When I heard the gunshots, I screamed my head off.

Carter’s father tried to hold me back, but I managed to rip myself out of his tight embrace and rush up the stairs towards the room that would decide my future. I stopped at the threshold and just stared at the scene in front of me. Two bodies, piled on top of one another, neither of them fucking moving. There was a pool of dark blood pooling around them, and I stared at their unmoving forms as I tried to compose myself.

I tried not to scream, but when the sound ripped itself from my throat, I couldn’t fucking stop it either. I just screamed for help, to make things okay, to make sure they were alright.

And then one of the bodies moved, and I dropped to my knees next to the two men who’d shaped my life in so many ways. I let my tears cover them as I pulled my stepfather off my daddy. It took all my strength, and I felt someone helping me, one of the guards rushing into the room with me and helping me pull the man who raised me off, and lie him on the ground.

The wound was in his chest, and I could tell right away he was gone.

It looked like a crater in his chest. The front of his shirt was stained with so much blood it almost looked fake. I couldn’t bear to look at it any longer, and I looked down to stare at Carter instead.

He was moving.

I gasped at the sight and pulled on his shirt, shaking him, trying to get any kind of reaction from him. He was bleeding from a wound in his shoulder, and he was going to be okay. He had to be, because life meant nothing if everyone I’d ever cared about really was gone.

“Daddy,” I whispered, over and over again. “Please be okay. Please be okay for me.”

Someone pulled me away as he sputtered back to life, clearing his throat roughly and trying to catch his breath.

“Oh God,” I cried out. “Thank you, please, thank you.”

He opened his eyes slowly and stared at me as if I was the only person in the room. He saw the tears streaming freely down my face, and he didn’t even have to look to the dead body to his right to know what happened. He just smiled and tried to calm me down as I sobbed in his own father’s arms.

“I’m okay, Angel,” he promised me. “I’ll be fine, don’t you worry your pretty little head. It’ll all be just fine, I promise you that.”

The sound of sirens filled the air, and I let my body fall back into Carter’s father’s hands. I took several deep breaths, my eyes never leaving him as the room suddenly filled with people. Guards, paramedics, policemen, everyone shouting all over each other while my eyes stayed focused on one person only.

He kept looking back at me, even as he was cuffed and led into the police car. And he kept promising it was all going to turn out alright as I followed him outside, wringing my hands and begging someone to do something. Seeing him being driven away in the police car made me want to drop to my knees and scream my frustrations at the world. But I stayed strong just for him. Stayed on my own two feet, and followed the police car with Carter’s father. It was all going to be okay. They were going to explain everything, and then it would all be okay.

***

I stayed by his side the whole time.

He’d spent two days in the hospital and by the end of them, I felt drained and completely exhausted. But I never complained, and I never mentioned anything to Carter. I just waited for him to be ready to explain everything that happened, because my mind couldn’t piece it all together. I needed him to lay it out for me, and I needed to understand.

It was a weekend when he was let go from the hospital. I waited for him at home, after having a teary reunion with Carolina. I never asked her about the video. It felt too personal, like I was prying.

I wanted Carter to explain it to me instead. That, and the odd relationship he had with her.

I could still remember the time she watched him fuck me, and even though I didn’t want to admit it, it still made me wet as hell.

I blushed remembering what happened, and crossed my legs as I heard the car pull up in front of our house.

Carter’s father had insisted on picking his son up himself. He told me to be a good girl and wait for him at home, and I promised I would obey. But as I heard their approaching voices, it was getting harder and harder to stay still. I just wanted my daddy back.

Accepting that my stepfather was gone for good was one of the most painful things I’d ever had to do. But watching the emergency team load his body on a stretcher and take him away, without even turning on the sirens, answered any doubts I may have had. I knew it would be hard for me to accept what happened, because I still admired by stepfather and respected him for everything he had done for me. Accepting that he had an ulterior motive would take me a long time, and I knew it might be years before I fully accepted what he did to me and my family.

My poor mother.

My poor father.

But I had a feeling there was more to the story; missing pieces that only Carter could give me. I hoped his father wouldn’t stay for long, so I could finally know the full story.

When they walked into the room, I shot to my feet. Carter looked at me, his arm in a sling as he came towards me. I wanted to keep my eyes trained on the floor like a good girl but I fucking couldn’t. I just wanted to look at him, realize that he really was standing there, and he really was okay.

“Angel,” he said roughly. “Come here.”

I ran up to him and he held me with his good hand, pressing me close to his chest.

“It’s going to be okay,” he muttered into my hair. “They’ve dropped all charges.”

