“Adalynn gets it all. Anything and everything she wants. This is about her and only her.”
“I’m—”
“You don’t think I want to beat that motherfucker bloody the way he did my woman?” I cut Jasper off and took a step toward him. “She’s your daughter but she is mine and I just relived that shit with her. She wasn’t in that room with me when it came out. She was stuck in her head with that piece of shit. She begged me not to tell Emily. Then she told me she hated me for doing it. After that, she told me she’d never forgive me but I still did it because my woman needs help. She needs her mom, she needs her sisters, but most importantly, she needs her father. I took it, Jasper, I took everything she had to say, every fucking detail she gave me burned into my soul in a way I know they will be there until the day I die. I watched her shake and sob. Me. I watched her zone out and sound like a zombie. I promised you I’d dig it out and I did. So now you’re gonna promise me the only thing you’re gonna do is reassure her you will not be seeking revenge.”
When I was done with my tirade, Jasper was silent and still.
“I’m fucking begging you. I cannot lose her, and if you don’t promise me and you do something, she will be gone. That, she will never forgive me for. And she just won’t be gone from me, she will be piled under so much guilt, she’ll be lost to everyone. It happened to her. Not you. Not me. I told her nothing would ever hurt her again. So I’m begging you not to make me a liar.”
Jasper jerked his chin in what I hoped was his promise before he stepped around Levi and made his way farther into my backyard. He stopped with his back to me and his head fell forward. Then I heard the most retched sound I’d ever heard.
Worse than Addy’s demonic wails.
The worst.
The sound of a father destroyed.
And when I saw Jasper’s body rock to accompany the sound, I had to turn away from his pain.
The worst.
Jasper Walker had known pain. He’d known beauty. He was a man who had everything and every day lived with the knowledge he had everything to lose.
He was also a man who had tried to protect his children from all the ways life could fuck with them. Yet, he’d failed at every turn. And each time one of his children stumbled, his Em reminded him he couldn’t shield them from everything.
But the truth was, Jasper couldn’t shield them from anything.
And now this.
His baby girl.
The knife twisted deeper and he started making plans. He’d wait a good long while, plan it just right. That fucker would get his and Addy would never know.
“Dad?” He felt Quinn’s hand slide into his and she squeezed. “Addy wants to talk to you.”
“Thanks, girl.”
He pulled his daughter closer, kissed her forehead, and let her go.
He scanned the room, looking for his two other daughters, and found them right where he knew they’d be. Carter had his arms around Delaney and Brady was holding a crying Hadley. Jasper made another pass and stopped on Trey.
Fuck. He’d been wrong.
So damn wrong, it wasn’t funny.
There was no better man for his daughter.
The man looked just as destroyed as Jasper felt. He’d take Addy’s pain. Trey would. And he’d let it eat at him—scar him inside—and he’d take that, too, so Addy could have easy.
It was on that thought, he walked to the man. But he did not want to delay getting to his daughter so he laid it out and did it quickly.
“A man’s any sort of man he admits when he’s wrong and makes amends. I was wrong. I was a dick. And I’m sorry. I know you didn’t ask and made it clear you didn’t need my blessing but you have it all the same.”
Eager to get to his daughter, Jasper moved to leave when Trey called his name.
“I did need it.” Trey cleared his throat then continued. “Thank you.”
Fuck, this kid was killing him.
“Then it’s good you got it. But just to say, it’s not me giving it as much as you proving you love my daughter more than you love yourself. You took a grave risk calling us in, knowing she