Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 70801 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70801 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
Beside me, the man in the chair breathes like each inhale costs him something.
My father.
The word feels wrong. Too big. Too loaded. Like a present someone threw at me without wrapping it and expected me to be grateful.
I stare at him. His face is swollen and bruised, one eye nearly closed. His lip is split. There’s dried blood on his neck and collar. His hands are tied to the chair arms so tight his fingers are slightly purple.
He looks up again, that one good eye locking on me like he’s afraid I’ll disappear if he blinks.
“You’re really…?” My voice cracks. I hate that. I clear my throat, forcing steadier air. “You’re my father.”
His throat works, and he nods slowly. “Yes.”
“Why did this happen to me?” I ask.
“I think your mother and her rotten boyfriend sold you,” he tells me what I’ve been dreading to hear.
Anger surges hot and immediate. It has nowhere to go except straight up my spine. “Then answer me,” I snap. My voice comes out louder than I mean, and the sound echoes off the empty walls. “How did you know I’d been taken?”
His gaze flickers, and something like shame crosses his battered face. “I saw you.”
My stomach flips. “Where?”
“Online,” he says, voice hoarse. “A site. A… listing.”
My skin goes cold.
A listing.
Like I was furniture.
Like I was meat.
My breath shortens, panic trying to claw its way back in. I force it down and lean forward as much as the rope allows. “What site?”
He hesitates. “It was a buy-now platform. Private. Hidden behind layers. You needed access. You needed an invite.”
Acid surges up, burning the back of my tongue. My eyes burn, but I refuse to cry in front of him. Not after all this time. “So you saw my face,” I say, each word sharp, “and that made you suddenly remember I exist.”
“No,” he whispers quickly. “Salem, no. I’ve always known. I’ve always… I’ve always carried you.”
A bitter laugh escapes me. “In your pocket. Like loose change.”
His eyelids lower for a second. When he opens them, that one eye looks glassy. “I’ve been undercover.”
I blink. “Undercover.”
His voice roughens, and the words seem to scrape out of him. “A crime syndicate. They call the woman who runs it Serafina.”
The name hits like a bell in my head. I’ve heard it before through Ozzy’s phone, through hushed conversations. A ghost name. A danger name. A name that makes men like Dean Maddox go quiet.
My stomach turns again. “Serafina?”
He nods. “I went in deep. Years ago. It was supposed to be short. It never is. I couldn’t get out without getting people killed.”
I stare at him, trying to make the story fit the man in front of me. He doesn’t look like a hero. He looks like a broken man who has been living in darkness too long.
“Where have you been all my life?” I demand, voice trembling now with a rage I cannot fully control. “Why weren’t you there? Why didn’t you ever contact me? Why did you let my mother… you let me grow up like I was nothing.”
His breath stutters. “I didn’t let you.”
My laugh comes out sharp. “You did. Because you weren’t there.”
His head tilts back against the chair. The movement makes him hiss in pain. He swallows and looks at me again, eyes furious with himself. “I tried.”
I stare at him. “Tried what.”
“I tried to reach you when you were younger,” he says. “Your mother cut me off. She disappeared. She changed numbers, changed addresses. She was a bitch. And then I got pulled into this operation and my life became a series of fake names and dead drops and nights where I couldn’t sleep because I was too afraid that one wrong move would get people hurt.”
My chest tightens. I hate that a small part of me wants to believe him. I hate that I want to find a reason that makes it less painful. “So you just… gave up,” I whisper. It’s not a question but fact.
“No,” he says immediately. “I didn’t. I stayed alive. I stayed in. Because Serafina’s ring isn’t just one ring. It’s layered. It’s connected. It’s bigger than one city. Bigger than one state. I thought if I could bring it down, then when I came out, I could come back for you. I could make it right.”
My throat burns. “And you didn’t.”
His eyes squeeze shut for a second. When he opens them, that one good eye is wet. “I didn’t get the chance.”
The anger in me shifts, twists. It is still there, but it has a new edge now. Fear. If this is true, if he’s telling me the truth, then I have been on the edge of something monstrous and never even knew it.
I swallow hard. “So you saw me online.”
“Yes,” he whispers. “I saw your face. And I… I couldn’t breathe. I knew I had to get you out fast. I couldn’t do it myself without exposing my cover and getting you killed. I needed professionals. Someone told me Maddox Security was the best.”