Page 103 of Reign By Wrath

Ring.

Ring.

“Hello?”

Jaw slackening, the shard slipped from Everleigh’s grip.

“Hello, who is this?”

“Hello,” I said, triumph clear and malicious in my voice. “This is Luna Sinclair-Burkhardt, daughter of your old pal, Alistair. I’ve got someone here who’d like to talk to you.”

“Luna Sin— It can’t be,” he said. “How did you get this number?”

“That’s not important. What is important is—”

“Daddy?” Everleigh snatched the phone. “Daddy, is that you?”

“Everleigh?”

“Oh my gosh,” she breathed. “Oh my gosh. How—? No, wait. Tell me something only my dad would know.”

“Uhh... Listen—”

“My sixth birthday,” she blurted. “Where did you take me on my sixth birthday?”

“I don’t—”

“Where did we go?”

He sighed. “I chartered a boat and we sailed to Valeria. We learned to make grass skirts and drank out of coconuts on the beach.”

Everleigh collapsed, falling flat on her butt and dropping against the bed frame. “It is you,” she whispered. “I can’t believe it... How? Where have you been?”

“You know where, or you couldn’t have made this call.” A hard edge steeled his voice.

“Milford, Maryland,” I helpfully supplied. “He and Sasha own a popular local restaurant.”

Everleigh looked through me. “Maryland? So close? But I don’t understand. You’ve been alive all this time? Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you come for me?”

“Have you forgotten the situation I was in? A fugitive. Bank accounts frozen. Hated by everyone I knew and everyone I didn’t. Living like a castoff out in the woods. It wasn’t a life, Everleigh. I had no choice but to fake my death. It was the only way to start over.”

“But why didn’t you take me with you?”

“I couldn’t,” he replied. “I would’ve had to fake your death too. Rip you away from your family, friends, and your parents. It wouldn’t have been fair to you.”

“What are you talking about? My friends are a bunch of vapid, social-climbing bitches and always have been. Mom and Stepdad treat me like garbage— No, they treat meworsethan garbage. They act like I don’t even exist. You’re the only parent I ever had.”

“You’re exaggerating.”

“But you know I’m not,” she cried. “You remember what it was like back then. It was always just you and me.”

“It wasn’t so bad that your mother deserved to think her only child was dead. Come now,” he barked. “Be reasonable.”

Her lips trembled, eyes wide in confusion. “But... even if you didn’t want to do that to Mother, why didn’t you let me know that you were alive?”

“No one could know, or it would’ve all been for nothing.”

“I could’ve known! I didn’t tell anyone where you were when you were on the run.”

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