Page 123 of Their Dark Rose

Who am I kidding? Nothing scares or bothers this little one.

Neither my scream nor his low chuckle stopped her from grinning peacefully. Zhara, as calm and smiling as her biological father, lies there peacefully.

I call him her biological father because, clearly, there’s more than just one.

There are three of them.

And they’re the absolute most wonderful fathers my child could ever wish for.

The polar opposite of mine.

Over the past year, I discovered my own dad’s addiction wasn’t to blame for how he’d treated me as a kid.

I went to visit him in jail once. By myself. I needed closure, and I needed it without outside noise. My men are my heroes, my avenging angels, my babies’ daddies. My everything.

But this conversation belonged to my father and me alone.

Or so I wanted to believe.

Swollen with our Zhara in my belly, I drove up to the prison where my father has been serving his forty years.

Turned out, he didn’t need nor want closure. I got denied, no matter how much I begged. I even paid off one of the guards. He agreed, going back to my dad to tell him his only daughter, who was also pregnant by one of her godfathers—the men he used to consider friends—asked him this one last thing. To say a proper goodbye.

Sadly, the response Dad gave the guard was the same.

The nice blond guard’s cheek burned bright red when he reiterated his message.

“Not interested. You’re a disgrace, your baby is a disgrace. Unless you’re here to sign over the company to me, I have nothing to say to you.”

He broke my heart, but only for a short while. That evening, my men fed me, hugged me, and helped me forget my vile father ever existed. I fell asleep with Falk’s cock in my mouth as a pacifier and had happy, kinky dreams for the rest of the night.

“Hey, princess, you okay?”

I shake the bad memories away. My eyes focus on the two men who have filed into the nursery while I’ve been daydreaming.

Mason and Falk are shirtless, like Finn. And like him, both of them are wearing harsh scowls on their handsome faces.

They’re worried about me.

Mason steps into my personal space first, his thumb swiping across my cheek. Wiping off an errant tear.

Shit, why am I crying?

“Your dad?” Mason doesn’t wait for my reply, enveloping me in his strong embrace.

“Yeah, I’m sorry.” I lean into his cedar wood scent, my tears leaking over his taut chest.

“Don’t be.” Falk materializes at my right, his bottle-green eyes burrowing into my soul. “You have every right to mourn your relationship.”

“Besides…” I hear Finn at my left while little Zhara makes the sweetest noises. “Remember what we promised you?”

“I do.” A slow, devious smile stretches my lips. It reaches my eyes too.

I pull away from Mason, staying in his stronghold while looking at the three brothers and our daughter.

“He’ll pay for everything he’s done to you,” Falk snarls.

“We won’t go easy on him,” Mason, his ex-best friend, vows.

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