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“It was easier to tell you that they were dead,” he said bluntly, the words cutting me like blades. “It spared me from having to answer stupid questions like this.”
My mouth slacked open, my eyes fluttering. I thought I was having a stroke.
“What?!”
“It’s what your mother wanted,” he went on, and I could hear the utter lies in his tone.
“No!” I denied, remembering my mother’s deep depression. “No, that’s not true! She wanted her children—all of her children! She wouldn’t have let you sell them!”
“You were too young to remember, Briar. I did what was best for this family.”
I laughed, half-hysterical with disbelief.
“You drove my mother to suicide!” I shouted. “She couldn’t take any more!”
Father snorted.
“No, that’s not true. Annabelle just scampered off one day and left you. She’s off somewhere, ruining someone else’s life.”
I reeled back, the wind fully knocked out of me.
“What?”
He shrugged. “Again, it was just easier to tell you she was dead.”
Dizziness threatened to consume me, but I refused to succumb to it, to let my father have the upper hand again.
“Why, Father?” I whispered. “Why?”
He stared at me blankly. “Why what? I wasn’t going to raise a bunch of mutant breeders in my house. Who do you think pays for your designer dresses and this townhouse? Trust me, I did you a favor by getting rid of the competition.”
Sputtering, my mind whirled as I tried to make sense of it all.
“Why not me?” I whispered when I finally found my voice.
Father rolled his eyes again. “I really should have spent more time on your education. It’s a good thing you have breeding abilities.”
I blinked vigorously to ensure the tears didn’t fall down my cheeks as he smirked at me.
“You’re a rabbit, Briar,” he grunted when I continued to stare at him. “That means you’ll make a better wife than a child.”
Horrified, I yelped in shock, and he grimaced.
“Notmywife, you fool,” he snapped. “I’m not depraved. But I can sell you to a wealthy soul who will pay top dollar for someone like you. I just needed to bide my time in raising you. And now that you’re with a child of your own, and can prove you can bear children, I can make twice the profit, so I thank you for that, although you are causing me some issue with timing.”
Dazed, I gaped at him.
“You’re selling me?”
Father shrugged. “I don’t really have any use for you now, do I? Frankly, you’re the gift that keeps on giving, Briar. I didn’t expect you to return from Ash Corpus’ hold, but here you are.”
I gasped as I realized what he was saying.
He still owes Ash a debt?!
“You never repaid Ash?” I demanded, stunned. “Are you out of your mind?”
Father laughed. “He doesn’t seem bothered by the lack of payment. You must have done him a great service, my dear.”
