Page 128 of The Devil's Pawn

I stare into my wife’s eyes, and when I see only love and understanding staring back, the fire in my belly dies, and a serenity settles over me. I release my grip on Carter’s throat. He rolls onto his side, coughing, gasping, and clutching his neck. I stand up straight and help my wife up from her bent over position.

“Get out, Carter, before I change my mind.”

He scrambles to his feet, grabs his medical bag, and sprints for the door. After he’s gone, I draw my eyes back to Imogen’s. “I guess I’d better go talk to my father.”

“No, Alexander. You’re not going to talk to your father.Weare going to talk to your father. I’m your wife. Your refuge in the storm. Your support structure, as you’re mine. Besides, this was done to me. I think I deserve to hear your father’s explanation firsthand.” She wraps her arms around my neck and moves into my body. “We’re going to find a way through this. I promise you.”

I want nothing more than to believe her, except I’m not sure I can.

After checking a few of my father’s rooms, we find him in his personal library. His eyebrows flicker up as we enter. He puts down the book he was reading and takes off his glasses, setting them next to the book.

“Hello, you two. Why so serious? Is something wrong?”

In the ten minutes it took us to locate him, I’ve run through various opening gambits, but now it’s here, all my well-practiced monologues vanish.

“Imogen is pregnant.”

Without a beat, he breaks into a beaming smile and gets up, thrusting out his hand for me to shake. “That’s wonderful. Congratulations. I’m thrill?—”

Leaving his hand hovering midair, I snap, “I spoke to Carter.”

Imogen touches my lower back. I’m not sure if it’s to support me or to warn me to stay calm.

“Ah.” My father gestures to the couch adjacent to his chair and retakes his seat. “Won’t you sit?”

I remain standing. “Why? That’s all I want to know, Dad. Why?”

He steeples his fingers in front of his mouth and pulls in a deep breath. “Please sit down. Both of you.”

Imogen moves first, and once she’s sat, there’s little point in me standing. I perch on the edge of the couch, every nerve in my body pulled tight. It’s a betrayal. A horrific betrayal by someone I should feel confident always has my back.

Just like I betrayed Imogen when I had her injected with it and the tracker in the first place. The duality isn’t lost on me. For the first time, I can truly put myself in Imogen’s shoes and understand why she felt so let down and left me for those two torturous weeks.

“You want to know why? Because, my dear son, sometimes a parent knows what is best for a child more than the child themselves does.”

“So, becauseyouwanted grandchildren, you think it’s fine to ride roughshod over whatIwant? WhatIneed?”

“What you think you need and what I know you need aren’t the same thing.”

Heat rises in my chest, my jaw tightening, my hands curling into fists. Imogen touches me on my shoulder this time. I take a breath, then another, and a third. As my heartrate slows, my brain kicks into gear. How does my father know about my decision not to have kids?

“Who talked? Was it Nicholas? It was Tobias, wasn’t it?” I never should have told my fucking siblings about my decision not to have kids. I can’t trust anyone other than myself. Unless… has Lilian been reporting back to my father all this time? Carter has, so why wouldn’t she, too? Have I been lied to for years?

“No one talked.” My father leans forward. “Alexander, you are my son. I know you as well as I know myself. Despite knowing you were to marry Imogen after she graduated, as the time drew closer, I knew your decisions were still driven by what happened to Annabel and your mother.” He hitches his right shoulder. “That’s why I intervened.”

“You had no right!” I roar. “No right to do that to me, or to Imogen.”

“Just as you had no right to force birth control on her without her knowledge, but that didn’t stop you.”

I wince, and he sighs. “We all do things we’re not exactly proud of, but, son, being a father is your destiny. Once the baby comes, you’ll realize it was all worth it.” He places a hand on my knee. “This is your duty, Alexander. The De Vil family name is more than me, more than you, more than all of us.”

A lump crawls into my throat, and it takes several swallows before it clears.

“What if something happens, Dad? You couldn’t protect Annabel or me from being taken. What if I can’t protect my child?”

It’s a sucker punch, and a cruel one. He shrivels before my eyes, his shoulders bowing under the weight he’s carried for all these years. How he must have tortured himself withwhat-ifs. I lost a sister, but he lost a childanda wife. If it crushed me, then it must have destroyed him.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

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