He took me to his study to talk for a little bit, and I fell into step behind him meekly.

I wasn’t sure how things were going to be between us now that I was almost a different person. It had only been a few weeks, but I felt like they had changed me to my very core. I wasn’t the little girl who left her stepdaddy’s house to sell her virginity and get her revenge. I was now a woman who had been in love, and had her heart broken into a thousand pieces.

And it fucking hurt.

Daddy sat me down in a plush armchair, while he took a seat across from me.

“Tell me, sweetheart,” he said gently. “Why did you run?”

“I… I had to,” I whispered. “I found out he was a very bad man.”

“You mean because of what happened with your parents?” he asked me gently, and I just managed to shake my head.

“There was something else,” I admitted. “Something I… don’t even want to share, it’s so awful.”

He reached across the space between us, taking my hand in his.

“You know you can tell me anything,” he said, and I nodded slowly. I wasn’t so sure, though. How would he accept what Carter had done? He’d want to kill him for so much as laying a finger on me.

Ever since I’d told Barron about my plan for vengeance, he hadn’t agreed with it. He tried to convince me not to do it for two months leading up to my eighteenth birthday, but there was no way he could have changed my mind, and on my birthday, he seemed to realize that was it. I was really going to go through with it, either with his help, or without it. And in the end, he decided it was safer for him to guide me through the process than have me do it by myself and possibly get hurt very badly.

As I thought about it now, the idea made me so sick. I was so close… to what?

To ending up just like Carolina, with a scar on my face that sealed my fate forever.

So close to falling for Carter Knight completely, and forgetting about all my plans for revenge, just letting him have my heart and smash it on the ground the first chance he fucking got.

I was glad it was over, or so I tried to convince myself. It had to end anyway, and better that it ended like this, while I still had someone to go back to. I’d known Carter was a bad man all along, hadn’t I? So it was foolish to think he wasn’t, even if it was for just a moment or two… When I fell for him and let my heart get the better of my mind.

“I saw a video.” My bottom lip trembled as I started to explain. “It was of this woman, a maid… She worked at his mansion. She was scarred very badly, Daddy. She had a huge scar on her face… From her neck, up to her forehead and into her hairline. And I saw the video of how it was made.”

Barron stared at me with his lips pursed in a thin line.

“Did he do it?” he asked me, his voice cold and unfeeling. “Did Knight fucking do that?”

I nodded. “It was in his office, in the building in his city. And I’ve seen them interact before… I know it was him.”

“That’s fucking terrible, sweetheart,” Barron told me gently. “Why did he show you that? I could fucking kill him.”

“I… I found it myself,” I admitted. “I’m glad I did, though. If I hadn’t gone looking, I’d still be there, fooling myself into thinking there was actually something real between us… As if we could work in real life.”

“Something real?” Barron repeated, and I looked up into his dark eyes. “Explain that to me, sweetheart. I don’t want to get angry for no fucking reason, Evangeline.”

“I…” I swallowed thickly. “I think I was starting to develop feelings for him. There was something… But it’s all gone now. It would be sick to feel anything for him after seeing that awful video.”

So why do I still feel this way? a nagging voice asked in my head, but I did my best to lock it in the darkest corner of my mind. There was no time for doubting myself anymore. I’d already made my decision, after all. I’d left Carter, and returned to my real daddy. This was how things were supposed to be all along. I’d always planned on coming back after my revenge was over and done with.

“Let’s not talk about that,” Barron said roughly. I could tell he was hurt by what I had said, but I didn’t regret my words. I had to tell him the truth. It helped me to be honest about it with myself, too. “We have more important things to talk about.”

“Like what?” I asked weakly, trying to ignore the annoying voice in the back of my mind. “You know I was going to come back to you all along.”

“I do,” he said. “And that was when I was going to explain things to you, Evangeline. But now you’re home early.”

He squeezed my hand tightly and I offered him a weak smile. I felt so fucking stupid. So foolish for ever trusting Carter, and for letting myself fall for him like that, when I knew what he was like all along.

