Rowan and I are like passing ships as of late. The last weeks of school have kept her busy, and when she’s not at school, she’s spending time with the Pearson boys. My threats and plans to keep them apart are failing. If I weren’t so caught up in my old obsession, lovely Lucy, I would put Rowan on lock down.

My daughter is eighteen now and will soon be off to college. I won’t be able to protect her from the predators of this world and that thought alone leaves a pain in my gut like I’ve swallowed a stone and it’s just sitting inside me.

But it’s fact.

She will fly the nest and leave me to my own devices.

My sneaking around and watching Lucy will be something I can give my entire focus to. Everything is evolving and changing. Rowan is turning into a woman with hopes, dreams, and a future at her fingertips. And I have my urges that grow more intense by the day.

I pick up dinner from a takeout health deli Rowan likes, but come home to an empty house. I place her food in the fridge and go over to my computer to input the data I’ve collected, updating Lucy’s routines, her swimming preferences and frequency.

With the house she now lives at being on the beachfront, it’s heaving with people nearby during the day and evening times, so I’ve had to spend a lot of time calculating the average visitors to the beach at night, which are almost none. Occasionally, kids will sneak down there, but farther down away from the houses, they’re usually too busy drinking and fucking each other to even notice my presence.

The most difficult thing about my sweet Lucy that nearly sends me into a rage of exploring Trevor Blackstone’s blood and brain matter is they’re a couple. Well, he’s trying his best, but she’s not fulfilled. That much is evident. If she were, she’d be wearing his ring, last name, or carrying his fucking kid. But she’s not. She’s waiting for me while passing her time with him. That sandal wearing idiot is a fling. Lucy is probably just being kind knowing he’ll kick the bucket at any time since he’s an old motherfucker. Just like his friends, he thinks his dick has magic powers and will keep a perfect woman like Lucy forever tethered to him. He’s been around Eric fucking Pearson far too long.

Why did she have to be with one of those Four Fathers’ fuckers? I’ve planned out a hundred different ways to kill Trevor, but it’s all too risky. When a man of his wealth dies, it automatically raises suspicion. Instead, I will work around him and use his neglect of her to my advantage. The more she’s alone, the more time I have to fulfill her.

Lucy is mine and the plan is still in play.

The front door opens and closes, and I watch from the corner of the room as Rowan sneaks inside and up the stairs. The urge to hammer her windows shut and bolt a lock on her bedroom door is strong. I know she’s seeing Brock for more than friendship or teen dating. There’s a change in her. One I see in the eyes of other women. It boils my blood. I wish it were different with her. I wish I could feel less, like I do with every other aspect of my life. But it’s like what I lack in emotion with everything else has forced me into feeling an overwhelming amount of adoration for her. Just her. My daughter, my blood, my miracle. Before her, I thought I was broken, born wrong. I’d never felt love until her finger wrapped around my thumb and her lungs let out the most perfect cry I’d ever heard.

Mine. Mine. Mine.

From her first breath, until her last.

I could pack our shit up and reinvent myself. I’ve done it before. But she wouldn’t be willing, and that is where it would all crumble down. Keeping her away from those boys will mean killing Eric and his sons and fleeing this place with my precious daughter, but it’s out of the question, so I need to learn to let this play out. Let her get her heart broken by the bastard who’s too much like his father, then pick up the pieces.

She will always come home to me. I’m her daddy. Maybe now that she’s getting ready for college, a move is in order. I could rent this place or just leave it closed up and empty. Buy something with no neighbors nearby.

I open my work emails and filter out the junk. It’s been a while since I’ve been in the office putting in appearances. I make a note to do just that and schedule it around Lucy’s life. I end up Googling Trevor Blackstone, because one can never know too much about their enemies, and roll my eyes when pictures of him and Eric at corporate events flicker over the screen. Trevor appears to shy away from the cameras, whereas Eric lives for the limelight. His bought smile is wide in every shot. I power down the computer when I hear movement outside the kitchen window.

Grabbing a knife, I creep over and peek out. A half-naked female darts across the lawn, followed by Nixon giving chase. He catches her with ease and lifts her up and spins. She giggles, and he covers her mouth, shushing her. She wiggles from his hold, but doesn’t flee. Instead, she turns to face him and bites her lip. He says something I can’t make out and she shakes her head no. With a push on her shoulder, he directs her to her knees. She fiddles with his shorts, but it’s obvious what’s happening. I march toward the front door and open it silently.

Just as I step out onto the front step, I notice him reaching behind him for something tucked in the back of his shorts. A glint of silver catches the illumination of the street lights lining our properties.

“Nixon,” I bark, my mind reeling with what I’ve just seen.

What would he have done if I hadn’t come out?

He’s only sixteen for fuck’s sake.

Part of me wants to know so badly what he was about to do, but the other part knows I can’t afford him spilling blood on my property.

Is he like me, just like I thought?

He doesn’t startle and make a dash for it. He just looks over, staring me directly in the eye while the girl screeches and jumps to her feet before running back to the Pearson’s house.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I demand.

He doesn’t answer me. Instead, he smiles before he darts off. It’s so eerie, I question whether I made the whole scene up in my head.

Going back inside, I lock the front door, and for the first time since living here, I lock the back doors too.