I’m on my feet as soon as I see him. “Father,” I growl.
Sterling Stone stands in the doorway. He looks older than he should. Smaller. Not weak, because Sterling is incapable of weak, but… worn.
“Liam,” he rasps.
My first instinct is ancient and violent. Shut the door. Walk out. Pretend this isn’t real.
Roxy doesn’t let me.
She steps back beside me and threads her fingers through mine. A quiet claim. A quiet anchor.
“Come on, let’s sit.” She gestures to the sofa.
I take a seat. Because she asked. I’m sure she didn’t want to hurt me with this… Whatever this is.
Father remains standing for a beat too long. Then he lowers himself into the seat opposite us.
“Sterling, thank you for agreeing to join us this morning,” Roxy starts. “There’s one thing Liam and I deserve to understand.”
My father nods.
“Why did you need Liam to marry a Lock?” Roxy asks, and I take a breath.
Of course she would use the one tactic I’ve never considered: asking directly.
“That’s between me and your father, Roxy,” my father says, his features set in stone.
“Respectfully, Sterling, I disagree. Since we’re the pawns in your game, I think we deserve to understand the rules.”
My father’s jaw ticks. Roxy asked the question, but his gaze locks with mine. It’s not the look that used to make obedience feel like survival.
It’s different. Softer. Broken. Beseeching.
“This will destroy our relationship,” he says.
I let out a humorless breath. “That ship sailed, Father.”
“Ten years ago,” he starts, and my heart trips.
Roxy scoots closer, shoulder to shoulder with me. She doesn’t speak. She just stays.
I feel her warmth through the fabric of my shirt, and it keeps me from lunging across the table.
“We were so worried about you. You used to hang out in that garage with the keeper’s boy, and then you started running away with him. Out of the country. No security. No planning.”
“We were volunteering,” I push through my burning throat.
“You could have been altruistic without putting your life in danger,” my father counters, the worry lacing his words.
Something cracks within me. Not forgiveness. But recognition.
How he must have felt when I started forging my own way in the world.
A feeling he couldn’t understand. One he didn’t know how to reconcile. One that was so far from his point of reference, he only saw the danger.
I don’t know why I never saw it before. A father’s worry.
My mind flashes to the child still growing inside Roxy. My blood. Taking off into the world, convinced they’re invincible.
