Page 91 of Harbor

It was better not to bother.

Her silence bothered him more.

Her father dragged in a long, heavy breath before standing from the couch. “I see.”

“What day is it?”

Lucian arched a brow. “October first, Lucia.”

Huh.

“I want to go to California,” she said.

“I don’t think so.”

“Yeah, that wasn’t a request.” Lucia shrugged, and turned back to stare at the television screen again. “I want to go there for school. I’ll be late to the second semester when I was supposed to start anyway, but that doesn’t make a difference to me. Anywhere that I am far away from you is where I want to be. I don’t need your permission. I have my trust fund to pay for school and whatever else I need. I am already in the program, so I don’t need that, either.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her father’s jaw tense. “If you think getting away from me is going to get you closer to him—”

“He’s here. Going to prison. You said it. I’d be there—further away from him. If you think I’m going back to California just for him, then you’re wrong. I want to go because I want to get the fuck away from you.”

Her contempt burned.

Like bile in her throat.

Like fire in her heart.

Fury in her soul.

This bitterness was never going to go away. The longer she stayed here, the worse it was going to be.

She would kill herself with it.

Lucia already knew that.

“Lucia, I did what I had to in order to protect you,” her father said quietly.

Almost pleadingly.

She did look at him that time. “And what, sacrificed him to do it?”

Lucia didn’t need her father to reply to know his answer.

That was good enough for her.

Bad for him, though.

“Sleep at night knowing that, Daddy,” she whispered. “I hope you sleep well at night knowing what you did to me, and to him. I won’t ever forget it.”

Because she couldn’t sleep at all.

The bed felt too empty without Renzo.

Just like her whole fucking soul, too.

Like her heart.

And her life, too.