Page 57 of Forbidden Surrogate
“Isn’t she holed up in your secret cabin with you?”
What the fuck?
“If you hurt her, I will never forgive you. Do you understand me?”
I can feel my heart beating out of my chest. It’s dangerous to expose this much vulnerability to him, even if he is my father. No, especially because he’s my father. I have spent my entire adult life learning to accept that his brutality is just a part of the package.
I kept Delphine from him because he’s ruthless and she’s so fucking good and pure. She doesn’t deserve his judgment or anyone else’s. Since she dropped into my world, all she’s ever done is make an honest bid at survival. I can’t hate her for that.
“I’m not going to hurt the goddamn woman,” he says. “I just found out about her.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Why do you think I’m responsible for her being gone,” He asks the question innocently as if he’s just trying to help. “I wouldn’t have had herkidnappedor anything.”
I can’t hide the panic in my voice.
“She’s gone. I just got to the lake house and she’s nowhere.”
My father doesn’t match my panicked energy. “And your sister?”
“I didn’t mention Angela.”
“I noticed,” my father says icily. Would I have mentioned Angela normally? He has this way of making you question your side of things and get so nervous about the details that you eventually slip up.
“She’s not here.”
“Is she at the penthouse?”
I’m fucked.
“No.”
“I think I solved your problem. She took your girl and ran off.”
It doesn’t make sense.
“Why did you call off the men watching my house tonight?”
“To teach you a lesson about hiding things from me.”
“Did anyone else know about that?”
“The underboss. You sound paranoid, Luigi. It’s more than likely the woman ran off. I pieced together all on my own that she was there the night of the club bombing. Can you really blame her for running away from this life?”
I can hear how badly he wants it to be true, but it justisn’t.
Delphine didn’t run away. Someone took her, and I won’t stop searching until I find out who it was.
After aggressively hanging up on my father, I give Peter a call, who picks up after a couple rings.
“I’m sleeping.”
“You sound wide awake to me.”
“What do you want?”
“Someone took Delphine.”
