She closed the door without another word, and I turned back to my car. Apparently, I had a new destination.
I hoped that Dad going into the firm meant that he’d spent yesterday talking to his lawyers, and they’d called him in to discuss more in person. If that was the case, I’d be polite about my inquiry and then be on my way. If he was trying to figure out a way to get out of what I wanted him to do, I’d have to figure out a new approach.
Since it was almost noon, maybe I’d take him out to lunch, and we could discuss his options.
Then again, my appetite was never the best around him.
I managed to snag a parking space in the back and then walked around to the front. I was coming up the sidewalk when a familiar figure walked out the front door of the firm.
Dark red hair pulled up and back from her face. Fair skin. Curves I knew intimately. She wore a dark green t-shirt and a pair of jeans so new they looked like she’d walked them out of a store.
Apparently, I’d discovered what her errand was. Now, I was even more curious because I didn’t know if she’d come here because of her history with the Check family, or if she’d been the reason my father had been called here. If it was the second one, it probably meant I didn’t need to have lunch with Dad. Except I didn’t know why she wouldn’t have had me go with her if she was meeting my father.
“Nyx!”
She didn’t miss a step. I called her name again, but still nothing. She must’ve been lost in thought because there wasn’t much in the way of noise at the moment. I’d have to ask her later what she was thinking about so hard. Since I didn’t know if she’d talked to my father or why she would’ve talked to him without me, going inside continued to make sense, so that’s what I did.
The receptionist smiled at me as I walked into the building, and I smiled in return, but I didn’t stop at her desk. She must’ve known what family I belonged to because she didn’t tell me to come back or call for security. She’d probably seen my father come in and now assumed that I was here for whatever meeting he’d been called to. I wasn’t about to tell her differently. The last thing I needed was for her to call someone and find out I wasn’t supposed to be here at all.
The short corridor took me to the T where a turn to a right would’ve taken me to the offices, and the left took me to the conference rooms. The first one was empty, and I could hear voices coming from the second one. I couldn’t make out the words, but someone was yelling. Even if that was where my father was, I didn’t think it’d be a good idea to interrupt whatever was going on in there. My questions could wait if that was the case.
I went for the last room to see if Dad was there. If he wasn’t, I’d check the offices. I didn’t hear anything, but the door was only partway open, so I couldn’t see the entire room. I gave the door a push and was already starting to turn away when something at the corner of my eye caught my attention.
Someone was lying on the floor.
No, not someone. My father.
“Dad?”
I took a step and was inside the room. That’s when I saw the blood.
Thirty-Five
Nyx
I’d been here for forty-five minutes, and my sister still hadn’t shown up. It had been thirteen years since I’d last seen her, and she was almost an hour late. Part of me hoped nothing had happened to her, but part of me actually hoped something had gone wrong. If that wasn’t the case, it meant she didn’t even care enough to try to get here on time.
As much as I hated it, it didn’t actually surprise me that she didn’t care. After all, she’d walked away from me before. I only had an email to tell me that anything was different. And no reason why.
That was the real reason I was here. Sure, I had a tiny bit of hope that Dara had actually meant what she’d said in that email, and she wanted to apologize for everything that’d happened, but I wasn’t stupid. I hadn’t been trying to