Page 202 of Heartless Sinner

My dad had told me to use Brooks or Adelina to get into the office.

I’d chosen Brooks.

He gripped the door handle behind his back. “You know what’s crazy?”

I shook my head while smacking tears from my face.

He slipped his hand off the doorknob. “If you’d come to me with that … I would’ve done something. Not kill my father. But I’d have carried that pain with you.”

“I’m so sorry,” I said as a fresh sob tore through my body. “I regret it every day.”

“Then you should’ve told me every day you felt that regret. Don’t leave this room.” He jerked the door open. “Someone will come for you.”

“Brooks—”

“Don’t fucking leave.”

My fight-or-flight response kicked in. “Where are my things? My phone?”

“You try to leave, then I’ll have Secret Service arrest you.”

Then he was gone.

The tears came harder as I buried my face in my hands.

I knew that was the last time I’d ever see him.

Fifty-One

Brooks

Idrove the streets of DC for an hour before returning to the White House.

The dinner was long over, the hallways were quiet, and hardly any lights were on.

I found my father in the Oval Office.

The place looked like it’d been ransacked. Couch cushions lay upside down. Desk drawers hung open. Papers littered the rug. Historical artifacts were swept aside. He’d been searching for any more hidden bugs.

He paced in front of the Resolute Desk, tugging at his loosened tie. The second he saw me, he stopped.

“She told you, didn’t she?”

“Is it true?” I shut the door behind me.

He looked down at the papers on the floor. “It’s something I regret every day of my life.”

“Why’d you do it?” My chest hurt as I remembered the pain on Daphne’s face.

“Love,” he said simply, that word heavy with regret. “I wanted Marjorie as my Fawn, but Daphne’s father got her first. I couldn’t take her away from him. We tried to stop, Brooks.” He laughed resentfully. “God knows, we tried. After getting married, we cut it off for a while. But a few years later … we fell right back into it.”

He sank onto the bare couch while cushions lay scattered at his feet. “When she told me she was pregnant, I’d just won the presidency. I was fucking terrified.”

“So, you forced her to have an abortion?” I gritted out.

His face tightened. “I told her we couldn’t have that child.”

“That’s not what I fucking asked!”