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His face reveals nothing. He’s staring at Daisy, staring at her like he’s never seen her before. I don’t know what he’s thinking but everything clicks into place—the missing piece of the puzzle slots down and fits perfectly, and now it all makes sense.
This is why War wanted to bring me home. And wanted to keep me here. And wanted to kiss me, and confess his love for me, and seduce me. It was a game from the start, from the very start. He was manipulating me like Daisy’s been manipulating everyone else, and a sick horror swells in my guts, churning in my soul.
“Was any of it true?” I whisper.
He slowly looks at me. “All of it.”
“Liar.” I turn my back on him.
“Now you get it,” Daisy says with unfettered glee. “This whole time you were being manipulated. You think I’m the bad guy here, but your own father dragged you home under false pretenses and tried to trick you into getting married. I mean, god, how sick is that?” She laughs and I stare at my father, but he only sinks down into himself, defeated, the big man I knew now totally gone, the cowboy disappeared, leaving behind this husk. This shell of a person.
“Why?” I ask, my voice almost a whisper, and I’m not sure who I’m talking to.
But Dad answers. “Because you’re the only one that loves this place as much as I do.”
“Not anymore,” I say and take a step back.
“Go home, Melody,” Daisy says. “Forget about the ranch.” She turns my father away and wheels him back inside. The door closes behind them and I stand there in shaky silence. War doesn’t move, and I don’t move, and I don’t know what to do. My mind’s racing, spinning in a thousand directions, but one thing is eminently clear.
War is a liar. And I am a liar. And there’s no money.
“I should’ve told you,” he says. “I should’ve said something sooner. But I knew how you’d react.”
“You manipulated me from the start.”
“Melody—”
“Admit it. You manipulated me.”
“Yes,” he says. “I did.”
“Go to hell, War. Go to fucking hell.”
“Melody—”
“No,” I say and start backing away, nearly stumbling and falling over. “No, I don’t want to hear it anymore. None of this was real, was it? It was all some elaborate game. All you wanted was money, and I don’t know if you’re desperate to get paid because of your family, or if that was all a lie too.”
“I didn’t make it up,” he says and his sorrow-filled stare nearly breaks my heart. “I didn’t make any of it up.”
“Too late,” I whisper and turn, walking away. I’m not going to run, not this time, because I’ve made up my mind.
I’m finished with Leader Ranch. I can put all this behind me. The place is a dysfunctional hell, and I never should’ve subjected myself to it. Kerry’s right, I need to run away and never look back, because if I let it then the ranch will consume me like it consumed everyone else.
I’m done here, and I’m done with War.
I opened myself to him in ways I’ve never been open with another person and all I got for my trouble was a knife in my chest. And I can’t even act surprised, because that’s what he is, a snake and a liar and a fraud.
I should’ve seen it sooner, but at least Daisy had one last kindness in her.
Now I’m gone, walking away, and never looking back.
Chapter22
War
Ifind Colton alone in his room. No nurse, no Daisy. The TV’s playing a Western on mute, the black and white patterns flicking across his bed. He’s staring into space but he doesn’t look like he’s seeing much of anything. It smells like vomit and something rotten, and I sink into the chair beside him and sit there in silence as his head lolls toward me.
“Why’d you do it?” I ask.
