Page 114 of Broken Dreams

I smile weakly at his sentiment, because I’m not excited about being around so many people. I don’t feel safe. Club Serenity is a neutral place, and there are people who are ensuring I am able to remain unmolested.

A party with the families? Fuck, no. It’s too easy for someone to slip in who doesn’t belong there. Crowd control is nonexistent with large groups.

“It’s true,” my father says. “I should count my blessings. May I have a word, daughter?”

Ugh, of course he has to get the final word. Nodding, I stand, making sure I bring my clutch with me. Dad knows I’m not deaf, he’s just being an asshole.

Adira and Cian continue to say their goodbyes to people, though I can feel their attention is split, attempting to ensure my father doesn’t do anything to me. I doubt that by this point in the night he has anything nefarious planned.

He could never explain my disappearance if he did.

His hand wraps around my bicep as he maneuvers me into the hallway, away from eavesdropping ears. Little does he know that people will hear whatever it is that he has to say to me regardless of how far he drags me away.

“Where is your mother?” he snarls in my ear. The words are almost spit at me, and I can feel my hackles rise.

Don’t stab your father.Maybe if I tell myself that enough, I’ll be able to keep myself from doing it.

Dad continues to drag me around the corner, where his hand wraps around my throat and he shoves me hard against the wall.

“She is mine,” he grunts. “We are bonded, and the only way she’ll be able to escape me is in death. We’ve been together a long time though, which means I could feel when she slipped into the darkness with the pills and the booze the night beforeshe left me. How does it feel to know that your mother is a fucking coward?”

There are many sides to a story, so I curl my hand in a fist to keep myself from reaching for my weapon. I could simply gut him like a fish. It would be so damn easy.

I believe the years of trauma and abuse have permanently twisted my sense of right and wrong. There’s no going back to the naive girl I used to be, and it would be a disservice to who I am now to try.

My mother is a victim of abuse, and my father is capitalizing on his attempts to break her. It’s as simple as that, so I gaze at him without expression, knowing it’ll piss him off.

His words give me pause though. When I kill him, I won’t be able to draw it out in respect to my mother. She doesn’t need to feel everything I do to him as if it’s being done to her. She’s suffered enough.

I will be the last thing he sees when he dies, that’s for damn sure.

“The hair, this ridiculous dress, those men will never respect you,” he says, changing direction. “You’re still a child to them. Adira is a fucking psycho, which is why they cater to her. She’d gut you as easily as she would wish you well.”

The fact that my father thinks so is high praise, and shows that she’s grown a reputation for herself outside of her pack.

I’m done with his insults, and lean into his hand as I drive my heel into his foot. My father grits his teeth as he pushes me away, angry and in pain.

“Stupid cunt, you deserve everything that’s happened to you,” he says. “Bret can’t fucking wait till he gets his hands on you. It won’t be long!”

I show no emotion even though he’s breaking my heart. It’s one thing to have blinding evidence, and quite another to hearit from my father’s mouth. My vision is swimming, but I force myself to walk away from him.

I know the house well even after all of this time away, the movements ingrained in my body. Adira and Cian are the only ones left in the dining room, and follow me as I mindlessly escape.

I throw open the door, moving my dress to walk down the stairs, and Evan is already waiting there. The tears leak out as he opens the car door, and I slide in. When Cian and Adira join me, I pull out the tablet and stop the recording.

“Quinn?” Cian asks, but I shake my head, swallowing back a sob as I play the recording from when my father walked me away from the group.

Evan sits in the front seat motionless as they all listen to my father insult and threaten me, not bothering to put the car into drive. I don’t blame him. Even though he doesn’t know me, he’d probably still crash. The beta seems like someone who feels deeply.

“Holy shit, he’s a moron,” Adira whispers. I send the clip to Callum’s encrypted phone number, and then message him to let him know we're on the way back.

“I didn’t think he’d be so easy to unsettle,” Cian says, meeting Evan’s gaze in the rearview mirror and nodding for him to begin driving.

Jerking into movement with a guilty expression on his face, the beta shifts the car into drive to take me home.

“Everything about me triggers my father,”I explain, getting a hold of my emotions as I swipe away my tears. “I was never supposed to come back.”

“Too fucking bad,” Adira snarls. “He’ll just have to die for his actions so you can live your life. I doubt anyone will miss him.”

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