BLAINE
The echo of my father’s voice still lingered in the back of my skull as I stepped into the hall, jaw set tighter than it needed to be. I couldn’t shake the creeping thoughts.
He knew. Right from the start, he already knew, saw it on me.
What she was doing to me. Dammit, he had probably already known all those years ago.
That’s what unnerved me most. My father never said things plainly. He didn’t need to. He watched, measured, and calculated—the way he did everything. And I knew the moment I left that room, the next set of calculations would revolve around her.
It’s just an obsession, I said like some f*****g mantra. I want her for her strength and defiance. She is a challenge. Nothing else. f**k. Not even I believed a single word I thought. And my father had always been so mu
