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“Oh. Okay. How long were you there?”
“I’ll be in touch soon, Fallon,” he said. “You should leave now.”
I left, setting off the chain of events that sent us all tumbling from one hell into another.
THIRTEEN
“Dad’s changed.”
Unlikely. I gritted my teeth as I clenched my phone tightly, staring unseeingly out of the window of James’ apartment. “How, exactly?”
Joseph’s sigh was heavy enough to be audible through my phone speaker. “We had a long talk when I went to visit him. It really feels like he’s different now, Fal. It seems like being sentenced has made him re-evaluate his life. I think…he thought he was going to get out of it, right up until the end. But now he’s being moved to a proper prison, and…it’s hit home for him. He wants to try and make things up to us, for our family.”
There was no way on earth that it was true. My father would have had to have an entire personality transplant for that to even be a possibility, and even then, I doubted that it would have been enough.
When the silence stretched, he sighed again. “Will you consider seeing him?”
“No. Never.”
“You’re being unfair. Don’t you understand how hard this is for him? I know he did a lot of unforgivable things, but he’s trying now. He wants what’s best for our family. He wants to make it right, to preserve our legacy.”
“I’m sorry, but as far as I’m concerned, he deserves prison.” Leaning my forehead against the cool pane of glass, I closed my eyes. “I’m sorry you don’t understand, but you can’t ask me to do this.”
“Right. If that’s your final decision, then I need to go.” There was something weird in his tone, but I couldn’t work out what it was. “Bye, Fallon.”
He ended the call before I could reply.
* * *
I had to get out of James’ flat. Although it was cold outside, the sun was shining, and all I wanted to do was to walk somewhere and forget about my problems for a while. Shrugging on the thick padded navy jacket that I’d brought back from Switzerland with me, I made my way out of the building and set off down the road with no fixed destination in mind.
I could breathe more easily, being out here. Those first months I’d spent in Switzerland inside the sanctuary, I’d grown to hate seeing the same scenery over and over. Now I appreciated the freedom to be able to go where I wanted, to have that choice.
The salty tang of the sea air filled my nostrils, and I breathed in deeply. That was something I’d missed out on while I’d been gone—being in a landlocked country had meant that I hadn’t seen the sea for a long time. Of course, Switzerland had absolutely breathtaking scenery, but I’d grown up on the coast, and it was something I had always taken for granted until it was gone.
It struck me then. I needed to see the sea. I hadn’t actually seen it since I’d been back.
Pulling up the maps app on my phone, because I wasn’t exactly sure where I’d ended up, I set a route to the coast. According to the navigation, it was only a seven-minute walk away.
I was cresting a hill with a smile on my lips because I knew the sea was on the other side, when a low rumble of an engine cut through the quiet.
A shiver went down my spine.
That sound…
My steps slowed until I was at a standstill, poised at the top of the hill.
The engine cut out. Other sounds filtered back in—the cries of the gulls, the sound of the waves breaking against the rocks, the whistle of the wind across the clifftops.
Then I heard the heavy tread of boots behind me. My body remained frozen, torn between wanting to flee and wanting to melt intohim.
“Fallon.”
Zayde’s low rumble vibrated through me, his body heat palpable even through the downy thickness of my coat. I felt his breath hit my skin as I turned, so slowly, unable to resist this pull between us.
“Zayde.” I waited for that familiar hate to rise up in me, the hate I’d been holding on to for so long.
He moved even closer. “What are you doing here?”
