Page 18 of Dark Daze

She slipped out of her chair, gave me a quick hug and ran out of the room.

Ric watched her leave, his face turned towards her until she was out of sight.

He whipped around towards me so fast I almost flinched.

"What the fuck didn't you tell me she was mine?" he snarled.

My heart stopped. What the hell?

"What are you—"

He cut me off. "Don't bullshit, Daze. I know she's my kid. Did you forget to mention that fact? Did it slip your motherfucking mind?" He pointed at his head. "Is this where you tell me you sent a text and maybe I didn't get it?"

"No, I didn't send a text." I got up from my chair and took a few steps away from him. Angry Ric was unpredictable and dangerous.

"No shit," he said with a grunt. "No text, no call. No nothing. Why?" He glared at me like he wanted to rip my soul apart. And then the rest of me.

"You know why," I said. "I was trying to put this life behind me. I wanted to give my daughter a better life."

"So you decided that a better life was away from me? Away from Dusk Bay? Away from your family, her family? And I got no say in any of that?" He narrowed his eyes at me.

"After we had that fight, I figured—" I started.

"Figured what?" he demanded. "Figured I wouldn't give a shit? Figured I didn't deserve to know? What did you figure, Daze?" His breath was ragged with fury.

"I figured we would never talk to each other again," I said. "You said you didn't care if I left town. What reason would I have for thinking you'd want to know about a kid? We were twenty, for fuck's sake. You were determined to take back what your family lost. What did you care if you knocked me up?" I crossed my arms and lifted my chin. "The only thing you cared about was power."

"That's not true," he said. "I cared about you."

"You cared about getting laid," I snapped.

I thought he might get mad at that but he laughed. "Just like you. Don't think I don't know you fucked Hilton. The whole place heard you."

I shrugged. "So what? Are you going to run off and tell Caleb?" Hilton probably had already and we both knew it.

Ric took a couple of steps towards me.

"I had a right to know I have a kid." His anger had cooled, but it was still very much there on his face. "Were you ever going to tell me?"

I shook my head. "I don't know, Ric. I might have. I thought about it plenty of times."

"But you never acted on it," he said. "You took that from me. And from her. What about her right to know who her father is? Did it ever cross your mind you were stealing that from her?"

"No," I said firmly. "Because I gave her everything she needed." At least, I tried to. Seeing her in this place made me realise she missed out on some things. Considering I was little more than a kid when she was born, I don't think I did too badly.

"What if she needed her father? Did she ask about me?" He leaned over to scoop up a block from the table and toyed with it between his fingers.

"Sometimes," I said. "When kids from school talk about their fathers, she wondered about hers."

"What did you tell her?" he demanded.

"I told her the truth. I told her things didn't work out between us, but that I was always there for her because she and I are a team." She always seemed more or less content with that. Or maybe she understood that was all she was going to get from me in the subject.

"Not for much longer," he growled. "She's my fucking kid and I deserve to be in her life."

"Ric—" I put a hand out to him.

He jerked away from me. "No, Daisy. You've said enough. You'vedoneenough. You kept her from me and you know I don't like being kept from what's mine."

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