“Haven’t you done enough?” Jax says angrily.
“You’re asking me that?” the man says. “That’s fucking rich. I’ve waited patiently for Lucius and you and even that little prick Brad to do the right thing but I’ll be damned if I let you play with my daughter’s life anymore.”
He said the word. Daughter. That would be me, the daughter he left.
“You both need to stop,” I say. “Just stop.” I turn to Carter. “What did you mean my life’s in danger?”
Was he expecting a hug? Forgive me if I’m having a hard time viewing him as my father. His rugged, puppy dog eyes have no effect on me.
“Your stepsister was murdered,” he says finally.
Yeah, genius, I know this much. The whole world knows this much.
He looks away for a beat and then back at me. “It should have been you.”
The air catches in my throat. Every part of his face seems to swell in my mind like a grotesque painting.
“Carter, come on,” Jaxson says. “This is hardly the time and place.”
“They came for you,” dear old Dad continues. “They thought—”
I shake my head. “What are you saying?” I ask, pissed off that tears are beginning to gather. “This is the urgent message, the thing you want to say to me after fourteen fucking years?” My limbs shiver. The whole world squeezes into a cruel perversion and chokes my lungs and heart. Only adrenaline keeps me from collapsing.
“Why don’t you tell her the whole story, Carter?” Jaxson glares at Carter with an animosity that alarms me even further.
“It’s my fault,” Carter says without hesitation, staring straight into my eyes, face cold as death.
I swallow hard, feeling sorry I asked, sorry I got to find out my father is alive and well, sorry to have been such a fool.
Carter turns to Jaxson. “How much have you told her?”
“I’m right here,” I say, not sure why anything so trivial should offend me right now. “If you have questions about me, ask me.”
“She knows everything,” Jaxson cuts in, ignoring my protest. “Except for the part where you’re you and you’ve done what you’ve done.”
A vein goes pulsing like crazy on Carter’s left temple. For a moment I think he will attack Jax but he quickly composes himself as he turns to me. “Ella, they went after Madison because they thought she was my daughter. The papers have made it clear that she was not. These men, they’re bad beyond anything you could imagine. They will go after anyone I care about and quite frankly you’re the only one left.”
“You lost me at the part where you care about me,” I say.
“Everything I have done was to keep you safe,” Carter says.
I laugh painfully. “Well, that’s not exactly gone well. Madison is dead and sounds like I am anything but safe.”
“You are now,” Carter promises. “We can control things. We are very connected. It might take a little time, but we’ll work it out.”
“I don’t get it,” I say, ignoring his heroic bullshit. “Why Madison? You never even met her. Why would they assume she mattered to you?”
Carter is finally at a loss for words.
“Madison was collateral damage,” Jax cuts in to explain. “It was your father’s idea to leave a trail that led to her as his estranged daughter.”
“Fucking what?” is all I manage to say, my mouth drying instantly. I turn to Carter, struggling to make sense of any of this. “Is that true?”
My father says nothing. I want to punch his stoic face.
“Answer me for fuck’s sake,” I say, losing patience. The two goons that kidnapped me stand nearby, hands to their waist, readying themselves to draw their guns if necessary. Two more show up suddenly as if my cry has drawn them out from their slimy hiding places.
“It’s not that simple,” Carter answers, signaling to the goons to put more distance between them and us.
“The truth!” I scream at him. “You fucking owe me that.”
“When things got bad,” he says, accepting his fate, “I had Bronson’s file on my family hacked. Switched your photos with a couple of Madison with your mother. Changed names and dates. I thought it would slow them down. I assumed they’d figure it out. She’s famous for fuck’s sake. The fools.”
My heart almost stops, then takes a huge leap, trying to escape my chest. Madison died because of us. Because of my father. Because of me. Knowing us killed her. If her father had never married my mother, she would be alive. If my father never left, she would be alive.