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The phone buzzed against my ear with an incoming text, making me jump. I quickly swiped away from the call, pulling up the video he just sent.
My heart clenched as I spotted some raw footage of a much younger Gareth working alongside Dante while they shook hands with another family I didn’t recognize. They were in a back room of some warehouse, stacks of cash on the table and a black duffel bag with what was clearly illegal product inside it.
It wasn't hard evidence, but it was enough that if anybody watched it they’d want to dig deeper into his past. A past I knew he'd worked the last decade trying to bury and separate himself from.
I brought the phone back to my ear, taking a deep breath to steady my voice. “What are you going to do?”
“I'm going to send it to the proper authorities, of course,” my father said. “Unless…”
He kept the sentence hanging there, and I clenched my jaw.
“Unless what?”
“You leave him. You come home where you belong.”
“Why? I'm no longer of value to you.”
“He disrespected me,” he said. “Not only by taking you, but by kicking me out of the game. And after weeks of digging, I’ve finally found the ex-prince of Chicago’s only weakness. He has a reputation for being one of the most feared men in Illinois, as well as one of the most intimidating billionaires in the US. Who would have thought that my daughter would be the only thing he actually cares about?”
Tears welled in my eyes, and rolled down my cheeks. “You can't do this.”
“I can,” he said. “Either way, I win. If you refuse me, then your beloved husband will go to prison. With the amount of proof I have on him, even his money won't be able to save him. Plus, you know I have friends in the judicial system. They’ll help with the rest.”
My entire body shook with rage.
“And if you leave him? He'll be devastated. And I'll have won.”
“This is about winning,” I said through clenched teeth. “You've always used me as a bargaining chip, but I never thought you would stoop this low. Especially since I hold no value?—”
“I'm well aware of the way you've whored yourself out, Serenity,” he cut over me. “That’s no longer a concern to me. If you want to play that role, I’ll have plenty of interested parties when this whole scandal blows over.”
A trickle of fear dropped down my spine. He planned to sell me to an entirely different kind of buyer now.
“The question is, will you let him rot in a prison cell so that you can be free? Or do you care about him enough to come home and do what you were raised to do?”
My mind spun, desperately lashing out for a solution that wasn't there.
There was no part of me that would ever let Gareth be arrested, let him be trapped while I was free.
There was also no part of me that was going to go home quietly, but my father didn’t need to know that.
So fucking be it.
I'd come home, and I’d find the proof he had and burn it.
“I'll leave tonight,” I said unable to keep the devastation from my voice.
Good, let him hear it. Let him assume I was the same cowering child he'd terrorized for years. “I have to make it believable, or he'll come after me. I'm sure you don't want that.”
“Interesting,” my father said. “I'm almost impressed.”
“That's a first,” I said sarcastically.
“I said almost,” he repeated sternly. “There is a ticket under your name for the red eye flight. If you don’t make that flight, I'm sending all the proof I have to the authorities.”
“I'll do my best,” I said. “Not only will I have to make him believe that I don't want him, I'll have to slip my guards.”
“Well, we all know you're very good at that. At least you're good at something. I hope you've learned how to lie. Don't disappoint me.”
