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“She’s in LA.”
“She came back.” A haunted expression takes over Maddy’s face. “With Dad. They landed a couple of hours ago.”
Blood rushes in my ears and the walls close in until all I can focus on is my sister’s eyes and the sheer devastation in them as I fight to maintain composure.
“Where. Is. She?” I growl.
She shakes her head slowly, her skin paling by the second. “I don’t know. Why would she do this, Drew? I know she’s mad at you… butDad? After everything he’s said and done. How could she?”
My heart freezes in my chest, the pain too much in this moment to allow it to beat.
“She knows what she’s doing,” I choke out.
My eyes move past Maddy to the staircase as my father descends with a bag. My mother is hot on his heels, pleading with him to think about other people for a change.
Maddy stares at me like I’ve gone mad. “What the hell? Why aren’t you stopping this? Do something, Drew!”
My father walks up to me. I ball my hands into fists by my sides until my palms sting and the skin splits beneath my nails.
He looks into my eyes, a hint of regret in his gray ones. It’s gone in a blink, and I question if I imagined it.
“Hank,” Mum begs, “please think about this.”
“I have, Violet,” he says, glancing at her over his shoulder. “You won’t forgive me. I have nothing here.” His eyes slide to Maddy. “My kids are all grown up now. They don’t need me anymore.”
He looks back at me and years of buried emotions swell up until I’m practically vibrating with rage.
“Ineverneeded a father who didn’t know the first thing about what it takes to be a good dad,” I spit.
He glares at me, his eyes hardening until the gray in them glints like cold rain on slate.
“Lucky for me I’ve been given a second chance then, eh? That boy Sophie’s carrying might not be my blood. Same as you aren’t. But I won’t make the same mistakes twice.” His lips lift into a smile with a hint of smugness in it that makes me think I might break my last words to Tanner and kill him right here, right now. Crush his windpipe beneath my fingers and enjoy as it gives way to a bloody pulp in my palm.
His smile grows as he clips out each word with precision. “I’ll do better with mysonthis time.”
Mum clutches her mouth in a sob, and Maddy sucks in a breath as I ram him against the wall so hard that a picture falls from its hook and the glass in the frame cracks right down the center. It’s almost poetic that it’s an old family photo taken just before my sixteenth birthday. Back when I thought I was actually related to this prick. Thank God, Maddy is nothing like him either.
He arches a brow at me, unconcerned that I have him pinned by the throat, and no one is coming to his aid. The bastard thinks he’s invincible.
“I’ll take care of them.”
“You only know how to care about yourself,” I spit.
“Sophie chose me, Son. Time to move on.”
My phone vibrates in my pocket with an incoming message, but my focus is trained on my father. His eyes shine with victory like it was all a competition and Sophie and the babies are a prize to claim.
Something to own. To control.
I hold him in place and pull my phone out with one hand to glance at the screen.
“You sure she chose you?” I ask.
His eyes drop to my phone and his brow furrows as I slip it back into my pocket.
“I’m the one who brought her back, aren’t I? She’s at her apartment packing now.”
“Running off into the sunset,” I murmur, my chest warming with the knowledge that she’s nearby.
