Page 8 of The Criminal's Custody

And I am a man who gets what he wants.

I like the idea of corrupting a woman as pure as Ava, if she’s into that. And Ava is positivelysinful. She’s very bad for me. She’s a darling little temptation, like a perfectly ripe cherry on top of a freshly baked pie – too damn delectable to ignore.

And that’s probably why I say the next few words out of my mouth before she can reach the door. The words that make the girl immediately halt in her tracks.

The words that I know are gonna change a hell of a lot of things.

“Ava Matson, I want you to stick around. I’ve got an offer for you.”

3

THREE DAYS EARLIER

AVA

The first soundI hear when I wake up is my dad crying in the kitchen downstairs. With my muscles aching and my head pounding, I get out of bed and immediately go to him. I’m not going to let him suffer in silence.

Oh, God. What time is it?

It must be early morning. Very freaking early.

It feels like I haven’t slept at all.

It’s not with surprise that I hear him crying, it’s with a familiar weariness. I have heard him crying far too many times now in the last couple of days. A few weeks ago, it would’ve been so shocking to hear my own dad tear up. Now it’s so, so painfully common.

I really can’t leave him on his own. Not when he is like this.

When Dad first confided in me about his secret debt a fewweeks ago, my whole life completely changed practically overnight. It’s like I’ve done one of my old high school cheerleader routines and did a total backflip, becoming an entirely different person to the carefree girl I was at the beginning of this year. Back then, I had a reputation as the fun, extrovert socialite who liked to party and had a boyfriend who was the most popular guy both in high school and on the university campus and everyone knew my name and wanted to hang with me and I was, most of all,happy. But now that girl is utterly gone.

And it makes me so sad.

I’m not meant to be the sad girl. I never had that planned.

Since the big reveal of the debts, I’ve temporarily left the dorm room I’ve shared with my friend Olivia and have moved back in with Dad on the other side of town, even though I’m still attending classes at Crystal River University. While my friends have been having a great time with new boyfriends and new once-in-a-lifetime college experiences, I’ve had to go back home and look after the man who raised me.

It really wasnotsupposed to be like this. I hate to complain or to whine, but it’s the honest truth.

Everyone I know except for Olivia has shunned me because of my dad’s debts. Word gets around fast in a town like Crystal River, and people in small towns don’t like families with bad reputations – even if the bad reputations in question have sprung up overnight.

I stand by the kitchen door, observing the crying man. Dad hasn’t noticed my presence yet. He sits at the table, his shoulders slouched, and his head lowered in complete surrender. He appears shattered. I’ve been deeply affected by all of this, too. Ever since Dad confided in me about the situation, about the mounting debts and his struggles, I’vebeen on the brink of tears as much as he has. I’ve cried, in the darkness and solitude of my childhood bedroom, more times than I can count. I can honestly say, with my hand on my heart, that I had no clue about any of these problems or Dad’s addictions until that one fateful day when he opened up to me out of the blue.

Even my boyfriend dumped me when the word got out around town. That was hard.Apparently, he can’t be seen around with a girl whose family now has this kind of reputation.Apparently, it all comes down to image with Luke. Ha, that image he cherishes.La di da– the quarterback for Crystal River High and his cheerleader girlfriend. The power duo of high school. He loved the attention that position gave him. He loved being a self-describedalpha male. He loves being that image of the all-American hero.

We were together for years. I truly loved him. I trusted him with everything. We were totally inseparable. He would even drop in mentions occasionally of how he was meant to marry me someday. My whole future was getting built brick-by-brick, and it was swimming along perfectly.

Maybe I was foolish and naïve. A dumb girl in love. Maybe it’s my fault I never saw any of this coming...

It’s like the whole deck is stacked against me. But I still keep fighting. I’m trying to keep my head above water. For Dad’s sake.

I try not to complain. I try to not bring negative energy into Dad’s space.

He needs someone to be there for him otherwise he would be long gone.

I silently hand Dad a box of tissues, gently tapping on his shoulder to pass them to him in the dark kitchen. No words need to be spoken between us, not anymore. We’ve exhausted all the words we can say to each other in these past few weeks. All that remains is the debt and the painand the worry. There is no need to discuss anything else. We’re drowning, and there’s no way up to the surface.

I make Dad a cup of coffee without a word. I offer it to him. He takes it without athanks. He takes a sip as I sit down opposite him.

I watch him for a while.

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