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“Then what is it?” I blink at the warm tears that sting my eyes. I won’t cry. I won’t do it. But my lips tremble as I watch him.
Even now after I’ve trusted him with every piece of my body, given him something no one else can ever have, he looks dangerous. Like a bad idea. Every sharp angle of his features and the once again rigid stance of his body is like a blade about to cut me.
He sighs long and low, his voice hushed like someone somewhere is listening in on our conversation. “Your dad… your dad’s been looking for you. I wanted you to leave. I knew you wouldn’t. You said we’d graduate together and you meant it.”
My dad? What the hell is he talking about my dad for?
My mom always said my dad was too good for us. Didn’t want anything to do with us. And I don’t want anything to do with him. Why would I after eighteen years have passed without a single call?
I don’t get it. Why are we talking about this?
His gaze drifts off to the trees that litter the school yard. “I wanted you to hate me. Damon just kicked those thoughts into action. You’re safer with your aunt out of state.”
Why is he so damn confusing?
My brows furrow, my hands fumbling at my sides as I try to take in everything he is saying. “My aunt’s a meth head. You’re saying living with her is better than whoever the hell my dad is?”
“Yes.”
The words spill out of me. “I don’t know how the hell you know who my dad is but I don’t want to know him.”
“You don't,” he says matter of factly, as if he has the audacity to speak or decide what I want.
Even if I did just say the same thing.
“How do you know, Knox? What does he have to do with you being a fucking asshole to me?”
There’s a coldness in his gorgeous eyes. An emptiness that’s always frightened me as much as it drew me in.
And I can just tell, he’s about to destroy me.
“Because your dad is the man who adopted me. The man who uses me. The man who made me. And he’ll do the same fuckin’ thing to you if I give him the chance, Violet.”
On a shuddering breath, I step away from him, my hand absently finding my heart like I could hold it into my chest as it beats so wildly it might break my rib cage.
Is he saying Ronan Reyes is my father?
And Knox would be…
I swallow that terrible thought down and focus on what he just told me.
All my life I imagined this moment would be different. If I ever met him, my dad would be an ordinary stranger. Not this rich man who runs an empire right in the middle of my hometown with a son who made me love him just so he could torment me, fuck me, and then tell me he’s my adoptive fucking brother.
I’m going to be sick.
Knox follows my step, edging closer, speaking softer. “That guy last year, the one everyone whispers about, it wasn’t a random kid.”
Knox Reyes is a murderer.
I blink the echoing voices away.
“It was someone causing problems for me and my new life. I have a golden life here as the son of the richest man. Things are expected of me. I have to protect a fucking name.”
This is the most he’s ever said at one time. And none of it makes sense.
I blink, watching his throat bob. Would this be the start of my golden life? What’s expected of me? What does Ronan Reyes want from me?
Restraining myself from the millions of things I want to say and ask, I drop my hands to my side.
