“What’s going on?” I ask, plopping into the nearest seat, taken aback by how comfortable the two of them seem.
They hesitate and look to each other for a moment, not saying a word.
“Someone better start explaining things real quick!” I snap. “Do you two know each other!?” My features twist with an impending sense of betrayal.
“Your father approached me three weeks ago,” Emmett starts. “His terms were simple enough. I grant him access to the manor grounds when he asked, and I wouldn’t lose Jameson Automobile Company. He’d no longer hurt you, and my mom and sister would be safe.”
I’m frozen under his explanation for a moment, my face contorted in shock. I quickly shake it away. “Wait, so you’ve been working with my father!? You son of a bitch!”
“Ophelia, please,” he begs. “I was so desperate to get out from my father’s thumb, I was happy to do whatever he asked. You don’t know Thomas like I do. Even with what you saw…you have no idea what kind of monster he was.”
“So you think mine is any better!?” I fire back, ignoring my father standing in the corner.
“I was trying to help you,” he defends desperately, kneeling at the foot of my chair. “That night you met with Malcolm and Liam, your father planned to kidnap you. We barely got you in time before his guys showed up to take you away. I convinced him you’d be safer with me.”
“Liam’s warning,” I mutter under my breath. Now it all makes sense. The ominous threat dripping from Liam’s words. That his explanation of things, by order of my father, would somehow make things easier on me when I was taken captive by him. “What would you have done with me?” I ask him timidly, afraid of the answer. “If Emmett hadn’t intervened…what were you going to do when you had me as your prisoner?
“The Elites thought they had too much bargaining power with you around,” he defends weakly. “I just needed to remove you from the game. So they no longer had you to hold over my head.”
“Take me out of the game how?” I ask, my voice trembling. “As in keep me somewhere safe until this was all over? Until you decided it was over? Or take me out as in…kill me?”
My mind freezes, unsure if I was better off with Emmett, right in the hands of danger and so close to his father. Or if I would have been more screwed in my own father’s possession.
“None of it matters now,” Theo says dismissively. “It all worked out. Thomas is dead. I’ll make sure his death is labeled as a suicide,” The flippance of his voice chills me. “The investigation into the extortion rings, child prostitution circles and illegal arms dealings will continue on the Whitworth and Blackwater families. But now the Jameson family is free. As promised.”
“I can’t believe anything you’re saying.” My fingers rub into my temples as Emmett stays at my feet, looking to me desperately for approval or forgiveness. We exchange a knowing look. My father isn’t denying that he would have killed me if it came down to it. Maybe I was better off with Emmett. Especially if he knew the entire time we had my father to fall back on, hoping he would come in and take care of Thomas.
“You both seem like lying snakes to me,” I snap. “I can’t trust either of you. Your solution to learning my own father wanted to kidnap me…was to just do it yourself instead?” I muse in disbelief to Emmett. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” is all I can manage to say, as my hands rub absently against my arms. “You’re like a bunch of children fighting over candy. But you don’t even care that real human lives are at stake.” I step to the other side of the room, needing to be as far away from them as possible.
“We would have never let you get hurt,” my father protests dryly. His calmness makes me sick. As if this whole thing was just some minor blip.
“I did get hurt!” I scream, jumping to my feet. “I have done nothing but get hurt from the day I got here! And you’re both to blame!”
“I did what I had to, Ophelia,” my father responds coldly.
“We both did,” Emmett adds.
My mouth slacks as my eyes widen. I have to look away from them. I can’t stand the sight of either of them. I rub my eyes, trying not to see them, and am at a loss for words.
“You didn’t have to do any of this!” I scream back to my father. “You’re the one who fucked up when you gambled away all of that money! You could have just accepted your fate and left things alone. You had plenty of money. You didn’t have to come back here and…,” I turn away and cover my mouth. My face blanches, turning white, as I shake my head.
“But the lives that matter the most made it out unscathed,” Emmett offers with a startling indifference to the death of his own father, leaving me to wonder how I’d feel if my own monster of a dad had just been shot right in front of me.
I pivot on my heel, my brow raised as I tilt my head. “I am hardly unscathed,” I scream. “You’ve both caused irreparable damage. I’m not just some toy or game piece for you to toss around. I’m a human being! Your daughter!” I turn to my father with tears in my eyes, and then back to Emmett. “And I’m your…” I stop myself, unsure of how to finish the sentence, but his eyes look to me hopefully. My eyes blink rapidly and unfocus as I my hands carve back through my hair before my arms drop limply to my sides. “Someone that you should care about, but then again…I guess that makes me sound stupid. You’ve done nothing from day one to indicate you care about me at all.”
“That’s why you’re here, Ophelia,” he argues back. “Because I do care about you.”
My chest tingles as my stomach hardens. I feel lightheaded. I try not to excuse any of Emmett’s behavior, but knowing he was intercepting my father the night he kidnapped me almost makes his actions more tolerable. I shudder to think what my father had planned if he had been the one to kidnap me instead.
“What the hell is wrong with you, Emmett!?” I ask, shaking my head. “I may not care for my father…but I don’t know if I ever could have willingly assisted in his murder.”
“You don’t get it, Ophelia,” Emmett fumes. “Thomas Jameson was enough of a monster to justify me being an accomplice in his murder. We’re all better off. You’ll just have to trust me on that one.”
“So, what now?” I blurt without thinking, frightening myself with my own question as it hangs in the air. No one answers, but my mind skips across the possibilities.
I can’t imagine ever having any kind of relationship with Emmett. If that’s even something he would want. Everything up until now was a product of force. And now that I know he’s been working with my father for weeks; I can never trust him again.
Now that I am not being stalked by a pedophilic murderer and he’s not perched on a doorstep with a gun in hand, I am finally able to study his features more carefully. My father is a handsome man. His dark brown hair is wavy, similar to my mother’s and my own. But with touches of blonde, giving him a more Caucasian shade. He’s tall and slender, and his words are sharp. Intimidating. But I could see him turning that over in a second, becoming a complete charmer.