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His voice cracked as he dropped his arm. “I’m sick to my fucking stomach for laying a single finger on you, Aslan. I will never forgive myself. Not now that I know what you did. You’ve saved me from a lifetime of hunting for him. You saved my life because I would’ve gone to prison if I’d ever gotten my hands on him. All the secrets and sneaking around you two did—they don’t even come close to my mistakes.”
He rubbed his nose and sniffed back his tears, his voice firmer. “The first mistake was pushing you to watch over Neri. I blamed myself for seeing you on top of her tonight. I should never have asked you to watch over her because without that permission, you might never have had the chance to get so close. But that’s a lie, isn’t it? It had nothing to do with me. Neri didn’t lose herself in you. You didn’t groom her or molest her. You fell hook, line, and sinker for her and instead of going over all the things I should’ve done differently and all the moments I should’ve seen coming, you know what I see?”
He paused and pinned me with a stare.
I shook my head, not speaking.
“Neri never lost herself in you. You found yourself in her. Hearing the way you talk about her. Hearing the raw devotion in your voice and watching the way you look at her.” He pinched the bridge of his nose with a slight shake of his head. “It’s terrifying.”
My heart stopped beating.
He’s going to deny me.
He’s going to kick me out and—
“You’ve been honest with me, so I’ll be honest with you. I told Neri in the car that I knew you were in love with her. I saw it in the way you watched her when she flinched from me in the pool. Now that I look back, I might have always known and used that love for my own advantage. I trusted you not to do anything about it. I knew how careful you were not to rock the boat—excuse the pun. You had the most to lose out of everyone. You wouldn’t touch her. You wouldn’t hurt her. And that was my fault, my sin, because...I didn’t have a fucking clue the true depth of what’s been going on under my nose.”
“Dad...stop. Enough.” Neri stepped forward, but Jack held up a hand.
“Let me finish.” His eyes locked back on mine. “I don’t care who you were born to, Aslan. I don’t care how precarious your future here is. I don’t care that I’m breaking all kinds of laws keeping you hidden. All I care about—” His voice cracked, and a fresh tear rolled down his cheek. “All I care about is my little girl, and frankly, no one deserves her...but you...” He exhaled heavily. “You love her enough to kill for her. And that? Damn, that alone means you have my blessing.”
I froze.
Hope ricocheted agonisingly through my bones.
He rubbed his palms on his trousers, fighting another sob. “I give you my daughter, Aslan, not because you asked for my mercy but because I’m so fucking grateful to you. I owe you a thousand apologies for what happened tonight. I can’t tell you I won’t still question you sometimes. I can’t tell you it will be easy. And I can’t tell you I can snap my fingers and solidify your status here. But...if that ring you’re holding is an engagement ring, and if what you said about marrying her that night was true, then...” Giving me a watery smile, he climbed stiffly to his feet, pulled Anna to hers, then held out his hand to me. “Do us the courtesy of seeing your commitment for ourselves.”
Neri made a suffocated little noise, her eyes blazing bright.
I looked from her to Jack’s outstretched hand, trembling with so many things.
I blinked. I blinked again. My head was woozy. My heart manic.
Is this...is this real?
Looking up the length of his body, I breathed, “A-Are you sure? Are you saying what I think you’re saying because if you’re not, then—”
“I’m saying you were my son the day we found you. I don’t care that we aren’t blood. I don’t care you would’ve left us eventually and made your own mark on the world. No matter where you went, you would have always had a home here with us. But now...you’re one of us. And...if you have the decency to propose to my daughter in front of us, and she truly wants you in return, then it’s my absolute honour to welcome you to the family, not just as my sea-given son but as a man I will never stop being grateful for. A man I would be fucking honoured to call my son-in-law.”
Fucking hell.
I struggled to stand.
I swayed and fell back to my knees. Fear lashed through me, even as hope burned bright. “You know I can’t marry her. Not truly. Not here. And I can’t go back home, even though I’d give anything to show Neri my country. I wish I could show you all how stunning it is. I wish I could explain how much I miss it by showing you everything there is to miss. But...I can’t. I can’t even offer Neri my last name because I doubt I have a legal birth certificate stating me as Aslan Avci—”
“Are you trying to get me to change my mind?” Jack cracked a smile. “Because I hate to tell you, after that speech, after knowing what you’ve done for her, no one else will ever compare. I might as well throw her in a nunnery because if you don’t take her off my hands, no one will. I’ll forbid it.”
“Bloody hell, Jack.” Anna swatted him in the belly. “Now is not the time for your warped sense of humour.”
He chuckled, holding out his arm for Neri to go to him. “Come here, little fish. I think Aslan has something he wants to ask you.” His smile widened. “He’s already kneeling and seems to be struggling to stand—which probably has to do with what I did to him. I truly am so sorry about that.” Flicking me a look, he added, “The moment you’ve asked my daughter your very important question and she’s given you her equally important answer, I will do whatever it takes to put you back in one piece. After all, I can’t have Neri hating me for hurting her future husband, can I?”
He suddenly laughed, transforming the strange night of tension and stress. “Fuck me.” He shook his head as Neri drifted into his outstretched arm, cuddling close. “You told me this would happen, Nerida. You warned me, and I didn’t listen.”
“When I was twelve, in the corridor?”
“You said you’d end up marrying him.”
Wiping away her tears, Neri glanced up at her father with a grin. “Believe me now?”
