“I enrolled you with the understanding that you’d be safe. Damien agreed to keep your connections to himself and allow you to live your own life.
“I had no fucking clue that stupid bitch was working for him, putting you at risk. If I’d have known then—”
“It’s okay,” I say, placing my hand on his closed fist.
“No, Em. It’s not. None of this is fucking okay. I should have got custody of you a long time ago and taken you as far away from this city as fucking possible. All I ever wanted was what was best for you.
“I walked away from my entire life back then to keep you safe, to give you a life that wasn’t full of gangs and violence, and just look at where you’ve ended up.”
“None of this is your fault, Dad.”
“The second I discovered Cora’s connections, we should have left. I should have known they’d come after you when the time was right.”
“This isn’t your fault,” I repeat.
“No. It’s hers,” he hisses. “She had one job. One fucking job. Keep you safe. Instead, she forced you to live in that shithole while she…” He sucks in a deep breath, trying to keep himself under control.
“She’s been playing Damien off against the Wolves,” Cruz chips in. “All for her own gain.”
“How’s that working for her?” I ask. “Because from where I’m sitting, she seems to have done a lot of losing.”
“She’s still breathing,” Cruz points out. “And so are you, so I’d take that as a win.”
“The Wolves won’t touch me. Archer wouldn’t let them,” I say confidently.
“Kid,” Cruz sighs, sitting forward and resting his elbows on the table. “Big brother won’t give a shit what Archer thinks. If he wants you as collateral from all this. He’ll take you.”
I sit back, absorbing everything. “Was that ever really a risk?” I ask seriously.
“He’s made no threats, but that’s not to say it wasn’t a part of his plan. He wanted your mum, not you. But when Cora vanished, I think we can all agree that you’d be the obvious person to lure her out with.”
“Well, I guess we can be glad it never led to that.”
“Yet,” Dad says, causing my stomach to knot uncomfortably.
“So… are we saying that Damien and Theo were protecting me?”
Dad tenses beside me at my mention of their names. I can only assume that Cruz has filled him in on everything, so he’s well aware of my marriage and the psychotic guy I’m now tied to, for better or worse, apparently.
I’m yet to see much of the better, though.
“As far as we can figure, yes,” Cruz answers when all Dad does is grind his teeth in frustration. “Our biggest issue right now is why our father instigated it.”
“You mean this whole thing wasn’t Damien’s idea?”
Both Dad and Cruz shake their heads.
“Prez offered you up,” Cruz grits out, his fists curling until his knuckles turn white.
I swallow hard, struggling to understand why my own grandfather would do that.
I thought… I thought he loved me.
But he basically sold me to the fucking mafia.
“Why?”
When no one starts speaking, another voice pipes up that I was not expecting to hear.