Page 288 of Hateful Games

Yawning, she stretches her arm and pats the blanket. A silent command for me to come closer and lie down. These little innocuous things she does, giving me a softer side of her that is all for me. How can she even think I’m winning?

I’m falling for her.

Every hour.

Every minute.

Every goddamn second.

Crossing to the bed, I lie down and drag her to my side. Using my elbow as a pillow, she wraps herself around me like my own koala bear. I comb my fingers through her silky tresses until her breathing evens out. Or so I think until she speaks, in a voice so low I almost miss the heaviness of those words.

“At last, my father did something right… he gave me you, Nova.”

When I peer at her face, long eyelashes resting on the top of her cheeks, she’s deep in sleep. Making me think I almost imagined her words.

But I didn’t.

They hit me right in the ribs because she’s right. However, unlike her, all his name does is throw me into the wreckage of my past. No sleep haunting me into the wee hours of the morning.

My phone pings with a text.

I untangle from my wife to slide out from underneath the blanket and tuck it under her chin. Even as I sit upright, facing away, her hand finds mine and rests on the top. She’s still out, parted lips slowly breathing.

Grabbing my phone, I think about who would most likely text me this early in the morning.

A single person comes to mind.

And it’s him, which means it can’t be for anything good. The man isn’t the giver of happy news, only destructive secrets.

ZENITH: You were right. He’s the father.

He attaches a report, evidence of his claim.

The truth I knew, but didn’t want to be true, slaps me in the face.

Except, how do I tell Rose that Jasmine is my half-sister without shattering her entire world?

Chapter Seventy-three

Nova

The past week since Zenith dropped an upending bomb, I’ve been in a perpetual dark mood. The only ray of light has been Rosalie. She’s both a perfect distraction and a reminder that I need to confront my father.

His disgraceful secret is no longer a secret.

The truth has brought so much clarity and an even bigger chaotic storm.

He had to have known it all along, although he never showed any signs, which is why Jasmine wasn’t chosen as my bride. He still hasn’t given any inclination that the whole reason for the sordid deal was to be closer to his estranged daughter.

Neither did Lily.

She was destroying my family with her mere existence several years ago.

And now, she may just destroy my marriage too.

Rosalie’s parents have only ever been the bane of my existence.

I don’t want to dump all the skeletons of my past on Rosalie without backing up my truths. Because she’ll chose her mom’s words over mine. I don’t trust Lily not to manipulate and twist the story in her favor. Or give ammunition to Mihir to have the upper hand, who must suspect my father is the real father of Jasmine.

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