Too Late: The Spare Daughter Escapes Him

na Viti

o the water, shat

if she were made of spun glass, shield

cally, her fingers claw

, her voice echoing off the stone w

stones, my breath hitchin

beneath me. Pain radiated up my thigh, white-ho

myself up, my

e tu

of the man I knew. It was a ma

at, the words landing

sped, fighting the black s

ook of his neck to hide her dry eyes. "She said she h

his clothes. He set Isabella down gently on a stone benc

ned his atte

ater dripping from hi

like an ex

ice was terrifyingly calm, a deadly contrast to the rage in

I whispered, m

opped

did yo

are blind now," I rasped, looking up at hi

father burst into the courty

n roared, his presence suck

" Dante shouted, never

e didn't ask for my side. He

in two strides and backh

my head back. Metallic tang fi

king down at me as if I were some

Dante ordered the soldiers

nt wide wi

gue. The place where they ke

rriding the pain in my leg. "It's

ning his back on me. "Maybe a night with th

ers seize

lp me stand. T

nst the concrete, vibrating

ural sound, but no one

e into the se

the basement, into the

g. The chemical sting of for

eavy steel door of the

rawers lined the walls, gleaming

ezing. A t

hip slammed against the hard surface, s

you did," one of t

slammed

ed with a soun

swallowed

ute. Heavy.

nes immediately, bypassing my ski

my knees to my chest, trying

an to chatte

hut and tried to ima

the crackle and he

the way I had lain next to him to sto

e had whispered then,

ered, holding him tight

ven him

en him my

ad locked me

e a serrated knife

a set in, I start

tach themselves

ers echoing o

ho had died on the operating table before me.

ing to d

d was the one who