And my chest tightens with a panic I didn’t know existed.
“Continue,” Roxy says.
“I met Victor at a casino. He was a dangerous man, even back then.” He winces and looks at Roxy, “Sorry.”
She snorts. “No apology needed.”
“He wasn’t yet a businessman.” The contempt in his voice is palpable. “But he had connections in Latin America.”
Roxy gasps.
My throat tightens. My skin itches. I reach for my collar to loosen my tie and realize I’m wearing a T-shirt.
“He was supposed to scare you,” Father says, shaking his head. “A warning. A lesson. That’s all.”
“But I didn’t even go that time.” The words burn.
“The irony.” He sighs. “We had begged you not to go before, and you still did. This time you stayed.”
“And Noah went.” The words barely dislodge from my throat.
“I tried to call it off.” Father sighs, shaking his head.
“Youordered the kidnapping?” I’m not sure why I need him to spell it out for me.
Roxy squeezes my hand. Calming me. Grounding me.
He nods. “Nobody was to get hurt… I never meant for him to die.”
“His name was Noah,” I roar.
“My father has been blackmailing you?” Roxy asks, her voice breaking.
“He threatened to tell Liam about this. I paid Victor a lot over the years, but it was never enough.”
“You wanted to protect me?” I snap, the sound half a sob, half a snort.
“We both know our relationship suffered after the events?—”
“That’s one way to put it,” I scoff.
“Hate me all you want. Victor would have destroyed the family. Your mother… her charity… everything would have been tainted by the events. By my mistake. A mistake that cost that boy… Noah, his life.”
I think of Noah’s father. The pain he’s been living with.
I think of my unborn child. The visceral need to protect them at all costs.
I look at my father. A man who wanted to protect me at all costs.
And finally, I see the monster and the man in the same breath.
A man who loved me.
A man who destroyed someone else’s child because he loved me the wrong way.
I wait for the familiar contempt. For the need to make him suffer. For that impulse to hurt him.
Ten years of rage tilt into something heavier.
