Dad voice broke, not with sadness, but with a sense of profound, personal betrayal. “And you accuse me? You think I take his side because of his money?Is that what you think of me? That I would trade my daughter’s safety for a business deal? That I am such a hollow, greedy man?”
He was shouting now, his pain filling the room, bouncing off the high ceilings. “I only ever wanted what was good for you, Millicent! Security! A life free from the struggles I faced! Is that a crime? A father wanting the world for his child? And you… you and your mother, you sit in judgment, whispering about me, convinced I am some kind of… monetary pimp, and you never once thought to tell me that you believed the man had committed a crime against you?”
“Tell you?” I found my voice again, the dam of my own resen
