Page 45 of Cruel Titan

“Every time you called me a Bennett. Every time you referred to Nathan as my dad. It was another joke to you. Something else for you to use against me, and I didn’t even know.” Her voice rises with each word as she starts screaming again. “Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“I already took Stanley from you once. I didn’t want to do it a second time.” Attempting to wrap my arms around her, she shoves me away. “Quinn. I tried to tell you after you found the photos of Stanley and Candace. And the ones of you and Stanley. I wanted to tell you, but you didn’t want to hear the truth, then everything kept pointing at Nathan so I figured it was better not to say anything until we know what happened to Stanley.”

She stills, looking to me. “Who told you?”

I back away, giving her space and readying to deliver her another blow. Fuck, I can’t stop messing up. “Stanley did.”

“He knew? He knew he wasn’t my dad? He was pretending the entire time?” She goes to leave the room, but I catch up to her, pulling her against me as she shoves me away. “No. I can’t. He was my dad. This can’t be real.”

“He loved you. Stanley loved you more than he cared about himself. That’s what got him killed. He wasn’t willing to give you up because he said you were his daughter.”

“Wait! You knew my dad? You talked to him? When?”

“The day I took the photograph—the one from my safe, of you and him. I confronted him at the restaurant. I was only supposed to snap photographs of him and Candace together, then you were there that day.” My head falls to my hands, my fingers tugging at my hair. How am I supposed to explain what a clusterfuck this is? “You weren’t supposed to be there. That day set everything in motion.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Stanley approached my dad for help. He knew Victor had problems with Nathan and figured Victor would be happy to help. Only, Victor turned on Stanley and extorted the money from Nathan’s company, making it look like Stanley stole it using your forged signature on the contracts. Stanley was never involved with any dealing relating to Vast or Ruby. From what I can figure out, the contracts were Victor trying to point the blame at Stanley while bringing you to Nathan’s attention along with the money.”

“Four million dollars,” she says under her breath as I nod confirmation.

“Stanley wasn’t concerned about the money. He didn’t want to lose you. That day in the café, I told him that I was going to give the pictures to Nathan instead of my dad, who’d asked me to take them in order to blackmail Stanley into keeping quiet if he didn’t stop seeing Candace. That’s when he told me that you were Nathan’s daughter, and Candace was there because she wanted to tell the truth about what happened in high school because she wanted to be in your life. Stanley said if the truth was revealed, you’d be put in danger. I didn’t trust him, so I watched from a distance all summer. Watching you climb with Stanley, I wanted to protect you, and Nathan always protected me, so I handed the pictures over to Nathan, never revealing to him that I knew more than the fact that his wife was meeting with a man she used to be married to.”

She is quiet, processing the information before asking, “What happened in high school?”

“Katherine Morgan. She was killed in a car crash at Devil’s Summit … and Nathan was behind the wheel. At least, that’s as much as I can find on the accident. Barker made a lot of the information disappear.”

Quinn hurries to her closet, yanking clothes off of hangers before pulling a pair of jeans and T-shirt on, then heading for the door.

“Where are you going?”

She swings the birth certificate around in the air. “To find out what the fuck is going on.”

“No. Whoever is behind this is dangerous. You can’t—”

“Watch me.” Grabbing her keys, she stomps out of the room as I hurry to pull on my jeans, grabbing my T-shirt as I run out the door to catch up with her. Of course she is already out of the house and running into the garage. I’ll never catch her, but I do know where she is going. And if she’s going, then so am I.

Running full speed out of the house, I don’t stop until I get to my car in the garage, knowing I’m about to follow her into whatever hell comes our way.

36

Quinn

Running through the lobby of Vast Perception, I get a few quick glances, but no one stops me. As soon as the elevator opens up to the eighth floor, I fly out, heading towards Nathan’s office.

“Quinn!” A cheerful Sophie approaches to hug me, but I dash past as she watches in confusion.

Throwing the door open, it slams against the wall as I rush in. A very confused Nathan looks up from his desk as I trudge over before slamming the birth certificate on his desk. “Did you know?”

He jumps up from his desk, waving at Sophie who is curiously peeking around the doorframe before Nathan shuts it, closing off her view. “Quinn, I need you to calm down and listen to me.”

“How long have you known?”

Nathan stands still, contemplating what he’s going to say next, and it’d better not include him telling me to calm down again. How am I supposed to calm down when nothing around me makes sense?

“Since April fourteenth of this year, I’ve known that I had a daughter. I didn’t find out it was you until after Stanley’s accident.” He sits in the chair in front of his desk and motions for me to sit. “I will answer every single question you have, but I need you to walk out of this office like you don’t know anything at all.”

I slowly walk over to the chair, cautiously taking a seat with my eyes on Nathan. “Did you kill my dad?”