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The woman had less connections than a prepaid phone.
“My future as a fencer is done. I’m toast.” She shifted, hugging her pillow to her chest. “I’m never going to make it to the Olympics now.”
I checked her cheek for wetness.
Nothing.
Still, she sniffled, fighting a fresh wave of tears.
“You need to tell me what happened, Octi. From the beginning.” I brushed her hair away from her face, mainly as an excuse to touch her. “Think you can do that?”
She rolled on her back. I got a full glimpse of her face now. Nose pink, eyes bloodshot, hair a tousled mess.
I balled my hands into fists to stop myself from breaking something.
Farrow licked her lips. “Promise not to judge?”
The one who needs judgment is me.
Much to my horror, you could set the entire world aflame and I’d hold your fucking earrings and cheer you on from the sidelines.
“Pinky promise.”
She scooted up, plastering her back against the headboard as she peeked at me.
Her teeth sank into her lower lip. “My last day in Seoul, I did something… bad.”
“Elaborate.”
“I’d just received a phone call that Dad died in a freak accident. A distant aunt told me. Not Vera. Not Reggie or Tabby.” Her gaze dropped to her lap. “I tried reaching Vera via email and phone. I even sent a neighbor to knock on her door, but she dodged me.”
I swore, looped an arm around Fae’s waist, and carried her onto my lap, her hair spilling down my leg like a golden waterfall.
Fae blinked up at me, relaxing into my thighs. “Later that day, I found out that she’d canceled the card Dad set up for me to use in Korea. She emptied my joint bank account, too, including my personal savings I kept there. She knew I wouldn’t be able to buy a plane ticket home without that money.”
I ran my fingertips down her head, massaging her scalp, mostly to distract myself from the rage stewing inside me.
Fae rested her cheek against my abs. “She didn’t want me at Dad’s funeral. Probably to hurt me, but with the added bonus of convincing people that I didn’t care when she presented his will.”
Her pink-rimmed eyes glistened with unshed tears.
Lucky for me, Vera was nowhere near our vicinity. Spending the rest of my life on death row sounded like a depressing existence.
I kneaded a knot out of her neck, gliding my thumb down its column, hoping to ease her tension. “Everyone who knows you knows you love your dad.”
“No one here really knows me except you.” She scrunched her nose, rubbing away tears that refused to spill. “I had options. I won’t pretend that I didn’t. Ari’s a chaebol. Heiress to a ginormous fortune. I could have gone to her for a loan. She wouldn’t even ask me to pay it back. And my other fencing friends would’ve chipped in for a plane ticket if I’d told them I needed the money.”
My hand drifted up her nape to her jaw now, just touching her.
Marveling at the fact that I could.
Marveling at the fact that she let me.
And knowing I needed to do something with it, or I’d hunt Vera Ballantine down.
“But I was so dang…proud.” Fae’s expression darkened, her gaze fixed on an invisible spot on the ceiling. “My pride wouldn’t let me beg for money. Not even to attend Dad’s funeral.”
She curled to her side, burying her nose into my stomach. “I spent my entire life helpless against Vera, Reggie, and Tabby. But this marked my first fight against them without Dad behind me. I wanted to show them I could hold my own.”
