Page 49 of Red Dreams

But there's only the Scythe staring back—detached, ruthless, empty.

“Where are you?” I ask, searching his emotionless face.

He talks over my crestfallen plea.

“Your mother was never there for you, choosing random men over taking care of her child. Your father, while he was on this earth, never thought to have you in his life. Only when he was dead did he give you a run-down cottage with an abandoned lighthouse, like that would somehow make up for over two decades of his absence. Yet you live there. You moved into the very spot where he made his home without you. Is it so you could bond with him somehow? Find meaning to the reason you were even conceived?”

Agony lances through me, sharper than any physical blow. The words I've never spoken aloud, never shared with anyone, spill from Kaden's lips like a toxin.

I crumple, knees giving out, but Kaden catches me. Not to comfort but to force me upright.

“Which parent gave you the mutated gene for those eyes of yours?” he relentlessly continues. “Do you even know?”

I squeeze my eyes shut, hot tears leaking from the corners. He's exposing me, flaying me open for Cassie's voyeuristic delight.

“Because her father left when she was young and her mother never paid attention to her, Layla's always felt ... unworthy of love.” Kaden's voice is soft, almost tender, a jarring contrast to the brutality of his words. “It's why she clings so desperately to anyone who shows her affection. Like me.”

A harsh sob wrenches from my throat. I want to deny it, to scream that he's wrong, but the denial sticks in my throat. Because it's true, isn't it? I latched onto Kaden, let myself trusthim and love him because I was starved for it. So desperate to feel wanted.

“Poor little kitten,” Cassie says. “So pathetic and needy.”

Finally, Kaden releases his hold.

“Do you see what I did here, Cass? I tore her down, turned her into a sobbing mess, and I didn’t have to lay a hand on her to do it.”

“Kaden…” I say, hugging my arms around myself.

He raises his eyes to mine again. “I told you, Layla. Kaden is gone.”

Cassie grins. “She still doesn't get it, does she? She actually thought you loved her. Then again, so did I. You can be very convincing.”

Kaden moves to Cassie’s side. “I found your weaknesses, Layla. Your soft spots. And I used them against you.”

“No.” I shake my head in refusal. “What we had, it was real. I know it was.”

He scoffs. “You only saw what I wanted you to see.”

Cassie clucks her tongue at me in disappointment. “Come on, Daddy. I have some other guests for you to work your magic on.” She loops her arm through Kaden’s. “We can come back to these two wet blankets later.”

They both turn to the door, Ethan watching them with a hooded, hateful stare and me barely able to remain standing.

But.

“You want to talk about weaknesses, Scythe?” I spit out when his back is turned. “Let's talk about how you couldn't protect your own daughter. How you let her get taken right from under your nose while you were out for a morning run.”

That gets both Kaden’s and Cassie's attention.

“You weren't some green recruit then. You were special forces trained. Yet—” I laugh, a harsh, unfamiliar sound. “Youcouldn't even secure your own home properly. What kind of father does that make you?”

Kaden's face remains impassive, but I catch it—that microscopic twitch. Cassie goes very still.

“You want to break me by exposing my abandonment issues?” I continue, straightening my spine with pretend bravado. “Fine. But at least my father never promised to protect me. You did. You promised Cassie everything and then failed.”

Cassie's eyes dart between us, that crazed gleam of hers sparking with something else. Something younger.

“Want to know what I think?” I press on, even as warning bells ring in my head to stop. “I think you trained yourself to become the Scythe because you couldn't face being Kaden Black anymore. The man who failed his daughter so completely that he became exactly the kind of man who took her— another Morelli.”

Kaden angles his head like a gun being cocked to fire. My heart is a battering ram, begging me to backtrack before I get myself killed.

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