Ryan walked to the bar and poured himself a drink, the amber liquid trembling in the glass. He stared at it for a long time before setting it down untouched.
Eve’s words had burned something into him today. So had her father’s.
She had told Steven she wasn’t his daughter anymore, and in the same breath, she had admitted that Ryan never wanted her, never wanted a child with her. The way she said it hadn’t been bitter. It had been final.
The kind of final that came after years of being unseen.
He rubbed a hand over his face, guilt clawing deep.
Then another voice crept in, Steven’s voice, sharp and smug: You think she married you for love? She ran off with your money and came back for more.
Ryan gritted his teeth. No. He wouldn’t let Steven twist her truth into lies. Not again.
But pa
