She remembered.
“Should I have?” There was ice in her tone, and my jaw was bound to break at this rate.
“Say it.”
“Say what?”
“You know.” She sucked in air and then there was nothing. “Do it, Sprite. I want to hear the words.”
I counted to three in my head and made it only to two when she breathed, “Happy Birthday, Angel.” My eyes closed and I held them tight. “Angel?” she called when minutes ticked by.
“Yeah?”
“Why did you have to hurt me?” She was on the verge of crying. I could hear it in her voice. If she had stabbed me in the heart, it would have hurt less.
“Because it was the right thing to do.”
“Hurting me was right?”
“I would have never let you go if you didn’t want me to. We both know that.”
“I just don’t understand why my father wanted me back here in the first place.”
“He didn’t.” I forced the air from my lungs. “It was my father.”
She was silent for so long that I checked to see if she’d hung up. “He knows, doesn’t he?”
We had never even spoken about it to each other, yet somehow, it was so easy for my father to see. If Theo would stop keeping Mian at arm's length, maybe he would have seen it, too.
“Yeah.”
“Angel?”
“Yeah?”
“Did you know?”
“Not until I thought I lost you.” I heard her sigh and pictured her smile. It would be sweet and soft like her. “My father is throwing a party tonight, and I want you there.” I need you there. “You’ll be my guest of honor.” Birthday parties haven’t been the norm since before I grew my first pube, and even then, it was my mother who put it together. This year it had been my father’s idea, and I wondered if it had to do with business and I had finally earned my place.
“ But our fathers—”
“Fuck our fathers.” I heard her inhale and waited for her to release, but she never did. She was holding her breath, waiting for what I would say next. “One day, you won’t belong to him.”
“Then who will I belong to?”
So fucking innocent.
“Me.”
Chapter Forty-Five
A father’s love—means nothing.
PRESENT
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
I gazed across the table at the man who took what was left of my humanity. He looked two seconds away from lunging across the table and killing me too. I’ve waited for this moment for three years and spent the last two weeks in anticipation.
“What the fuck have you done to my daughter? Where is she?”
“She’s safe. Which is more than I can say you’ve done for her.”
“I’ve kept her safe.”
“You avoided her. That’s not the same thing.”
“I was grieving,” he whispered loudly.
“For six goddamn years?”
“One day, when you’re in love and that love is gone forever, you’ll understand true pain has no timetable.”
“Until then, you’re still a shitty father.”
“Where’s my daughter?”
“I told you she’s safe. That’s more than you deserve to know.”
“You better not harm a hair on her head.”
“If I had, the only one who would be to blame is you. What the hell were you thinking sending her after me?”
“I didn’t send her after you. She was going whether I wanted it or not.”
My gaze narrowed. “So you’re telling me she took the book?”
“Of course not. I never told her about the book.”
“Then why did you send her to my father’s home?”
“The night your father died—”
“The night you killed him. Be a fucking man and own that shit.”
He looked ready to argue but something in him gave up the fight. “I was going after the book that night and planned to hand it over to someone I owed.”
“Who?”
He shook his head. “Not important.”
I gritted my teeth and forced myself to move past his secrets while praying he wasn’t lying to me. “So you sent Mian to finish the job without even telling her exactly what she was getting herself into?”
“It’s like I told you. She would have found a way with or without my help. She thought I was going after money.”
“And you didn’t bother to tell her different.”
“She was in a bad way and needed cash. Mian’s a smart girl. Even if she didn’t find a safe full of cash, I knew she’d take something worth some value.”
“So you sent her in blind and you call that protecting her?”
“Mian has no skills as a thief. She’s a good girl. The chances of her getting caught were high, but there was nothing I could do to stop her behind bars. Her safest bet was you. I knew you wouldn’t hurt her.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I did hurt her.” I kept my smile at bay when his face paled.
“What did you do?” he urged through his shaken voice.
“Nothing that will scar.”
His fist slammed on the table top as he leaned close. “I trusted you,” he spat.