Page 55 of Grim’s Angel

“You decided the outcome made the method acceptable.”

“I did.”

“And now?”

“Now I understand that I had no right to choose an outcome for either of you.”

“For once, we agree,” I say.

My father looks at me. “John…”

“Why are you here tonight?”

“Because Rivers stopped following my instructions after your club returned the money. The drone was his. I ordered him to end the operation, but his reputation mattered more to him than our agreement.”

“You hired a trafficker and expected him to follow rules.”

“I made a catastrophic mistake.”

“A mistake is missing a turn. You built this.”

His jaw tightens. “When Rivers stopped answering me, I knew he would destroy the records or use them against you. I also knew you would uncover my involvement as soon as you opened that safe.”

“That explains why you came. It does not explain why you started.”

He looks down at his hands.

“The woman I left your mother for divorced me,” he says. “She took enough money to make the settlement public and gave every reporter a reason to print the details of our marriage.”

Striker’s laugh contains no humor. “Karma finally found your address.”

“Public humiliation taught you remorse?” I ask.

“Losing the illusion that I was loved forced me to look at what I did to your mother.”

My mother’s funeral rises behind my eyes. Pale flowers. Wet ground. A coffin holding the only person who ever loved John St. Valecourt without wanting his name or his money.

“She died believing she was not enough because you betrayed her, humiliated her, and left her alone with the wreckage.”

McKenna’s breath catches.

My father looks smaller. “I know.”

“Your regret changes nothing for her. It changes nothing for me.”

“I thought if I could give you the kind of woman you might build a life with…”

“You thought a wife could replace an apology.”

His face folds around the truth.

I turn away before I find my mother in his regret.

McKenna stands at the edge of the table. Hurt fills her eyes, but none of it is directed at me.

It should be.

“Did Grim know anything about the contract before tonight?” she asks my father.