The moment the heavy, oppressive silence of the room signaled Luther’s brief departure to get changed, my legs gave out. It was a complete physical failure. I collapsed onto the thick, pristine carpet, my knees hitting the hard floor with a sickening thud, a sharp, momentary pain that I didn't even register. I felt utterly, completely numb. The terror of the chase and the shock of his threat had finally broken through the adrenaline.
I didn't imagine my conflicted feelings for him, my desperate, foolish desire for closure, would turn into a cage I couldn't escape. His trap was set too deep, anchored in the one thing more important than my own life: the well-being of my father.
Luther was more than capable and cruel enough to destroy Dad's empire, to reduce a lifetime of honest work t
