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It’s a mugshot of a woman who looks nothing at all like Casey. Nothing like him that is until I force myself to look past the crazy hair, vacant eyes, and sad expression, finding the similarities.
“She, herself, has had quite a life. She’s been in and out of jail and rehab for over a decade…”
Snapping the folder shut, I close my eyes and take a deep breath, gathering my composure before I say, “And your point is?”
I think I know what he’s getting at, but until I hear it from his lips I can’t be sure.
“My point is, Aubrey, I’m very concerned for Casey. His father’s dead, his grandparents are unable to care for him. His mother is a drug addict who can’t get clean, and he’s been left in the care of an alcoholic who has no relation to him. Perhaps the courts should be made aware of his case…”
Somehow I manage to open my eyes and look at my father. Somehow I manage to continue breathing as the full gravity of what he’s threatening me with completely crushes me from the inside out.
If his threats were directed at me or Emmett, I could live with the fallout. I could handle and deal with whatever came.
But I could never live with myself if he hurt Casey… I… just… couldn’t. And I’d do anything, anything, to keep that from happening.
Even if it means doing my father’s bidding and marrying Tristan.
“You’re a monster,” I hiss as the full force of my sadness, of my fucking grief hits me.
I think it would hurt less if he’d fucking stabbed me. Stabbed me in the heart until nothing was left.
My father makes a tsking noise and shakes his head. “I’m simply a concerned citizen, Aubrey.”
There are so many things I could say, but it would all be a waste of breath. I already know from what he’s said and from what was in the papers he gave me that he’s put a lot of thought, time, and effort into this.
And he has no shame, no honor, if he’s willing to hurt a child for his own personal benefit.
Eyes aching with the need to burst into tears, I suck in another breath, trying my hardest to keep myself together.
But I can’t stop my voice from cracking as I say, “I’ll do whatever you want… just leave Casey alone. He’s fine where he is.”
Triumph lights up my father’s eyes and the look on his face makes me utterly sick. “Are you sure? I cannot, in good conscience, abandon the boy.”
Everything inside me, the pain, the anger, the despair, swells to the surface, and it hurts. It hurts so fucking bad I can’t think straight. I can’t think of a way to make it stop.
“I’m sure,” I say, just wanting to get this nightmare over with.
But even after everything he’s already done to me, my father isn’t done yet.
“Very well, that’s relieving to hear, and I’ll take your word for it,” he says, then relaxes in his seat. “Now that this unpleasant business has been settled, let’s go home, shall we? The Yates will be joining us for dinner tonight. We have a wedding to plan.”
Chapter Seventeen
Emmett
The bottle sitting on the table in front of me is no longer looking like an if but a when.
I spent three days searching for Bree. Three long fucking days frantically searching the city for her before her phone finally gave me a ping on her location.
Betrayal doesn’t even begin to describe the feelings I have raging through me right now. I’m not some neanderthal who doesn’t understand the fucking internet. I know who her father is, and I know where she is.
She’s in his fucking house.
What I don’t know is why. Why the fuck did she leave us? It’s not just me, it’s fucking us.
Her promises were bullshit.
Fucking bullshit.
