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When I unlock my screen, my breath hitches, and my hand shoots out, slapping against Rowan’s chest. My wide eyes meet his.
“What?”
“I have a voice message … from my dad.”
Rowan glances between me and the road before swiftly pulling over.
My finger hovers over the button for several seconds before he reaches over and presses my thumb down, and the message begins to play.
“Hi, baby girl …” my dad’s gruff voice begins.
My hand slams over my mouth, tears running across my knuckles.
“I’ve missed you, and I’m so sorry I couldn’t make it home to you.” He hesitates, and I hold my breath. “Oakley, I need you to remember what I told you. How, sometimes, the ones we think care the least care the most. How people who love you can do the most damage, but sometimes, they hurt you for you.” His usually strong, powerful voice comes across cracked and powerless, wrong. “I need you to remember this, even when it feels impossible. You need to be brave enough to find the truth behind the reason. And I know you are, baby girl. Even if right now, you don’t feel it. It’s there, inside you.”
I hear his broken sigh, and I know he’s crying. I’ve never seen my dad cry.
“Be unstoppable, baby girl. Never forget how much I love you.”
My phone falls to my lap, and I sob into my hands.
Dead. My father is dead. Alec is married, and Rowan has never truly cared.
I don’t know what will happen from here … but one thing is for sure.
Marissa Daniels won’t get away with this.Chapter SeventeenOakley“Ms. Rivera,” Detective Murphy says my name so callously that it makes my chest ache.
I’m nothing but another name in a file to this man. He doesn’t give a shit about how I’m feeling right now, and he can hardly even make himself act like he does.
“I know it’s been a long day, and we’ve asked a million questions, but I have a couple more.” He clears his throat, a deep crease forming across his large forehead. He licks his lips and looks down, lightly tapping his knuckle on the cool metal tabletop.
I know what he’s about to ask, but I’m going to make him say it.
I’m gonna force him to look into my face and lay the blame on me for my own father’s death.
It’s not like I haven’t already thought it. It was the first rational thought that crossed my mind after the initial shock and denial.
Could I have been the force behind the cause? Were my hands on her husband what brought hers to my dad?
Did she even do this?
And who the fuck is she?
Angry tears escape before I can stop them, and I hastily wipe them away, meeting Murphy’s eyes.
When I swallow, his eyes narrow. “You have to understand, coming to your home in search of the both of you was very suspect.”
“I understand fine.” I hold his stare, and he sees the truth to the unasked question, his light eyes pinching at the edges. “Ask me, Detective Murphy.”
He nods, moving to sit on the edge of the table. “Were you and Alec Daniels involved?”
“Involved?”
“An affair, Ms. Rivera.”
I swallow past the bile fighting to make its way up my throat. I mean, an affair is an affair, right? Even if one person has no idea the other already belongs to someone else.
“Perhaps.”
“Emotional or sexual or both?”
“Does the difference between the two really matter?”
He eyes me, and I can tell he has more to ask, more to say, but he simply stares.
I look to Officer Bennett, who has been sitting silently this entire time, and then back to Detective Murphy. “Tell me what led you to her.”
“The last call your father made was to a number registered to Marissa Daniels.”
My brows pull in as confusion swims in my gut, making me nauseous. “Are you sure?”
“We’re sure. As far as she told us, this is all a misunderstanding. She says she simply called your father’s number because she had been trying to reach her husband.” The judgment shows then, and suddenly, I’m the dirty, wrong one. “She was worried; she hadn’t heard from him in a few days, and it wasn’t like him. She knew your dad would be able to reach him. Seems he worked for your dad?” When I nod, he holds his hands out. “As you can see, her story checks out. We have no reason to believe she’s involved. She’s simply a concerned wife—and with good reason, it seems.”
“I … but …”
This is wrong. Something is wrong.
My father knew about her? He knew Alec was married, and still, he nudged me toward him?
Was I only to learn to trust him and not grow to love him?
Was I not supposed to fall?
My breaths come faster, and beads of sweat form across my hairline as my skin grows clammy.
