head instinctively, knowing his father would not be empathetic, and scurried by. He came up short when his father caught him by the collar.
“Are those tears? Patras men don’t cry, Lucian. You’ll never get anywhere in this world if you don’t toughen up.”
He clenched his teeth, wishing he could strike the giant that held him immobile. “Yes, sir.”
His father released his collar and narrowed his eyes, critically eyeing Lucian’s flushed face. “Is this about that dog?”
That dog! His name was Rex and he was their family pet. Rather than get into an argument, he pressed his lips together, but frustration boiled beneath his skin.
His father shook his head. “Damn dog, I told your mother that was a terrible idea. Now look at you kids, every one of you an absolute mess because some animal’s dead.”
Lucian’s heart sank. His father was nothing like the rest of them. He was cold and unfeeling. Everything he spoke of had to do with business and money. He never simply stopped to just be a father.
“I should have saved everyone the worry and shot that thing long ago, put it out of its misery,” his father said as he turned away and headed back toward the house.
A white haze of anger took hold of him. His crooked, chewed fingernails bit into his small hands as they fisted at his side. His tongue pressed to the roof of his mouth as he sucked in a deep breath through his nose like a dragon draws in smoke after breathing fire. Hate was a living, seething thing coiled inside of him, and he had to get it out.
Like a locomotive running off its track, Lucian bellowed as deep as his young lungs would allow and charged at the man. His fists crashed into his back, and for a moment he felt his father’s shock before it transitioned into anger.
“I hate you!” Lucian shouted as his fists pummeled the giant. “You’re mean and heartless! No one here loves you! You don’t care about anyone or anything but your stupid money!”
His arms were restrained as he thrashed and spit. His father’s anger quickly shifted into something disturbing. As if deranged, his dad was suddenly smiling at him. “Good, boy. That’s it. Be angry. Let it all out. Tears are for pansies, and no Patras man is a pansy. You see, love weakens a person, makes them vulnerable. Never put yourself in that position, Lucian. You open yourself up for those lesser emotions and you open yourself up to be dominated. Power is control, and having control leads to more power. Love corrupts power.”
As he drew in one enraged breath after another, he wondered how a man survived all those years without a heart. He jerked his arms away, forcing his shoulders out of his father’s grip.
“That’s you. I don’t ever want to be like you! You have no heart.”
His father stood and smiled. It was odd, that was perhaps the one moment of his life he recalled seeing pride in his father’s eyes, but it was for all the wrong reasons.
He nodded. “Go ahead and hate me, son. I’ll survive. I’ve made it through worse. If I have to be the one you hate in order to teach you that it’s okay, then so be it. I will not have a son who cries. Love weakens us, but hate focuses our drive. Embrace it, trust it, let it move you to top of the heap.”
***

“Lucian? Lucian, are you even listening to me?”
Lucian turned to his father, so much frailer than the giant he once was. Now, Lucian was the giant, yet that brought him no comfort in moments like this.
He did the math. His father was about his age when he’d given him that load of crap about love and called it advice, using his age as a reference point on wisdom. Lucian had no answers, likely because everything he knew of emotion and the human heart was stilted, being that this man beside him was the only male role model he had growing up.
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, what were you saying?”
His father frowned. “I said you can talk to me. I’m your father. I want to be here for you.”
Not good enough. His mind played over all of the bullshit his father had spouted over the last couple of decades. This man truly believed that lulling a person into a sense of comfort, getting them to bare their soul, was only a means to an end. He was the python of manipulation, seemingly still but large, waiting until the precise moment to sink its teeth into its prey, strangled it slowly, and swallow it whole.
Lucian shook his head. He had to get out of there. He was being sucked in, and he was smarter than that. “That’s not going to work for me, Christos.”
He didn’t let his father’s surprised expression interfere with his exit this time. He stood. “My days of being a sucker ended a long time ago. Find someone else to buy into your bullshit.”
He hated that the man looking back at him was not the arrogant, heartless giant from his memories, but an older, withered version, sharing the same eyes and nose.
“You don’t mean that,” his father rasped, eyes unblinking, face crestfallen.
Lucian wasn’t sure what he meant, but he couldn’t make a decision like that while his head was a mess and he was working on six hours of jet lag. His dad never had empty sleeves. That was what he spent his life observing, learning. There was always an ulterior motive with him, a way to climb on the weak and slither to the top. He would not be another stepping-stone for this man.
“I gotta go.”
“Lucian,” he pleaded.
He twisted again, this time angry and needing someone to unleash on. Why not let his father have it? He’d taken his abuse for years. Let the old man see how it felt when someone bigger pushed him down. Better he take the brunt of his wrath than his blameless employees. At least with Christos, he could peg some of the blame. Perhaps he was why Lucian could never have a healthy relationship.
“What?” he shouted, and his father sunk back in his chair. “What could you possibly have to say to me? That you love me? No, never that! You don’t love. You find hate a better-suited emotion for advancement. Well, how’s this? I hate you. I’ve hated you since I was a boy and you’re so heartless and single-minded you nurtured that hate, taught me to harness it. I don’t know how to feel anything else for you. I can barely make sense of my emotions because you taught me to hide them. I don’t want to hide them anymore. But you know what, Dad? When I see you I feel more than hate. I feel sadness. I pity you. You have three children and don’t know a thing about a single one of us.