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“What is today? Lunatic Mondays?” A guard throws his hands up in the air toward us.
“Ma’am, you have to get off that cell!” another guard yells, but I ignore him.
“What have they done to you?” I whisper, cupping my father’s face.
“Oh, my dear. This wasn’t these animals. It was Heath. He beat me up and left me for dead, that scoundrel. Then he made everyone believe that I was crazy. I’m so sorry that I ever thought he’d be a good match for you. He’s an animal! Oh, my sweet girl.” He strokes my cheek with calloused, dirty fingers.
“Heath did what?” I gasp. I knew he was a bit of an arse, but I didn’t know he was cruel. I’m going to kill him!
“Ma’am! If we must speak to you again, you’ll be joining him in this cell!” the guard shouts.
Spinning around to look at the guard, I narrow my eyes. “This is my father! For what reason are you holding him here?!”
The guard’s mouth falls open. His lips shake as he looks around at his fellow officers. “Well… uh… Are you his only daughter?” he stutters.
“Yes!” I yell.
“Oh… uh… um… well, we thought he had something to do with your disappearance, and we were ordered not to release him until he told us where you were, and we verified your safety,” he says with a nod.
“What? That’s absurd! Well, here I am!” I throw my hands up in the air.
They look me over from head to toe and curl their lips, no doubt judging me. “Yes. There you are.”
“Well? What are you waiting for? Release him,” I say.
“There’s also the matter of him spouting off madness that you were kidnapped by a beast…” he starts.
“Yes?” I ask.
“Well, it’s clear that he’s a lunatic. You were just out working in a brothel and drove your father mad.” The guards snicker.
Stalking toward them, my father yells out a warning to me. But I get close enough to them to stare them down. “I was kidnapped by a beast of a man, that’s true. And maybe if you’d have done your job instead of labelling an honest man crazy and arresting him, you’d have been able to find that out for yourselves. I’ve been held captive for the past month, and you could have spent your time arranging for a search team when you heard my father’s claims. Instead, you’ve sat here and snickered, leaving me for dead and assigning an additional death sentence to my father.”
“Olivia…” my father warns. His shackles rattle as he moves across the floor of his cell. The cheeks of the young guard, around the same age as me, reddens, and he flashes an uncertain glance between my father and me.
“No, Papa. They need to hear this. I’m just lucky my captor had a change of heart and released me. Or who knows what would have happened if it was left up to these guys? Even if you were crazy as they say, it’s still their job to investigate claims and not just go on the word of a ‘perceived gentleman’ who it’s clear to see, is an even bigger nitwit. Is it not?” I ask the small group of officers without waiting for an answer. “Also, how dare you?! I’ve never even stepped inside a brothel. Even if I did, would that make my claims of kidnapping false anyway?”
The guard’s jaw slackens, and he clears his throat. “I’m sorry to hear that you’ve been through that ma’am.”
“That woman’s got quite the mouth on her, doesn’t she?” one of the guards scoffs.
“Yes, but she’s right,” the young guard mumbles.
Well, look at that. The imbecile has a heart. Thank goodness for that. Quickly, he removes the large key from his waist.
“Mr. Primrose, you have our sincere apologies,” he mutters as I help my father down from the cage.
Papa and I don’t answer him or give him another single moment of wasted attention as we embrace each other.
“Oh, I’m so glad you’re alive!” My father kisses me on the cheeks and forehead. “How did you manage to escape?” he asks as we make our way outside.
“I didn’t have to. He let me go.” I squeeze Papa’s arm as my own heart races. I haven’t been able to think about what Adam’s letting me go has meant. Still, my cheeks heat as my mind runs on his change of heart and what he’d said as I’d let my tipsiness give me an excuse to bathe in my desire for him. He wanted to show me how he felt about me as we fucked all night. My blood rushes through me and gives me wings. If his heart swelled and his whole body warmed the way mine did as we held each other, and as he moved through me tenderly and passionately, does it mean what I think it does?
It must, as he’s forsaken his pride to release my father from his debt and set me free. I know how seriously he takes lingering debt and people who think they can outsmart him. I’ve seen him kill people before me without batting an eye. I know he’s cold and ruthless. This man has beaten my father to a pulp and imprisoned me. I should hate him and want to see him burn in hell.
Yet, I know he’s risked his reputation, the thing that has meant so much to him for so long, to give me what I need. I acknowledge that he’s finally done what he should’ve done in the beginning. He should’ve never hurt my father, never imprisoned me, or threatened my father and my life to bed me. I know I owe him nothing, and this ‘gesture’ was something he owed me and finally paid. It isn’t logical to feel the way I do for him, but I can’t help feeling like our slate has been cleaned.
My father, of course, is baffled by the thought of Adam casually releasing me without any strings, which makes sense. He’s thinking logically. As he asks me questions, I try to dodge, and we round a corner. We run into a gathering of the entire town’s population, ordinary and elite people alike. As usual, in a small town, news sparks the ears of residents, one after another, setting their tongues ablaze. If there’s one thing that can bring together the classes, it appears to be gossip.
