Page 212 of I’m The Worst

She shakes her head frantically. “No… I didn’t know…”

“You knew enough.”

“Daddy…” Her voice shatters. “Please…” She turns toward Harrington, tears streaming down her face. “He told me I had to. He said⁠—”

Weston’s hand lands across her face. The crack echoes through the warehouse. Her head snaps sideways, blood spilling from her split lip onto the concrete.

“No…” she sobs. “No…”

“Your father sold you.” He grabs her jaw, forcing her to look at Harrington. “He made a deal with Akim he couldn’t pay. So Akim changed the price. You.”

Devin sobs harder.

“But when it came time to collect…he found another way.”

More tears slide down Devin’s face.

“You gave AJ your dress. And your daddy fed Akim her description. He let them take my little girl so they wouldn’t take his.”

Harrington’s breathing grows ragged. “Weston…listen to me⁠—”

“No. You listen.” Weston stands slowly, looking down at Harrington with complete disgust. “You sold my daughter and sent her to hell. You watched me search for her. And every goddamn day, you smiled to my fucking face.”

Devin’s crying turns to wailing.

Weston gives me a nod. I pull my knife from its sheath and step behind her.

Her body locks up immediately. “Please. Please… I didn’t know. I didn’t want to… Please…”

I grab a fistful of her hair, tilting her head back. The blade presses against the side of her throat.

Harrington is thrashing against his restraints, face purple with rage and terror. “Don’t you fucking touch her! Weston, I’ll give you anything—money, territory, whatever you want⁠—”

“You can’t give back what they took from my daughter.”

“Graves!” she screams. “Help me!”

Graves takes another drag of his cigarette. “Sorry, gorgeous. I don’t fuck with daddy issues.”

Harrington pulls against his restraints again. “You fuckers have no idea who you’re messing with⁠—”

Weston pulls out his gun and puts a bullet through Harrington’s left kneecap. The scream that follows is immediate, blood spraying across the concrete floor.

“Stop fucking begging,” Weston says coldly. “This isn’t a negotiation. This is what happens when you make a deal with the devil and lose.”

He gives me a nod.

AJ was never supposed to be in Russia. Was never supposed to meet Akim. Never supposed to end up on that stage. Never supposed to spend months chained to a fucking bed, sold to monsters because one father decided someone else’s daughter was cheaper than his own.

Every nightmare.

Every scar.

Every panic attack.

It should’ve been someone else’s life. AJ should’ve gone home from Greece with a sunburn and too many fucking souvenirs. Instead, she went to Russia.

I drag the blade across Devin’s throat.