“So, what did you want to talk about?” I asked Barron, and he gave me an affectionate smile.

“You, baby,” he said gently. “You and me, and what our life is going to be like now that I finally fucking have you back.”

I managed another weak half-grin-half-grimace as he went on.

“You know I love you, don’t you, sweetheart?” he asked me, and I nodded, looking at our hands together. “Tell me you love me too, Evangeline.”

“I love you, Daddy,” I said softly, and he smiled proudly. I could feel his happiness, it was almost palpable in the room.

“Good girl,” he told me. “I knew you did, I knew it all along. I’ve loved you for such a long time, sweetie, you have no fucking idea. I’ve wanted you for so fucking long.”

I looked up at him, feeling confused. His eyes looked fervent, dancing across my face.

“W-what do you mean?” I asked him.

“Us,” he repeated. “It’s all about us, it has been all along. Your father dying, your mother being my wife… It all led up to this moment, Evangeline, the moment you finally become mine.”

“Daddy,” I said carefully. “You’re scaring me.”

He chuckled and stroked the back of my hand with his thumb.

“There’s no reason to be scared, sweet girl,” he told me gently. “It was all meant to be. You were meant to be mine all along, Evangeline.”

“But…” I tried to pull my hand back, but he held on to it tightly. He was really starting to scare me, and my heart pumped adrenaline through my veins as I stared at him. “I don’t understand. What are you trying to say?”

“I want you to be mine, Evangeline,” he said. “It was the way it was supposed to be all along. You knew you were going to belong to me eventually, didn’t you, sweetheart?”

“But… I don’t,” I whispered, tears gathering in my eyes. “I didn’t belong to you, ever… You’re my dad.”

“I want to be more,” he whispered fervently, squeezing my hand with such vigor I worried he’d bruise me. “I want to be so much more, Evangeline. Can’t you see? It’s why I did everything I did for you… It’s why I made sure there would be no more obstacles in our way when you were finally old enough. I knew you had to do this revenge thing for yourself, sweetheart, and I was even willing to accept you fucking that bastard… All for this.”

“For what?” I asked, my heart pounding with fear. “There’s nothing here, Daddy, you’re scaring me…”

“There is,” he insisted. “Don’t tell me you don’t fucking feel it, sweetheart. I did all of this for you… All of it, just for you. And none of those other girls can ever compare to my pretty baby.”

“Barron,” I said roughly, and he flinched when I said his name, not the usual Daddy I addressed him with. “I need to know what happened to my mother. Did she overdose?”

“Of course she did, sweetheart,” he told me gently. “We both saw it with our own eyes, didn’t we?”

I nodded, looking down. There were more tears in my eyes already. I felt fucking pathetic, and weak.

“Oh, Evangeline,” he said sweetly. “I only helped her along, I promise. I only made sure she’d leave us alone so we could have the future we’d always dreamed of together.”

My eyes shot up to look at him and I felt so much pain take hold of my body. He was the only one left. The only family I had, the only man I trusted. What was he trying to say?

“Did you hurt my mommy?” I asked softly, and he chuckled at me. It felt like razorblades going through my skin, slicing into the tender flesh.

“Sweetheart, I wasn’t the one who killed her,” he told me gently. “She injected it herself… I just made sure the dosage would be fatal, baby, just for us. So we could eventually be happy together, with nothing in our fucking way.”

“You…” I took a deep breath. “You did it. You killed her.”

“Evangeline,” he scolded me. “You know I did it for us.”

I pulled my hand from his with all my might and stood up. He shot to his feet too, and glared at me.

“You’re misbehaving, little girl,” he said roughly. The threat in his voice was obvious. “Don’t make me punish you so soon, Evangeline.”

“Don’t,” I whispered. “What have you done? What the fuck have you done to me?”

“Don’t worry,” he said gently. “I’ll take care of it all. I’ll fuck him out of you, Evangeline. I’ll wipe every trace away.”

“Don’t,” I begged again. “Don’t, don’t, don’t.”