Page 96 of Sapphire Tears

“I have a car full of security waiting for me downstairs,” I snarl. “One call and they’ll be up here.”

“Exactly! So why would I risk coming here to meet you unless it was really important, huh? Unless I cared more about you than myself?”

“Says the dead man walking.”

“I’ll admit, I made a mistake,” he says, hands upraised. He’s acting as though he just missed an anniversary dinner, forgot a birthday. LikeI’mthe one making a big deal out of a little bittyoopsie. “I shouldn’t have gone about things the way that I did. But my instinct, my first motive, was always to protect you.”

“And what was your second motive?” I demand. “Gaslight and hurt me?”

He sighs deeply. “He’s really gotten into your head, hasn’t he?”

“Stop it. Don’t do that. Don’t youdarefucking do that. Just because I don’t agree with you, just because I don’t believe you, doesn’t mean I’ve been brainwashed.”

Geneva is looking between us helplessly. Her eyes are tinged with an undercurrent of doubt, but she still remains steadfastly at Adrian’s side.

I swing my glare towards her. “Is it your mission in life to find every man I want to avoid and lead him right to me?”

Her brow furrows. “I’m your big sister. It’s my job to make sure you’re okay.”

“You’re about ten years too late with that.”

“What happened to you, Junepenny?” Adrian asks, still in that wheedling,what’s wrong with youtone that’s driving me insane. “You didn’t used to be like this. So… angry. So ready for a fight.”

I laugh darkly. “Of course you would say that. But you’re right about one thing: I didn’t used to be like this. I used to be meek and quiet. I used to let you walk all over me, and now, I’m done with that. So you bet your ass I’m going to fight back, Adrian. Especially when I feel I’ve been lied to.”

Adrian’s chin jerks up. “I haven’t lied to you.”

“No?”

“No,” he asserts. “You want answers? I’ll give you answers. I’ll give you the truth.”

I stop short, wondering why I can suddenly smell vanilla. I shake it away. That’s my imagination. My heart talking, not my head.

Focus, June.Things are hanging in the balance here. Very, very important things.

“Okay,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest. “Let’s start with why you’ve been frequenting prostitution rings for years on end.”

Geneva claps a hand to her mouth to stifle a gasp. “P-prostitution rings?” she stammers.

But Adrian doesn’t so much as glance her way. “I know it looks bad,” he says. “But I wasn’t there for what you think.”

“The floor is yours,” I say scathingly. “We’re all fucking ears.”

“I was searching for someone,” he says fervently. “I was searching for… for my mother.”

That much at least lines up with what Kolya told me. The lie blending right into the truth, so far completely indistinguishable. But it justfeelswrong. There’s something missing. Something vital.

Adrian can read the skepticism on my face, because he inches closer, puppy dog eyes in full effect. “It’s the truth, June,” he says desperately. “I knew there was more to her leaving than they were telling me, but no matter how much I asked Kolya, he refused to be honest with me. Then one night, shortly after Kolya killed our father, one of his closest Vors came by the mansion.”

Sara and her father.I find myself holding my breath.

“Kolya dismissed me, but I stayed by the door. I listened. And that was the night I got confirmation that my mother didn’t actually abandon me. She was sold into fucking sex slavery. And since then, I made it my mission to find her. I had to go down into the ring, June. It was the only way.”

My heart beats unevenly. It’d be so easy to fall into his story. I could wrap myself up in those sweet lies like a cozy blanket.

Even as that urge pulls at my heartstrings, though, I’m aware on another level of how badly I want to believe him. Then at least I won’t have to look my daughter in the eye one day and have to explain what her father was like. What he did. And to whom.

“You actually found her.”

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