“Tell me everything,” I demand.
But he shakes his head vehemently. “This will never touch you.”
Oh Daddy, if you only knew. “What does he want? Tell me that at least if you won’t tell me who it is.”
A tear crests my father’s eye and rolls down his cheek. “I’m so sorry, bella mia. This is all my fault. I hope that he’ll consider my death payment enough.” He coughs a long, raking cough. “I don’t think it will be long now.”
“Dad,” I cry, reaching down and hugging his skin-and-bones body. Gods, when did he get so skinny? “Don’t say that! Never say that. What are you talking about? We can fight this.” I let him go only when another coughing fit hits.
Why didn’t Gemma tell me it was getting this bad? But one look at my Dad and I know why. He told her not to. My stubborn ass of a father. Always thinking he can carry things on his own. Always treating me as if I’m a little child, even though I’ve spent my whole life hurrying to grow up faster so I could share the burden with him.
And now he’s just given up. He’s not even fighting. He’ll never get better if he doesn’t even try. He had a stroke but plenty of people come back from that and live fulfilling lives. But this… I look down at his emaciated body.
Does he have pneumonia? And what the hell has Gemma been doing about it? We’ve kept her on because she gets on well with Dad but if she’s not giving him the care he needs, I don’t care if we need to get Nurse Ratched in here.
I grab Dad by his cheeks and force him to look me in the eye. “You are not giving up. You are going to fight, do you hear me? I don’t care about the company.” That’s a lie, but right now, all Dad needs to focus on is getting better. I repeat it out loud: “You just need to focus on getting better. That’s all that matters right now.”
I bite my bottom lip and then I do something I’ve never done before. I lie to my father. “And to ensure you can do that, I’ll do as you ask. I’ll go away. I’ll take an extended vacation so you know I’m safe, okay?”
All the tension leaves Dad’s body and he sinks back into the pillows. “Oh thank the gods. Yes, baby, get as far away from here as you can.”
I nod. “Okay, Dad. I will.” I lean over and give him another hug. “You just focus on getting better.”
I stand on the sidewalk outside of his apartment. The weather’s turned cold, but I welcome the numbing feeling.
I make a few calls, ordering in a new nursing service for my dad. It’s the least I can do. As I finish my call, my cell vibrates with a new text.
RACHEL: How was the ball?
Oh gods, the ball. Was it only last night? So much has changed. I was drugged, woke up in a strange castle, learned my company is worthless. And my father knew it. Everything he built was a lie.
I can’t tell Rachel all this. I can’t even wrap my own head around it.
“Good,” I type, and bite my lip before deciding to distract her. You were right. Adam Archer is in to me.
RACHEL: Told you!!! Are you going to date him?
ME: We’ll see. Right now I need some time away. I’ll be gone a few days. Working on a breakthrough for Belladonna.
It’s not a lie. If I can win the patents back, everything will be okay.
I’m putting Belladonna’s future—my future—in the hands of a scary, possibly clinically insane, madman. But I don’t have any other choice. Without the patents, Belladonna has zero assets. We don’t own our research. There’s no reason Archer Industries would want to merge with us. I have to get the patents back.
My phone starts ringing. Rachel, calling. Probably confused.
ME: Can’t talk right now—
Before I hit send, I see a new message from an unknown number. Rejecting Rachel’s call, I click on it.
UNKNOWN: Time’s running out, Daphne.
Sure enough, the sun is sinking behind the skyscrapers.
It’s time to head back to the Beast.
Six
Beast
My legs are stiff from standing at the window, waiting. Will she come? Or will she, like her father, try to find a way to worm out of her responsibilities and lash out like a child?
Well, they won’t find me the weakling I once was. I’ve prepared for every outcome. If she makes any move other than submission, everything’s in place.
I’ll bury them.
You should have already. Giving her this opportunity out of sentimentality only proves you are still weak.
I slam the wall and turn away from the window. No. It’s not sentimentality. I only punish the guilty. I, unlike the rest of this fucked up world, am just.
I laugh humorlessly. Because maybe that’s all bullshit. Maybe I just want her for myself. Because I’ve watched her. I’ve watched them all as I’ve plotted my revenge. They all played out their roles over the years exactly as I would have expected.
All except her.
After the influx of capital from selling me the patents, her father expanded the company into cosmetics, made hundreds of millions, setting them up for the merger with Archer Industries. But little Daphne stayed buried away in her basement lab, working away into the wee hours of morning night after night working on the cure for Battleman’s. Determined to find the cure for the disease that killed her mother.
But are her motives really so pure? Or when put to the test, will she disappoint like every other single human being on this earth?
I so hope to have the chance to find out.
I pace back to the window. “Come on, little girl. The sun is setting. Not much time now. What are you willing to do to save your company? Your precious research?”
The sun drops lower in the sky, and with it, my hopes.
I don’t know why I’m so disappointed. I thought I’d lost all capacity for disappointment at this point in my life, but still, it hits me like a slug to the guts. I grab a vase from a stand nearby and throw it against the wall, turning away from the window.
At the same time I hear the roar of a car engine below.
I whip back around to look out the window. The car pulls to a stop on the circle drive right in front of the mansion and her tiny, waif-like body steps tentatively out. A masculine thunder of satisfaction floods my chest.
She’s here. She came.
I’ll teach her she’s so much more than what they made her.
But first I have to break the mold of who she is so she can be reborn.
Seven
Daphne
The wind picks up as the taxi pulls away, leaving me in front of the castle. The stone face rises up stark and beautiful. My new home. For however long it takes.
I can’t believe I’m here. I can’t believe I’m doing this. My comfortable work shoes scuff the fancy patterned stonework as I work up the nerve to grab the heavy brass door knocker. Shaped like a demonic beast head, of course.
I can’t believe I’m about to throw myself on the mercy of a madman to save my company. But Belladonna and my research are my life. Without them, what do I have left? Who am I?
A crisp ringing cuts the air. I leap about ten feet, fumbling for my cell phone. Adam’s calling. My thumb hovers over the screen. Should I answer? Shit, I disappeared from the ball. I owe him an explanation.