She ambled closer to her father, stopping on the other side of the desk from him and holding onto the edge in order to stay upright. “You and Mom were supposed to be the ones protecting me from the dangers of the world, rather than being the ones to throw me to the wolves. To teach me right from wrong, rather than to teach me to take whatever I wanted, consequences be damned. I was ten before I realized that stealing food from the grocery store was a crime. You warped me into someone who deserved nothing, because I didn’t learn how to appreciate the value of life. Tell me, did you ever love me? Or was I just a toy for you to train?”
He scoffed, his face twisted into a sneer as if he smelled something rotten. “Love doesn’t pay the bills. Love doesn’t do shit for us in the world, girlie. I taught you that. I taught you to be strong. To be a survivor. Not to wither up and die when you didn’t get your way. Love? There’s no such thing. There’s lust combined with a survival instinct. You think you love Sawyer? If you had, you never would’ve taken his money and left him.”
How dare he disparage her feelings for Sawyer. It only proved that he had no idea what love really meant.
She slapped the desk with both hands. “You would’ve hurt him if I didn’t.”
He pointed the gun at her face. “Hell, yes, I would’ve hurt him. I would’ve made him suffer before I killed him. He had no right to take you away from me. No right then and no right now. You belong to me.”
“Just because I’m your daughter—”
“You ain’t my daughter,” he said, coming around the desk to stand by her. “Not by blood, anyway. Doesn’t make you any less mine.”
Her chest hurt as if he’d slammed a bowling ball into it. “You’re not my father? Mom—”
“She wasn’t your mom, either.” He shrugged off the significance of his statement with a brief lift of his shoulders. “We wanted you. We took you.”
She collapsed into the chair behind her. “Oh my God. You weren’t my parents? You kidnapped me?”
“Kidnap is such a messy word. Besides, when we took you home with us, your parents were already dead.”
Tears slipped down her cheeks. “How did they die?”
“They weren’t supposed to have been home. Had some charity event in Milan, and the three of you were supposed to leave on the private jet a couple hours earlier. They came home because you were sick and found me and your mom cleaning out their safe. Mom was their maid for a couple of months, while she scouted out the house.”
Conning wasn’t in her blood, because she’d never shared DNA with any of the Hunts.
Her real parents had cared about her. Loved her. She would’ve lived a completely different life if they hadn’t died. Instead of a trailer, she would’ve grown up in a mansion. She might have gone to college. Would’ve had friends and a real family.
When she got out of here alive, she’d mourn the life that had been stolen from her.
Asa’s comment about him not being her brother now made sense. “Asa knew, didn’t he?”
Her father began pacing the floor, pulling at his hair. “ ’Course he knew. That boy knew everything. Too much. He thought he was so much smarter than me, but look who’s smarter now? He always took what was mine.” When he turned his gaze on her, she saw that his eyes had changed. One pupil was so large, it practically eclipsed the brown iris, while the other pupil had shrunk to a pinpoint. “He took you from me. He was in love with you. In love with his own mother. Disgusting. Why did you do it, Helen?”
In love with his own mother?
Eyeing the door, she popped up from her chair. Gun or not in his hand, she had to get out of there. “I’m not Mom. I’m not Helen. I’m Annaliese.”
He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “Don’t lie to me, bitch! I can’t believe you cheated on me after everything I did for you!” His hand flew at her cheek with a loud smack. “You’re disgusting. Letting that boy touch you like I touch you.”
She was confused. Who was he seeing as he spoke to her? Did he really believe she was her mother?
“What boy?” she asked, taking a step backward to get closer to the door.
Her question only worked to anger him, his body vibrating with immense fury. He shook her even harder. “What boy? You know what boy! I caught you with him. I caught you with Asa. Did you think I wouldn’t find out?” He suddenly released her, and she toppled to the floor. He stood over her body, the gun aimed directly at her heart. “What were your plans, hmm? Were you and he going to kill me as I slept? I couldn’t allow that to happen. That’s why I had to do it.”