The villa was deathly silent after the boat disappeared into the night.
Daddy hadn’t let me go since he carried me back from the cove. He held me in his lap on the large sofa in the living room, my back against his chest, his arms wrapped around me like iron bands. One hand rested heavily on my belly, the other stroked my thigh slowly, possessively.
I was still shaking.
“You chose me,” he whispered against my hair for the tenth time, voice rough with emotion. “Even when they tried to take you. Even when Reynolds bled for them. You walked back to me.”
Yes. I did.
The memory played on repeat in my head — the cold water rushing around my legs, the blood on the deck, Harrington’s desperate shouts, and Daddy standing on the shore like my entire universe.
I had chosen the monster.
Tears s
