“Did you ever love me?” I say through clenched teeth as the tears stream freely over my cheeks.

“Ugh. You look pathetic. Why the fuck are you crying? You always cry. It's weak, and people will see straight through your weakness and use it against you.”

“Did you ever love me?” I scream loudly, filled with rage.

“Darling—love? What the fuck kind of question is that?”

“You don’t even know what love is, do you?”

“I don’t need love. I need money and power. I need men to fear me. I need control.”

I shake my head, my fists clenched tightly.

My own father has never had an ounce of love for me.

I see that now. I see it more clearly than I’ve ever seen anything before in my life. I was nothing to him, nothing but a mouse in a trap that he could torture and torment just for the joy it gave him.

“I understand more than ever why my mother left you,” I say quietly, more to myself than him, because I see no reason to speak to him anymore.

He is irredeemable as a human being. There is no hope for understanding or compassion. There never was.

“Left me. What a joke. Your mother didn’t leave me,” he laughs.

“She did. She left you when I was born,” I say, confused. That is what he’s always told me.

“No, darling. I said she gave up on us. You need to pay more attention to my words. I’ve always been very clear about how weak your mother was, and after you were born, I locked her in the basement to teach her a lesson about strength. It turned out she wasn’t strong enough to learn it. She gave up.”

“You—you killed her?”

“No. She gave up.”

“You locked her in the fucking basement and starved her and left her for dead. She didn’t give up. You killed my mother,” I shout.

He laughs. “What difference does it make?” he shrugs.

I glare at him with so much hatred in my heart that I am beginning to understand how Leon has stayed so focused on revenge all these years. I am beginning to see why his entire life revolved around making my father pay for what he’s done.

I can’t even look at him anymore. I can’t bear to accept that he is my father. My blood. I want nothing to do with him.

I turn my face towards the window and stare out of it. He talks a little while longer, but I don’t reply.

Eventually, he gets bored with me and leaves.

Marie is still standing in the corner of the room. She rushes over to me.

“You’re pregnant? Is it true?” she says with tears in her eyes.

“It’s true.” I nod as she pulls me into a tight embrace.

“Oh my sweetheart. I’m so happy for you. I’ve missed you so much, but I’m so sorry to see you here. I thought you’d gotten away. I thought you’d escaped.”

“It’s going to be okay, Marie. But I need your help. You were always able to help me sneak out. Can you help me again?”

“There are so many men here now, the entire outside area is heavily guarded. All of them have guns.”

“But you know all the secret ways in and out of this house.”

She nods, but she looks terrified.