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“And?” I snap, disgusted by her theatrics.
“I tell Jake you’re not his mother.”
“Tara, no. Jake won’t understand—”
“Exactly. All the boy probably wants is a father. How upset will he be to learn you’re the reason he doesn’t have one?”
My blood runs cold at Tara’s threat, but I can’t extort Bash.
He loves me now despite everything, and now I’m supposed to screw him over if I want to protect everyone I love?
“I won’t do this—I’m not dancing to your tune, anymore.”
“You know, I thought you might say that, so I invited someone to talk some sense into you.”
A knock sounds on the door.
“Oh, just on time,” Tara croons, and my stomach drops.
I know it’s Bash, and I whip open the door, tears already in my eyes.
But it’s not the man I’ve grown to love on the side of the threshold.
It’s worse.
“A-até?” I stutter, shocked to see my father’s face after being gone for over a decade.
The lines of time are etched deeply into his face.
His gaze takes in my appearance, seeking the son he once knew but finding a stranger instead.
“Koda? What…what the hell happened to you? Why did this wasi’chu call me here?”
“Tara, how could you bring him here?”
“Oh, you didn’t want your daddy to know about your transformation?”
My skin crawls at the sound of her voice, and I look over my shoulder at her.
The venom in her smile is enough to make a rattlesnake envious.
“Didn’t you tell him that you’re no longer chi?kšítku, but chu?kšítku.”
Her use of my first language guts me, a reminder of vulnerabilities I can’t afford to have exposed.
And damn if she doesn’t know exactly what she’s doing.
“Koda, what is going on? Why are you dressed like a wi?yan?”
For a moment, my throat closes, and I can’t say anything against the disgust evident on my father’s face, but then I gather my courage.
“Because I am a woman! My name is Wynona Archer—this is who I am now.”
“How could you do this to yourself and mock our legacy—what would nihú? think?”
“Mom would’ve wanted me to be happy,” I whisper.
“Happy?” Até spits the word out like it’s a bitter poison. “You call this mess happiness? You turned your back on your tribe, married a wasi’chu, and then defiled your body to become a wi?yan?”
