Love's Obsession, Her Freedom

go to r

hotel. I took the elevator to the seventh floor, walked down the plu

r click

ind me, and immediately slid the dead

ng click echoed i

d relief. I had won this round. He would come here, expecting me to be pliant and

clutch. It was my fath

ered.

ntic, panicked squeak. "Clara is making a scene! Mr. Vance

t, Dad," I said

you have any idea how fragile our position is? He could pull his fundin

ence. Lily. He was holding Lily o

ake," I said, my voi

an't you just be... agreeable? For

to Ethan to save his own skin, and now he wa

aid, and hung up before

e, the house I had grown up in, he was waiting for me. H

he whispered, as if the wall

off my heels. My feet ached.

You act so reckless, so defiant! You pour a drink on a wom

tasting like ash in my mouth. "He doesn't want to d

ixture of fear and disgust. "You're playin

. The rage that I had been s

're the one who handed him the keys to the kingdom! You're the one who stood by and let him

of the father I used to know, the weak man behind

lapp

ad to the side, my cheek stin

nced the air between us. He had ne

with rage, but with pure, undiluted fear. "You will go to him

didn't feel the sting on my cheek anymore. I

" I

tarted, his v

ice flat. "I won't. But

d at me,

art of the perfect, obedient pet? Fine. I will. I'll be

d over his face. "Thank y

y voice like ice, "it

at are you t

ining shares in the gallery. Transf

"That's... that's outra

nity? Fine. But I'm going to get paid for it. Not by him. By you.

look in my eyes. He saw that the daughter he knew was gone, replace

man. And weak

d, his shoulders

ed as my father signed his name, his hand shaking slight

e. The ink was

own prison. It wasn't fr

out my phone, and found Eth

d on the f

ow, dangerous, a preda

logize. I di

ed, a slow smile spre

?" I purred into the phone. "Sta

on the other end. I could

y voice light and taunting. "I fell asleep as soo

" he finally said, his vo

replied. "I'll see you tonight. Wear s

tting off his

on. And I had just