Page 107 of Heartless Enemy

The realization stunned me so much that I just stood there, staring at him. He must have interpreted that as shock at seeing him shackled in this way, because his features softened and he gave me one of those kind and patient smiles that he had given me so often over the years.

It snapped me right out of my stupor, and cold and ruthless vengeance once more trickled through my veins as I locked eyes with him. By all hell, I really had come a long way from the naïve girl I used to be. The one who believed every word that came out of this man’s mouth and who twisted herself into knots and denied everything she was in order to fit into the narrow and restricted mold that he had created for her.

“How does it feel?” I asked.

Another soft smile blew across his lips. “Terrible. But I will clear my name tomorrow. I don’t know where they have gotten all of these outlandish theories from, but I will prove them wrong tomorrow. So don’t worry about me, kiddo.”

“I’m not.”

He blinked.

“I’m not worried about you.”

Confusion flickered briefly in his eyes. Then he laughed. “See, that’s the confidence I needed.”

“You misunderstand.” Standing there a few strides away from him, I held his gaze with hard eyes. “I was asking how it feels. How does it feel to have everything taken from you?”

Ulric frowned, confusion yet again evident on his face. “I don’t understand. What do you—”

“You took everything from me.”

I could see the moment he figured it out. His blue eyes widened just a fraction, and his mouth dropped open a tiny bit, as he at last realized that I knew that he had killed my father.

“And now, I have taken everything from you,” I continued, my voice as hard as my eyes. “So I’m asking how it feels.”

“You…” he pressed out. Staggering a step back, he shook his head while staring at me in complete shock. “It was you.”

“Yes.”

“You killed Wright. And Chief Anderson.”

“Yes.”

“And all the evidence they found in my house… You planted it.”

“Yes. I also convinced Marla that you were cheating on her.”

Another wave of shock crashed over his features. He shook his head at me again while staring at me with those wide eyes. “Why?”

“You know why.”

“It was an accident,” he stammered, edging a step back.

“I know.” I took a step forward. Cocking my head, I drew my hand over the desk as I walked past it. “But you didn’t tell me that, did you?”

“I didn’t want you to follow him down that path.”

The back of his legs bumped into the side of the bed as he took another step back. His hands were still shackled. He couldn’t summon magic. But I could. And he damn well knew it.

“I didn’t want you to become… become…this!” He flicked his hands up and down to indicate my body.

I lunged forward, closing the distance between us in a flash and burying my right hand in the collar of his shirt. He tried to jerk back, but there was nowhere left to go.

“I could have become something else!” I snarled in his face. “I could’ve becomesomeoneelse. If you had told me what really happened. If you had told me that my father’s death had been an accident. If you had told me who he really was. What I really was. Then I might have chosen differently.” My fingers tightened in the collar of his shirt as I held his gaze with accusing eyes. “But now, we will never know. Because you never gave me that choice.”

Desperation flooded his face. “I was just trying to make sure that you grew up to be a good person. A person who helped people and who contributed to society.”

“My future was not yours to decide!”

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