His father shuffled behind him, and I looked at him over Carter’s shoulder. I knew he probably had to pull plenty of strings to get his son out of trouble, but after seeing everything Carter did for him and the company, I knew it was well-deserved.

I never blamed him for my stepfather dying. As the coroner had explained, the gun went off when it was in both their hands. They were struggling, and they fired the shot that killed Barron together. The second shot, the bullet buried in Carter’s shoulder, was fired by my stepfather. We were lucky it didn’t hit a different spot.

“I need to know,” I whispered in Carter’s ear. “I need to know the whole story. You have to explain, Daddy.”

He sat me down on the sofa in the living room. His father sat down in an armchair while Carter joined me on the sofa.

“Do you want something to drink?” I asked him. “Carolina could make us some tea.”

“No,” his father cut in. “No, I don’t want her here.”

I stared at him as Carter started talking.

“I know what you saw, Angel. I know you saw the video.”

I glanced away, unable to hold either of their gazes. It was too fucking painful. How could I love a man who was such a fucking monster?

“You didn’t see Carter hurting the girl,” his father said. “You saw me.”

I looked up at him.

He wasn’t that old, but he looked like he was ancient. The liver spots on his hands, the way he held himself, it all spoke of a man who had seen too much. I knew he was dying, Carter had told me. His father wasn’t going to live for longer than a few months at best. I knew he was aware of it, too.

“You…” I whispered. “You hurt her?”

“I did,” he said, a faraway look in his eyes. “I did. I ruined her pretty face.”

“Why?” I asked. “How could you do something like that to her?”

“Carolina is… a long story,” Carter said from next to me, and I shifted my attention back to him. “She was a girl we rescued when she came to Empire Sin. My father bought her as one of the first girls in the club.”

“But why would you hurt her?” I asked, turning back to his father. “Why would you do that to her?”

“Carolina had a… past,” Carter admitted. “She never told anyone, but she came from a different country, and she had several men after her. She owed money. A lot.”

I stared at them both, trying to understand.

“That doesn’t explain anything,” I said.

“Maybe this will,” Carter’s father said roughly. “I fell in love with her. She was the first woman I felt something for – I’m sorry, Carter, you know your mother wasn’t the woman for me.”

My heart pounded as he went on.

“I wanted to help her, but she owed money to some crime lords from Mexico, and they were after her. They wanted her to pay the debt her boyfriend had left behind when he killed himself.”

“That’s terrible,” I muttered.

“They wanted to kill her,” Carter said. “We got death threats, all of us. They wanted her gone.”

“I tried making a deal with them,” his father added. “I repaid her debt. But it was about more than just that. One of those men, he’d fallen in love with her.”

“He wanted her for himself,” Carter said. “And Dad couldn’t give her up.”

“He would’ve killed her,” his father growled. “She’d be dead in days. So, he gave me an option. Either wait for him to get his hands on her eventually and fuck her dead body…”

I gasped at his words, covering my mouth with my palm.

“Or I hurt her myself. Something to ruin her beauty,” he added miserably. “And I had to send proof. We weren’t allowed to stay together, either.”

“That’s…” I tried breathing slowly, but it was a failed attempt. “That’s insane.”

“They still keep tabs on her,” his father added. “I shouldn’t even be here.”

“After the scarring,” Carter said, shifting my attention to him. “I took her in and employed her. I’m trying to help her as much as possible, just like I did with all my girls.”

“They wanted me to enjoy it,” his father said miserably. “They made me laugh in the video. There was a list of things I had to do. And spill blood was one of them. It had to be on her face.”

My head and heart both hurt with the sorrow I felt for Carolina.

Carter’s father stood up. In the setting light of the evening, he looked older and more fragile than ever. He looked nothing like the man I saw in photos on his company walls. The illness that was taking his life had robbed him of everything.

“I’ll go,” he said. “I can’t stay too long.”

Carter nodded, and we stood up to watch his father walk away.

“Mr. Knight,” I called out after him, and he looked over his shoulder. “What about my father?”

“That’s a story you should hear from my son,” he said simply, nodded once, and left for the door.

I saw a figure in the doorway, and just as he left, I saw Carolina watching him leave, hidden in the shadows in the hallway.

She caught my eye, and we stared at each other. She pressed a finger to her lips gently and I nodded when I saw a tear slide down her cheek. I wouldn’t tell a soul.

She disappeared back into the shadows.

I turned back towards Carter.

“I think you still have something to explain,” I told him softly, and he nodded, patting his knee as I came closer.

“Sit on my knee and let me tell you a story,” he said gently, and I obeyed without fighting the order for once.

His mouth was hot against my skin as he whispered in my ear.

“There was once a young man,” he started, “who had everything.”