trained killer.” I gasp at a fleeting thought and my eyes bulge out. “Did you kill the men I had affairs with?” Pushing myself up off the floor, I pin him with my stare. “Tell me that wasn’t you.”
His jaw clicks. “Aspen, those pieces of scum used you. They were a waste of skin and didn’t deserve the memories they had of you.”
“So, you decided they should die,” I scream. “Those were my mistakes and now because of you, I have to live with the guilt that they’re dead.”
With no emotion, he replies, “I didn’t kill two of them. They took their own life when given the option.”
I blink. Who is this guy? This is not the man who raised me for twenty-four years. I’m afraid to ask about the last one, but the words fall out before I can stop them. “And the third?”
He scowls, finally showing some emotion. “I would have given him the same option, but when I found out that his current mistress was sixteen, he didn’t deserve to live.”
I knock the thought out of my head that I might agree with him. No, no, I don’t. No one deserves to be murdered. “Who’s the woman in the picture?” His brows furrow, confused. “With the three of us. I thought she was my mother.”
“She was a colleague. She helped me get you out of the country.” Lies. Everything was lies.
He holds up the key, stepping in front of me. “I hate you,” I sob, lifting my hands. As soon as the cuffs are off, I rub my raw wrists.
He nods, dropping his head. “I know.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Aspen
We both stare straight ahead as the car idles, the only sounds are passing vehicles on the highway. The rest stop is dimly lit, with a couple cars parked on the other end of the lot, closer to the bathrooms.
I’ve never felt so alone. Or confused. “Why?” I choke out. It’s the beginning of every question I have, but the one word alone asks it all.
His fingers grip the steering wheel, the whites of his knuckles bleed through his old tired hands. “I was hired to kill you.” I still can’t believe someone would hire someone to kill a baby. He tilts his head toward me. “I know what you’re thinking. A baby? In all the hits I’ve done, it had never been a child. But I never considered I couldn’t. My heart was already stained black.” He blows out a ragged breath. “The day it was to happen, you stared up at me with those eyes and said daddy. You held your arms out and that black heart was yours forever. I couldn’t do it.”
“Why didn’t you take me back?”
“You called me daddy. Me.” He grips his chest. “You became something that was mine. You were in danger and I couldn’t place you back in harm's way. If it wasn’t me who carried out the hit, someone else might have.”
“But you don’t know that. I wasn’t yours,” I cry out, trembling.
He drops his head. “I can’t say it enough. I’m sorry.”
“Were you ever sick?”
Bile rises in my throat as he shakes his head. I dive out of the car and round the back so I’m not in sight. My legs give out and I crumble to the ground, heaving between tears and disgust. All the time I worried about him or had sleepless nights agonizing about losing him was all for nothing. Lies. All of it.
I hear him get out, ice that hasn’t melted yet from the shade of the tree crunches under his feet as he steps toward me. When he puts his hand on my back, I swat it away and violently shake my head. “No. I don’t want you to touch me.” Anger replaces disgust the longer he remains by my side. “Did you ever wonder what would happen when I found out the truth?” I push off the cold vehicle, staring at him.
“I lived that fear every day. I knew it would come, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell you. It would ruin the one bright thing in my evil world.”
I wipe away the salty tears and sniff. He manipulated me my entire life and I can’t bring myself to hate him. I’m furious, but it’s because of him, I’m alive.
“I tried my best to give you a good life.”
I cross my arms over my chest. “I don’t know you at all.”
“The only thing I care that you know is I love you.”