Page 279 of Dragon Slayer

Concubine? She thought of that day in the stable, when he’d showed her his childhood. There were unpleasant, awful, shameful things he’d meant to show her, he said. But then he’d been snatched away, and her dad’s goons had come to take her. What hadn’t he shown her?

Whatever she felt – she was too numb to label it properly – it must have shown on her face, because Dad leaned forward in his chair, eager now. “I know you don’t like me, and that you don’t want to believe me. But I’m your father, Mia. You’re my little baby. I would never lead you astray in this. Please trust me, for the sake of family.”

“Family,” she repeated. A word that left her cringing. Family had never mattered to him; his blood relation to her, his parental obligation, had never mattered as much as his work. And on some level, she couldn’t even blame him for that. How could science march forward if it was weighted down by dirty diapers and bottle feedings?

She understood that, but she was still a daughter, one who resented her father.

And now…now, he was lying to her about an innocent man who’d been mistreated for an ungodly amount of time.

Decide, Val had said. She thought she knew what he meant, now.

“Yes, family.”

“So…blood is the most important thing,” she said, slowly.

“Mia, it is. Blood iseverything.”

“I’m beginning to see that.”

He smiled. “Perhaps we can come to an understanding. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

“Yes.” And he didn’t seem to notice that the word rang hollow.

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