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“Yet I’m sure I was never good enough for your standards,” I voiced. “Am I now suddenly valuable, seeing as I’m finally at the end of the road?”
"You always surpassed my standards, Willow.”
“Yet you never praised me. You ridiculed me every chance you got. You belittled and beat me to make me stronger. Could you not have shown your love in a different way so I wouldn’t resent you? Or did you believe I’d simply forgive you because I made it to the end?”
I turned to face his side, and he rotated to confront me with those stern eyes that masked his true feelings. The emotions he wished no one would witness were hidden beneath the surface.
"If you wish for me to apologize for my actions in raising you, I could do exactly that.”
“It’s not apologetic if you don’t mean it, Papa Dearest,” I countered and tried to remain calm. “And to think I actually worried your ass wouldn’t wake up from your coma.”
“Hex,” he muttered. “Which I have to thank your mates for freeing me from.”
I simply stared at him, my mind recalling what Viktor had mentioned before.
“The challenge was simple. The victim had to reveal what his biggest regret was.”
“Wonder what it was,” I mumbled.
“His biggest regret was not being a better father.”
"They wasted their time,” I dismissed and turned around so my back now faced him. "I’m sure you were happier in coma than you are having to come back and defend me like I’m such a valuable prodigy of yours.”
"You’re allowed to be angry,” he whispered. “You can scream. Yell. Fucking punch me for all I care. This is your chance to let all that shit go.”
“And why would I do that?” I asked and spun back around to glare at him, a smile soon forming on my lips. "I’d lose the ammunition I’ve used for years to drive myself forward.”
He held his tongue as he watched me carefully, which only made me huff and cross my arms around my waist.
"My whole life I craved my father’s acceptance. For you to love me like a normal father would. But after everything I’ve been through, I realize such a desire is utter bullshit in this shifter world because hierarchy is everything and it’s more important than having a good parental relationship with your child.”
“If it were my choice, do you believe I would have raised you the way I did?”
“Yes,” I replied without a hint of mercy in my scrutinizing tone. “Because your end game would be the same. To watch me carry thick skin as I leave my enemies trembling at the idea of me rising upon a throne that was destined to be mine. You’d rather be the villain in my life as long as you’re the only one that gets hurt in the crossfire. You wanted all the hate I carried in this world to fall upon your shoulders so I could be emotionally available to love those I should have deemed my enemy. You did what no one expected you to have the balls to do: make your own relationship with your daughter go to shit in hopes no one else would dare attempt to confront me without weighing the consequences.”
I took a single step forward to be in his personal space as my gaze bored into his—the sight only a copied reflection of my own blue eyes.
"Congratulations on getting exactly what you wanted. In getting an heir who deeply despises the fact that she couldn’t have a normal parental relationship with her father or mother because we live in a judgemental society that can’t fathom the idea of a woman being a powerful, badass bitch. Thanks to this ruthless world that made me miss out on growing up with my half sister and plagued me with this sense of uselessness because I was destined to be an outcast until my destined time where I would now be deemed important to the whole fucking world, I’m exactly what you wanted for me.” I laughed and made sure every speck of anger showed upon my face as I looked him dead in the eye.
“You know what I really hate? The fact I can carry so much fucking anger at you, and even my mother, and yet still give a bloody shit about your acknowledgment of me. That despite having the fucking right to cut you guys off the moment I claim my birthright and move forward like the outcast your society deemed me as for all these years, I still crave to not only confront you but to hear your praise of me. Don’t you think that’s fucked up? Because to me, it is, but here we are, confronting one another because I need my papa dearest’s praise before I finally achieve what has basically taken 25 years, while you stand here hiding the immense regret you carry like a layer of armor because the truth has finally come to light and now you can no longer hide from your skeletons of regret.”
I uncrossed my arms, so tempted to fucking slap him. To beat him the way he’d treated me like a chained animal who didn’t deserve a speck of life. But he knew I couldn’t do it, even as my hand raised to do the exact deed.
He watched me remain in place, my hand raised while my gaze of fury could surely stab one in their very soul, but what he did next was completely unexpected as he took a step back and went to his knees.
And bowed his head to the floor.
"Nothing I can say will rewrite what has been done. My actions were ruthless…unethical…and yet it was the only thing I could do to ensure no one else would have the privilege of being a constant reminder of what happens when you’re too weak. The Vile Queen and that fucker of a prince took their shots at you and left you with wounds that still haven’t healed, and that was because of my slipup. Because I didn’t see their intentions until it slapped me in the face.” I swore if he could bow his head farther to the ground, he would, as he clenched his hand so tightly, his knuckles were white.
“After pulling you out of the frigid waters that fateful day and discovering you in the Coven’s territory when you should have been receiving recovery therapy, I began to realize that many wouldn’t stop trying to destroy you. They wouldn’t end their plans of making you into a puppet. That’s exactly what they wished to do to me…just like they had my sister.”
Sister? He had a sister?
"She didn’t survive. She was too weak to face the torturous cruelty they set upon her. I was raised to reach for the top, and when you were born, I wished to raise you to be an untouchable force.” He laughed at that, but the sound was filled with tears as he shook his head in shame.
“Destiny had other plans, and I decided then and there that I’d be your villain.” He lifted his head up to show the truth in his expression as his tears fell. "I’d take the burden of being the man you despised as long as no other would have the power over your trauma. As long as no one else would be allowed to have control of your destiny.”
I said nothing as I looked down at him, even as my own eyes blurred with tears.
