"Sir, you can't just barge in here, "
The commotion from downstairs shattered the silence of my sleepless morning. I'd been sitting by my window since dawn, staring at the photograph of Bella, when shouting voices erupted from the foyer.
"Get your hands off me! I'm here to see Newton, and I'm not leaving until I do."
My blood turned to ice. I knew that voice, deeper now, rougher around the edges, but unmistakable. I hadn't heard it in three years, but it still had the power to make me feel twelve years old again.
Dad.
I crept to my bedroom door and opened it a crack. The argument was getting louder.
"Mr. Newton is in a meeting," came the security guard's strained voice. "If you'd like to make an appointment, "
"To hell with appointments! Evans! I know you're here, you son of a bitch!"
Footsteps thundered across the marble floor. I heard Nate's voice trying to intervene, then Evans himself, calm and controlled.
"It's all right, Marcus. Let him through."
"But sir, "
"I said let him through."
I pressed myself against the wall as heavy footsteps climbed the main staircase. My heart hammered against my ribs. What was Dad doing here? How did he even know where I was?
"Vivian."
I spun around. Daniel stood in my doorway, his face grim.
"You heard?"
"The whole house heard. What's your father doing here?"
"I don't know."
"He sounds angry."
"He always sounds angry." But even as I said it, I knew this was different. This wasn't his usual cold fury, this was panic.
"Come on," Daniel said. "We need to hear this."
We crept down the hallway toward Evans' study, where voices were already raised in argument. The door was closed this time, but the sound carried through the heavy wood.
"You had no right!" Dad's voice, raw with rage. "You had no goddamned right to bring her back!"
"I didn't bring her back," Evans replied, maddeningly calm. "She came back on her own."
"Don't lie to me! I know what you've been up to. The payments, the schools, the whole elaborate charade. You've been pulling strings for years."
"Someone had to look after her."
"Someone did look after her! I looked after her! I kept her safe!"
"Safe?" Evans' voice turned sharp. "You call what you did keeping her safe?"
A sound like glass shattering, then Dad's voice again, closer to breaking.
"You don't understand what was at stake. What I was protecting them from."
"Then explain it to me."
"I can't. Christ, Evans, some things are better left buried."
"Tell that to your daughters."
"My daughters?" Dad's laugh was bitter. "One daughter hates me, the other thinks she's a murderer. How exactly did my protection help them?"
Daniel and I exchanged glances. I pressed closer to the door.
"Maybe because your protection involved lying to everyone, including them?"
"You think I had a choice? You think I wanted any of this?"
"I think you made a choice the night you decided to fake Bella's death. The question is why."
Silence. Long, thick silence that made my skin crawl.
"She saw something," Dad said finally, his voice barely above a whisper. "Something she wasn't supposed to see."
"What did she see?"
"I can't tell you that."
"Can't or won't?"
"Both!"
The sound of a chair scraping against wood, then footsteps pacing.
"They came to me that night," Dad continued. "After the ambulance left. They said Bella had seen too much, that she was a liability. They wanted to... handle the situation permanently."
My knees went weak. Daniel caught my arm, steadying me.
"So you made a deal."
"I made a choice. Fake her death, send her away, keep her hidden until it was safe."
"And Vivian?"
"Vivian was never supposed to be there that day. She was supposed to be at a friend's house. If she'd just stayed where she was supposed to be..."
"None of this would have happened."
"Vivian wouldn't be carrying the guilt of thinking she killed her sister, and Bella wouldn't have spent ten years believing her family abandoned her."
"I did what I had to do!"
"You destroyed both your daughters to save one of them."
I couldn't listen anymore. I pushed away from the door and stumbled down the hallway, Daniel following close behind.
"Vivian, wait, "
But I was already at the study door, throwing it open without knocking.
Both men spun toward me. Dad looked older than I remembered, grayer, thinner, with lines carved deep around his eyes. But it was still the same face that had told me I should have been the one to die.
"Hello, Dad."
He stared at me like I was a ghost. "Vivian."
"Don't look so surprised. You knew I was here."
"I..." He glanced at Evans, then back at me. "You look well."
"Do I? That's funny, because I feel like my entire life has been a lie."
Evans stepped forward. "Vivian, this isn't the time, "
"Shut up." I didn't take my eyes off my father. "You faked Bella's death."
Dad's face went white. "You don't understand, "
"Then make me understand! Make me understand why you let me believe I killed my own sister!"
"Because it was safer that way!"
"Safer for who?"
"For you! For both of you!"
I laughed, but there was no humor in it. "Safer? I've spent ten years wanting to die, Dad. I've spent ten years hating myself, believing I was a murderer. How exactly was that safer?"
Dad's composure cracked. His shoulders sagged, and for the first time in my life, he looked fragile.
"I thought... I thought if you believed it was an accident, if you carried that guilt, you'd stay away from the family. Stay away from the business. It would keep you safe."
"Safe from what?"
"From the people who wanted to hurt you."
"What people? What are you talking about?"
Dad looked at Evans again, some silent communication passing between them.
"Tell her," Evans said quietly.
"I can't."
"She deserves to know."
"She deserves to be alive!"
The words exploded out of him, raw and desperate. I stepped back, shocked by the emotion in his voice.
"Dad..."
"You girls were never supposed to be involved in any of this. The business, the debts, the... arrangements I had to make. But that day, that goddamned day, everything went wrong."
"What arrangements?"
He ran his hands through his gray hair, looking suddenly ancient.
"I owed money. A lot of money. To people who don't accept excuses or payment plans. They wanted collateral."
"What kind of collateral?"
"The kind that bleeds."
The words hit me like ice water. "They wanted to hurt us."
"They wanted to take you girls. Both of you. As insurance that I'd pay what I owed."
"So when Bella saw something, "
"She overheard a phone conversation. About the debt, about their plans for you and her. She was too young to understand all of it, but she understood enough."
"And they found out she knew."
"They came to the house that night. Said she was a security risk. Said they'd have to eliminate the risk."
I felt sick. "So you made a deal."
"I offered them everything I had. The company, the houses, my entire fortune. But it wasn't enough. They wanted blood."
"Whose blood?"
Dad's eyes filled with tears I'd never seen before. "Mine. They wanted me to die for my debts. And in exchange, they'd leave you girls alone."
The room spun around me. "But you didn't die."
"No. Because Evans made them a better offer."
I turned to look at Evans, who was watching this conversation with unreadable eyes.
"What offer?"
"That's not important," Evans said.
"Like hell it's not important!" I faced my father again. "What offer?"
Dad was quiet for a long moment, staring at his hands.
"He offered to pay my debts. All of them. In exchange for..."
"For what?"
"For you."
The words hung in the air like poison. I felt the world tilt beneath my feet.
"For me?"
"Not like that," Dad said quickly. "Not what you're thinking. He said he could protect you, keep you safe, make sure they never came after you."
"And all he wanted in return was what?"
Dad's voice broke completely. "Everything else."