Page 158 of Reckless Hearts

“Fine, go do that.”

I start to walk down the stairs, feeling my way along the rickety banister as I go. Raph follows. At the bottom, I take a breath. I swallow. Then I push on the door, and it swings open with a creak.

Instantly, my heart leaps into my throat.

Oh, my God…

A single lightbulb hangs from the dingy, cobwebbed ceiling. And there, sitting tied to a chair on the dirt floor beneath it, his face gaunt, eyes sunken, and skin pallid…

…is Gerard.

I choke back a scream as I rush to him, tears brimming in my eyes. His focus, blinking slowly as he begins to recognize me. He moans through the gag in his mouth, and I sob as I yank it free.

“Gerard!” I cry out, cupping the face of a man I’ve spent the past two months hating, but who was once the closest thing to a father I ever knew. “Oh myGod,” I sob, hugging him before pulling back. “Who—”

“Beh…” His voice is raspy and dusty.

“What?”

“Behind…”

I hear the creak on the staircase just as he gets the words out.

“Behind you.”

I whirl, but my scream chokes in my throat as something heavy slams into the side of my head. I go sprawling onto the dirt floor, blinking stars and whining in pain before I roll over and raise my eyes…

…To where Raph is smiling coldly at me, a brick in his hand.

“Well, Dahlia my dear,” he says quietly. “Do I get to say I told you so yet?”

37

DAHLIA

No.

My head swims and my vision cuts in and out as I kick at the dirt under my heels, trying to push myself away from Raph. He smiles wider, shaking his head.

“I tried my best to keep you out of this. But you just wouldn’t listen.” He sighs. “Why are yousostubborn, Dahlia?”

“Raph…”

“It didn’t have to be like this, Dahlia,” he mutters. “If you’d just have let this play out, I’d have made sure you and your mother had plenty of money to be just fine.”

“Why?” I choke. “Why are you doing any of this?!”

His lips curl into a snarl, and I flinch when he jabs a finger back at his father, tied to the chair, looking near death. “Do you know what happened to my mother after he abandoned her?”

“Raph,” Gerard croaks, his face pained. “I never abandoned—”

“Lies!” Raph snarls. “All lies! And I amso fucking tiredof hearing them!”

“Your mother…she was sick,” Gerard groans. “I tried to help her, but we were terrible for each other. I gave her everything—”

“You gave her nothing!” Raph spins back to me, seething. “He gave her nothing, and then she took her own life.”

My heart wrenches. “Raph, I’m sorry—”

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