Page 45 of Insidious Truths

He turned away from me and breathed in deep before stalking over to his bar, doing what he did best in stressful situations.

“You want one?”

“No. What I want is an explanation.”

Father turned, surveying me through blown pupils as he chugged his whole drink down, his cheeks beet red.

“After I killed my father, Jerimiah Sinclair helped fake my death. Planted some of my personal belongings I knew would survive the blast on a random cadaver. After that, I went to a plastic surgeon and had my whole face reconstructed intosomeone new. Brand new alias, everything. I spent a little over six months in recovery before I came back and—”

“So who was running the Ravagers while you weregone?”

“Sharkey and Prim,” he bluntly answered.

My blood fucking boiled. “They know who you are!?”

“They do,” he nodded as he poured himself another drink. “They also know about Samara’s involvement with Damien. However, they don’t know Samara is my daughter. They knew I had a child, a daughter, but I never exposed her identity for the sake of Samara and Lily’s safety. Sharkey and Prim are both in their late thirties and have been Ravagers since their early twenties. They’ve been my closest allies since my father was in power.”

My head fucking spun.

That explained why Sharkey acted so crass with Samara.

Is that why Prim didn’t help Samara tonight? Because Prim knew Samara was in bed with Damien?

Did she lie to me?

“You said Jerimiah Sinclair helped you fake your death…”

Father nodded. “Jerimiah is my best friend… Or at least he was.”

Fuck.

That meant Father didn’t know what was really going on here. He didn’t know Samara met with him.

“Finish what you were saying before. You spent six months in recovery before what happened, exactly?”

A tiny smile played on his lips before it had vanished like a ghost.

“That’s when I met your mother. I was good and healed by then and decided to go to this little coffee shop for breakfast. You were too young to remember, but your mom was a waitress there. That’s how we met.” He paused, knuckling under his eyes. “I didn’t expect to fall in love with her, Rhett. I still loved Lily,and I thought about her every day since the day your mother came into my life. Guilt ate me alive for so long, I honestly wanted to kill myself. But it was when your mother introduced me to you that…”

He froze again, shaking his head.

“Honestly, I wanted to leave. But I couldn’t. Your mother had my heart, and I knew I owned hers. I didn’t want to make the same mistake twice. I couldn’t bear it. I know it’s not an excuse but it’s the truth. I loved her, Rhett. You know that I was with her every day and night, throughout chemo, everything. I still hate myself because I wanted to be there for Samara and Lily, too. I craved to be there for them like I was with you and your mother.”

Tears rolled down his face. He wiped them away, sniffling hard as he turned and refilled his glass.

Don’t crack, Rhett.

Fucking don’t.

Don’t give him the benefit of the doubt.

“It doesn’t change anything,” I muttered. “Even if you think you did right by me, you still failed Samara. I willneverforgive you for that.”

At least not until Samara does.

“I assume she knows by now, yes?” he asked, refusing to look at me as he choked down more booze.

“I'm neither going to confirm or deny that answer. That’s a conversationyouneed to have withher.”

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