Somehow, I should have known I would be found out.

I’d been sneaking out for so long, and recently, I wasn’t even being careful about it, so it was bound to happen. Not to mention it was the second time I got back with only minutes to spare before everyone woke up, and skipped breakfast because I was tired.

When I met my dad that night for dinner, he didn’t even act any differently, so there was no warning. But just before the food was served, he struck up a conversation.

“Arielle?” he said.

“Yeah, Dad?”

“How have your friends been?”

I frowned at him. Thanks to him, I didn’t get to see them as often as I would like, so I didn’t appreciate him asking about them. Hell, I’d tried to contact a few of them the day after I first spent the night with Alan, but not one of them picked up my call. I was pretty sure they were fed up with me, and there was no way for me to reverse that.

But I left out those details.

“They’re fine, Dad,” I said blankly, and went back to ignoring him. I wasn’t in the mood for a conversation.

He hummed. Then he folded the paper he was reading and looked at me across the table. I wondered if something had happened, and that was why he was suddenly being this attentive.

“And exactly how long have you been sneaking out to go and play with those friends of yours?” he asked.

I froze. How did he find out?

I was tempted to seek out Marc with my eyes. He was in the room, and hopefully, that meant my dad hadn’t realized his connection to this yet. I didn’t want my honorary uncle to lose his job because I had a bout of teenage rebellion, so instead, I looked down at my lap.

“I’m waiting for an answer from you, Arielle,” he said impatiently, when I didn’t respond. “Did you really think it would escape my notice forever?”

I didn’t know what to say. If my dad decided to lock me up in the house… I’d probably never see Alan again. He was hesitant about letting me go out with my friends. We’d never broached the topic of boyfriends, and I really wasn’t ready to have that conversation with my him yet.

“Arielle—”

“Yeah, Dad, I’ve been sneaking out,” I said, cutting him off. “So what? Did you think I would be fine with letting you keep me under lock and key forever? What about what I want out of life?”

“I do it for your safety. And you’ve compromised that, who knows how many times, going out like that on your own—”

“Would you have let me go if I asked nicely?” I retorted, glaring at him. “Would you?”

His frown tightened, and I scoffed. It was enough of an answer for me. Dad wasn’t the kind of person who went to clubs and drank cheap beer and gambled the night away in smoky casinos. He would never approve of the things I’d been doing.

“Look. I know you’re young, Arielle, and you want… certain things. But please try to understand, you can’t keep sneaking out. I won’t allow it. And those… friends”—he practically spat out the word—“who encourage you, they aren’t very good friends.”

I wrinkled my nose in annoyance. At least he didn’t know who I’d been meeting recently, because Alan and I were a lot more than friends. But still, that didn’t mean I appreciated what he was implying.

“You know nothing about my friends, Dad. You have no right to judge them.”

“I’ve done extensive background research on all of them—”

I already knew he did background checks on basically anyone I interacted with, but hearing him judge people poorly based on that information, deciding whether they were “good enough” for me…I finally blew up at him.

“That doesn’t mean you know them! That just means you know their parents, their schools and grades, whatever. You don’t know who they are. They have done for me what you absolutely refuse to do.”

He smacked the table with his palm. “I’ve given you everything you could ever want, Arielle. More than a lot of people could ever see in their lifetimes.”

“No, Dad,” I growled. “You gave me what you thought I wanted. You never asked. If you had, you’d have known that all I want is a chance to act like a normal young woman, instead of your prisoner, instead of a mannequin used to flaunt your jewelry. And if you keep trying to pen me up, I will leave altogether.”

My outburst left him speechless. His blinked at me, mouth open, and after a moment of silence, I realized he had nothing to say.

“And Dad, it’s not like I’m being careless,” I went on to explain, my voice quieter. “I keep the panic button on me, always.”

I knew, just from looking at him, that this argument wasn’t something that’d be easy to recover from. I’d breached my dad’s trust in me, but in all honesty, I didn’t give a damn. He probably knew that, too. It would take a lot for us to reconcile, but if he was willing to actually talk to me this time, then we could easily solve everything.

I didn’t want to keep fighting with my dad.

“If you’re willing to give me some space, then I will stop sneaking out, effective immediately. But you can’t keep me locked up in here,” I said, almost pleading.

There was an expression on his face I thought could have been remorse. But then he opened his mouth and ruined it.

“I’m going to have you watched from now on,” he said. “Watched better, that is, because there must be something wrong with the people I hire if they can't stop you from leaving the grounds at night.”

I glared at him, but whatever I could have said was interrupted by the maids finally bringing out the food. I wondered if he’d asked them to be a little later in serving just so we could have this conversation, and suddenly I didn’t feel so hungry. I got up from the table and stormed out of the room, ignoring my dad as he tried to call me back.