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Neither of us said a word. She’d never heard us argue before, and it was obvious she could tell this was about something serious. I gritted my teeth and looked over at Damyan. He was the one who had gotten us into this mess; he was the one who could explain this to her, if that’s what he really wanted.
"We’re not," Damyan replied. "We’re done here."
"Tell her," I ordered him. He glared at me. I knew he didn’t want to come out and say it because he knew as well as I did how she was going to react to it—how she was going to feel about this. She had only spoken to me earlier tonight about how she felt about her father, how she didn’t hate him, even still cared for him, despite what he had done to her. She didn’t want him locked up in our basement, being held there against his will.
Damyan let out a low growl and then turned to her slowly. His eyes locked on to hers, and she stared at him, utterly confused, trying to parse what might have been going on here.
"Your father is downstairs."
Her jaw dropped.
"My father is … My father is what?"
"He’s downstairs," I explained, stepping in to fill out the rest of this story. I knew Damyan would try to skip out on it, maybe try to frame it like I was the one who had come up with this idea, but I wanted him to take responsibility for it.
"Damyan kidnapped him and brought him back here," I explained. "And he would have kicked the shit out of him if I hadn’t spotted them on CCTV and got there in time."
She stared up at Damyan, her eyes so wide they were almost completely circular. I knew she couldn’t believe this, couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She turned to him, speaking quietly.
"Is that true?" she asked. Slowly, he nodded. She squeezed her eyes shut, taking it in, and then opened them again, an expression of certainty filling her face.
"I need to see him."
Both of us stared at her. That had been the last thing I’d expected.
"What are you talking about?" Damyan asked. "He sold you, Mina—"
"I know," she replied, gritting her teeth. "And I want to see him."
Okay, that had been the last thing either of us had expected. We exchanged a glance. It was obvious from the way Damyan was staring at her that he didn’t know how to deal with this.
"You don’t have to talk to him," Damyan tried to assure her. "I can just let him out, and—"
"No, that’s not what I want," she repeated, calmly, not letting Damyan change her mind. "I want to see him. I want to speak to him. I need to understand why he did this. Why this happened. Why he sold me the way he did."
Damyan and I exchanged a glance. Neither of us liked the idea, that much was obvious, but could we deny her this? She didn’t want to be told what to do, not by her father, not by anyone else, especially us.
"Are you sure that’s a good idea?" I asked her as gently as I could. I didn’t want her feeling like she couldn’t do what she felt was right for her, but I didn’t want her pushing herself beyond what she could handle.
"Yes," she replied. "I want to see him. I want to know … I want to know he’s okay."
"He doesn’t deserve to be," Damyan interjected. She glanced up at him.
"I’m the one who gets to decide that, not you," she replied firmly. "I’m the one who decides if he suffers or not. You understand?"
Her voice was certain, her tone almost commanding, like she knew damn well just what she wanted, and she wasn’t going to let either of us talk her out of it.
And that was what I liked about her so much. That she wasn’t afraid to pursue what she thought was best. Even if it didn’t make sense to us—and I could tell from the look on Damyan’s face right now that it didn’t make a lick of sense to him at all—she deserved a chance to look her father in the eye and make him explain himself for what he had done to her.
"If that’s what you really want, we can do it," I replied, and Damyan nodded reluctantly. I could tell he had the taste for blood, the urge to snuff out her father before he got a chance to make amends, but he didn’t want to hurt her beyond what she could forgive him for. Whatever she had been through, this was a chance for her to put it all to rest—and a chance, once and for all, for her to get answers for what her father had done to her. The one man who was meant to protect her above all else, and the man who had let her down completely.
If she wanted to give him one more chance, who was I to stop her?
Chapter Nineteen – Mina
I stood at the top of the stairs, my hands clenched into fists at my sides, my shoulders hunched up towards my ears. Staring down at the man in front of me, I could hardly believe I was even considering this.
I should have turned around and walked right out of there again. I should have just left him to the mercy of Maxim and Damyan, let them do whatever it was they wanted to him. That would have been easier, wouldn’t it? Easier than letting some nagging remainder of my kindness get the better of me. Easier than admitting there was a part of me that, despite it all, wanted to try and make things right with him.
