Dark clouds obscure the sinking
moonlight, distorting reality even more. Spit gets stuck in my throat, causing
me to cough.
This can’t be happening. No fucking way.
I shut my eyes to absorb the shock of the new
revelation and avoid the look of guilt on my abductor’s face.
“It’s me,” he says now, which could mean a
number of things. It’s me, the man who
had you kidnapped while your boyfriend was getting busy with a bunch of
frenzied co-eds. Or, it’s me, Carter
Someone who happens to be acquainted with Jaxson Cole but not the Carter you
think.
Or, it’s
me, Carter Wade, the father that abandoned you years ago when you were still
only a child.
The man snaps his fingers and just like that the
lights in the playground turn back on. Our eyes meet, turning suspicion into
certainty. It’s him. He’s barely changed in the fourteen missing years.
This can’t
be true,
I tell myself.
“Ella, I’m your father,” he says as coldly as
Darth Vader. His black suit and dark hair add to the effect.
I suddenly remember his hazel eyes. He defies
his age except for the barely there hint of salt in the pepper. He would be
fifty-one now I calculate.
What is
this specter that has returned to me from the shadows?
I linger in this painfully comic Darth Vader
abstraction. Humor has always been my preferred place to hide.
Jax pulls me out of my daze, clutching my body into
his strong arms.
“You don’t owe him anything,” Jax says. “You
don’t have to listen to anything he says.”
I study Jax’s face. The protective concern in
his expression makes it all the more painful for me to come to terms with the
truth.
“I know,” I tell him, “but I want to hear this,
even if it is bullshit.”
Jax turns to the man he called Carter only
moments ago. It suddenly hits me that Jax has known my father was alive the
whole time. Not only that, he also actually knows him. They know each other. I’m
stunned.
“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.”
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.
I slowly turn to Jax, my
growing fury aimed at him as much as Carter. “You knew all this? How stupid of
me to have trusted you again?”
He keeps his eyes on
mine but I can tell his resolve is diminishing. “I did what I thought was best
for you. I don’t know what else to tell you.”
“He could say the same
thing, you know. You’re no better than him. You people think you are above
everyone, above morality.”
“You’re right, Ella.
That’s why I quit,” Jax says.
“Really?” I say. “You
quit? Looks like some habits die hard.”
“I told you everything I
could. This one thing, the thing that would hurt you the most, it was up
to him to tell you.”
“That’s weak. You are so
full of shit. This fucking thing here is the whole story. All the rest was just
what you thought you could get away with.”
“Sounds weak to me,”
Carter says.
I glare at him like I
have never glared in my life. “Don’t get me started on you,” I warn my father.
“Your version of all this is the biggest load of bullshit I have ever heard.
You see yourself as a hero? A protector? All you ever did was abandon your
family and now, my God, you have us on some kill list.”
Jaxson reaches out to
take my hand.
“Don’t you touch me,” I
say, not ready to forgive him—not even a little.
“Be mad at me all you
want,” he says. “Hate me. Whatever. But right now we need to get you out of
here.”
“Your pretty boy’s right,” Carter says. “Let’s
move you to a secure location. You can think of all the ways I failed you once
you get settled.”
My sense of self-preservation
finally kicks in. If everything they have told me is true, my anger will have
to wait.
These two arrogant liars
may not be the best company to keep, but right now we all have the same goal,
keeping me alive.
I nod reluctantly.
Carter waves to his goons and almost instantly two cars approach. I let Jaxson
put his hand on my back to guide me.
“You’re all a bunch of
assholes,” I say quite sincerely.
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