Page 76 of The Predator

He clutches me tighter. "I don’t know. Honestly. I was sick to my stomach. I never said it out loud, but I would’ve ended my own life if you had died that night. The only reason why I didn't is because I owed you. I owed you the chance at a life. Free of your father.”

I drop my face into my hands, and his confession wraps around me.

Months of not knowing what happened pour out of me in gut wrenching sobs. He gathers me into his arms, and I don’t have the strength to resist, not when I can barely breathe around the tears. I want to hate him. I want to hurt him. But that won’t change what’s already happened.

We can’t change the past, but we can change the future.

Gently, he climbs into the backseat of his car, and settles me onto his lap. I stare out the window and make a sound.

“Shhh...it’s okay. This is for some privacy while we talk. It will still be there when we get this settled.” He shifts me onto his lap at a better angle.

“How is this okay? How will it ever be okay again?” Wait. All this time he’s kept this secret. What else has he kept secret from me? “What else have you been hiding? I want it all. Everything, no more secrets. I’m so tired of fucking secrets”

He cups my cheeks, and I can hear the heavy gulp he makes. Shit this is going to be bad, too.

His voice shakes as he answers. "When I brought you back from Yanov I gave you a fertility drug."

I freeze, processing, trying to remember that hazy time between the killing and recovery. It’s hard with all the painkillers they gave me. "You did what?"

He clasps my hands as I raise them to strike out. At what, I don’t know but I’ve reached my limit right now.

"I want a family with you. I want to look at your daughter and see your eyes and your pride and your love. I want a happy home, for both of us, so...I'll make one for us."

I tug one hand out of his crushing grip and press it low on her belly. "I could be pregnant right now. You didn't think it might be bad if my father got ahold of me again?" I would fucking die before I let him take a child of mine and do the same thing to them.

No, I’d kill him first.

He shrugs. "I won’t lie to you. I was being selfish. I was hoping you'd get pregnant and it would be further proof of our commitment to each other, for the world. So no one could doubt we're together. That you belong to me."

I let out a long shaky sigh. "Is that it? Any other big zingers you want to spring on me?”

He nods, "Oh, well...there's one more thing."

This time I glare, and swipe at my cheeks, wiping off the cold tears. "What? What else could you possibly be keeping from me? And by the way, after you tell me I’m going to fucking need that gun back."

He smiles like I’ve said something cute.I’ll show him fucking cute.

"I love you. I love you so much I can't even think around it. Everything I do, I do to protect you, to show you how I feel without the words. I love you, Elyse Arturo. So fucking much I'm afraid I'll crack under the pressure of it."

Well. Shit.

That’s not what I expected to hear. “Is that it?”

He nods, tilting to the side, like he’s waiting for my reaction.

I reach up and smack him hard across the cheek. It burns my palm, and I clutch my burning hand with the other. “That’s for trying to fucking kill me.”

It might make me stupid, but his honesty makes me love him more. Cupping his cheeks, I lean into his face and right before I press my lips to his I whisper, “I’m probably a fucking idiot for loving you as much as I do, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

CHAPTER 23

ELYSE

I’m so nervous I think I might throw up. There’s all this energy inside of me, and I don’t know what to do with it. I’ve spent the last hour pacing the study under Sebastian's watchful eye. I know why he’s watching me so cautiously. He’s afraid I’ll run. And I won’t lie—the idea is appealing to me right now.

I can't believe I agreed to this: a showdown with my father in what is now my home. Some part of me fears this place will be tainted the second he walks through the door, but the other part recognizes…this is a full-circle moment, filled with inevitability. He brought me here, planning to sell me, to discard me. Sebastian saved me, in the most twisted way imaginable.

And now I get to save myself and baptize this place…my home…anew. Banish every creeping memory of that time, and make it mine for the future I’m going to share with Sebastian.