Page 47 of Falling in Reverse

“I don’t have money for that—” A wad of hundred-dollar bills lands on the bag next.

“When you get the results back, call me.” He slides a white business card like a knife across my dying nerves. “We have a lot to discuss.”

“How do I know you won’t hack into them and?—”

“Do you think I like to spend my time harassing little girls?” His expression skews, as if I’m some dumbass who thinks too highly of myself. “I don’t chase after female lookalikes who could be my daughter.” Emilio’s face darkens, baring his straight teeth at me. “I already have two sons who could become my heirs.”

“Then why even bother with me, when we both know if this is all true…I’m never flipping sides?”

“Because they are my stepchildren. You are my biological child.” He seems to relax, leaning into the high-backed stool, and finally averting his determined regard from me. “I’ve built an empire for an heir…someone I could hand off all my hard work to. I had constantly hoped…that I’d see you again.”

“I’m not getting involved with anything that has to do with you, even if I was your so-called daughter, which I’m not. Your name is like a plague, Mr. Wildes. Anyone who gets entangled with you obviously doesn’t land themselves in a good spot.”

He fixes me with a look I can’t pin down, as either exasperated or impressed, clearly not accepting it. “Again, I’ll decide that.”

“Not when you tried to have my family killed.”

“If I wanted your fake family killed, they would be. It wasn’t hard to get into South Shore.”

I don’t like the confidence he eludes. I’m also not a fan of how he’s not emitting that he’s kidding.

He’s kidding.

Roger is my father. He raised me, he loved me, and he always looked out for me. He’s the one thing that’s always been rock-solid in my life.

Emilio slides off his stool, nice and slow, maybe calculating his chances of getting out of here alive. If someone noticed him, which I’m not sure how he and I are still standing here without that happening, he’s dead.

“I’ll expect a call in about a week. I’m sure Travis Muncy can get those results back for you as quickly as possible.”

My blood boils, because he seems to know everything and everyone around me. “Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out.”

Another hundred-dollar bill is tossed to the wooden countertop and he doesn’t bother bullshitting me with a second glance.

If anything he’s saying is true, my mom…she sold me out to the devil.

And Dad…he lied.

TWELVE

bay

Pulling my car into the driveway of my house, the first thing I notice is Travis's vehicle.

The second is how nervously he fidgets with his fingers as he rises from my porch step with a pair of crutches and walks to me.

I called him here because I selfishly needed someone to listen and not ask me a million and one questions I don’t have the answers to.

I’m freaking out.

What if Emilio Wildes is my father?

And what if Roger has lied to me my whole life?

I can’t stomach that.

Especially with all the love I feel for Roger, like a daughter loves her father.

His name isn’t Roger, it’s Dad.

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