"ABSOLUTELY NOT!"
Amber crossed her arms and scowled as her father's roar echoed in the office.
"You are not getting yourself surgically sterilized!" Rotti shouted, completely livid. "I absolutely forbid it!"
"Why?" Amber sneered. "All the GENterns get that surgery."
"You are not a GENtern!" Rotti snarled. "You are my daughter, and as such you have a responsibility to ensure my genes make it to the next generation!"
Amber rolled her eyes. "Why not leave that to my brothers?" she retorted.
"I will not see any branch of my family tree cut off!" Rotti snapped. "I've given you plenty of freedom - I've let you get more surgery than anyone else in the world, I've turned a blind eye when you've gone out dealing with necromerchants, I even allowed you to change your name - but this is going too far!"
"What's the point of trying to surgically perfect my body if no one gets to appreciate it?" Amber demanded.
"You can have as many people 'appreciate it' as you want," Rotti said; "that's not what I'm protesting against."
"Yeah, and what would I do if I got pregnant?" Amber asked sarcastically.
"You would carry the baby to term, give birth to it, and raise it, hopefully with some hitherto-unseen shred of decency!" Rotti replied angrily.
"Look, I don't want to get pregnant, alright?" Amber snapped. "Is that so wrong?"
"Yes!" Rotti shouted. "Perhaps it's not so wrong at this early time in your life, but wanting to make it impossible for you to ever have a child when you share my genes is very wrong, and I forbid you to do it!" He glared at her. "If you don't want to get pregnant right now, then take oral contraceptives, or stop having sex!"
"I am not swearing off sex," Amber sneered.
"Then take birth control," Rotti said.
"Look, I don't want a baby," Amber said, changing tactics for a moment and trying to sound reasonable. "Seriously, Daddy - I don't want to have kids, ever. I wouldn't know how to be a mother - I mean, I've never even had one myself!"
"You will have a child someday," Rotti told her sternly; "if not for yourself, then out of gratitude to me for everything I've given you!"
Amber gave up on trying to be reasonable. "Oh, fuck you," she sneered, and she turned around and started to walk away.
"Carmela!" Rotti shouted.
"It's Amber!" she snapped angrily, whirling around to face him again.
Rotti shook his head, a scowl of pure loathing on his face. "I may have let you change your name," he said coldly; "I may have let you legally strip yourself of my name, even though it was a show of disrespect and ingratitude I never thought possible of one of my own children…but you still share my genes, and you will not remove them from the gene pool." He stood up and walked over to her as he spoke. "I have forbidden all of the GENterns and surGENs - in the entire world, just in case you thought to go elsewhere - from giving you that surgery," he told her. His voice dropped to a menacing hiss as he added, "And if, god forbid, you somehow manage to find a way to sterilize yourself, I will disown you."
Amber blinked.
"You will not be my daughter," Rotti told her in a low, furious voice. "You will not have any of the money, power, and freedom that comes with being my daughter; I will not even acknowledge your existence, not even if you throw yourself at my feet and scream and beg and cry. You'll be just like those GENterns you seem so determined to emulate - only less, as you won't even have a way of supporting yourself. You will be nothing but an empty-headed, barren wretch. That is what will happen if you get that surgery. Do I make myself clear?"
For a moment, Amber couldn't speak. Her father had never so much as told her 'no' before, and this threat was almost enough to shatter her on its own.
"Do I make myself clear?" Rotti demanded again.
"Y-Yes Dad," Amber managed to choke.
"Good," he spat, and, shooting her one last furious glare, he walked back to his desk and sat down.
Amber stood perfectly still, too shocked to move. The thought of being disowned had never occurred to her - she had always taken everything she had for granted. The thought was unbearable.
After a minute, Rotti looked up at her. "Is there anything else?" he asked coldly.
"No," she said in a very small voice.
"Then get out of my sight," he snapped, and he turned back to the work on his desk.
Amber clenched her fists. She had thought she had hardened herself to everyone and everything, but now she realized that some small part of her heart had been left vulnerable - to her father.
Well, that was a mistake she would never make again.
"You're no help at all," she growled. "Go to hell, Dad."
With that, she turned and stepped onto the elevator, the doors of which didn't quite close behind her in time to stop her from hearing his reply:
"You first."