“How?” I raise my voice. “How did you find out we were together?”
His eyes soften when he addresses me. “By watching you. My daughter. I’ve been watching you for a while now.”
What the fuck?
“Did you really think…” He looks at Haze. “That it would be that easy? You never found it weird that I just happened to be in the same city as you when you were searching for me?”
Haze’s jaw drops.
Of course.
The chances of him being this close were practically nonexistent. There’s a reason he was here this whole time. He chose to stay here. But why would he put himself in danger like that?
“Why would you watch me? You never gave a shit about me!” I snap.
“You’re wrong! So wrong.” He speaks rapidly.
“Tell that to my mom. Remember her? Lauren, the girl you abandoned when she was pregnant?” I’m getting emotional.
“Winter, you have to understand… When I got your mom pregnant, I owed the organization a lot of money. I was just a kid. A scared, broke, stupid kid. I didn’t leave your mom because I didn’t love her. I left because I did. Every minute I spent with her put her in danger. The day she told me she was pregnant… was the worst day of my entire life. That’s when I knew I had to disappear.”
“Bullshit!” I belt out. He’s just messing with my heart to save his own ass.
“It’s true!” he insists. “I just… panicked and left the country. Then I met…” His gaze drops to the rotten corpse, reminding us that there’s a dead body right fucking there. “I met Greta, and she helped me out. Said if we paid back my debt, I’d be fine. That’s why I started stealing, breaking into loaded pricks’ houses.” He glances Haze’s way, knowing damn well that, in this case, the loaded pricks were his parents. “At first, I just wanted a normal life… To go back to you and your mom.”
“Liar!” I yell.
“I promise you everything I just told you is the truth,” he says like his promises mean shit to me. Yet, his words afflict me. I can’t help seeing a sick, twisted similarity between Haze and the damaged man in front of me. Leaving the girl to protect her? Because I haven’t heard that before.
“When Greta and I moved back here for the first time in years… we opened this place. Mostly for money laundering, a bit of drug dealing on the side. I just couldn’t help myself. I had to find out what happened to your mom. I went to check up on her. Up until then, I’d always convinced myself that she’d gotten an abortion. That she couldn’t have possibly raised the baby alone. But Winter… the second I laid eyes on you, I knew you were my kid.”
I want to scream, puke, hit him, run away. I’d do anything to change the truth.
This man is my father.
This man is my fucking father.
“What the hell happened here?” I motion to Greta.
Tears of rage spill down Mike’s face. He wipes them off.
“I-I was on the move for so long after they traced me back to the motel, never staying in the same place for over a day, but I still… I still continued to watch over you. Greta warned me, she begged me to stop, but I kept coming back. I wanted to see you, even from a distance. It’s all my fault. I led them right to us.” He assesses the lifeless woman at his feet. “I lost everything, kid,” he tells Haze. “There’s nothing else you can take away from me.”
Haze is the definition of conflicted, blue eyes drifting between me and Marcus repeatedly.
“There’s still something,” he says and points his weapon back at Mike.
But this time…
He cocks it.
My heart stops.
“Haze, don’t!” I scream and step right in front of Mike.
“Winter, get out of the way,” he yells, but I can see how distressed he is.
“You’re not a murderer. You don’t want to do this!’