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“Easy? You think any of this has been easy? You pulled me from my home and brought me here to appease your guilt, to soothe your conscience. Don’t try to spin it into something it’s not. If she hadn’t died that night you never would have inserted yourself into my life.”
“That’s not true, I tried… I tried.” Frustration bled into his expression.
“What did you say?” My blood ran cold.
“Over the years, I tried to see you. But Trina, she always made things so difficult.”
“Keep her name out of your mouth,” I snarled. “She died because of you. You killed her. You.”
The blood drained from his face, and strangely, it was the most human I’d ever seen him look. “I made mistakes, yes.” He cleared his throat, visibly uncomfortable.
Good.
I wanted him uncomfortable. I wanted him squirming around in his over-expensive tailored suit.
“But you really can’t hold me responsible—”
“It must be so easy for you, Dad,” I spat the word, “to sit here in your mansion telling yourself that it wasn’t your fault. That you weren’t responsible for her illness. I bet you even pitied her, her dependency on alcohol. Of course, that couldn’t be your fault either, right?”
I inhaled a ragged breath, fighting the urge to just tell him I knew. To call him out on his single worst betrayal. But if I did it, if I crossed that line, there would be no going back, and the truth was, I was scared. Scared of what the truth would do to me once it was out in the open.
So I bit my tongue and shoved those words down, refusing to give them purchase. The day would come when we would have it out, but I needed more time.
“What is going on here?” Sabrina appeared, glancing between me and her husband. “Michael?”
“It’s nothing, sweetheart.”
“It doesn’t look like nothing. I heard shouting.” Her cool gaze fixed on me. “Harleigh?”
“Nothing.” I pasted on a saccharine sweet smile. “Just having a father-daughter chat.”
“It didn’t sound—”
“Everything’s fine, I promise.” He draped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close.
I didn’t know Sabrina, not really. She’d made as much effort to get to know me as I had her. But he loved her. In his own way, Michael loved her, and it cut me up inside to watch them together. The life they’d built, the family they’d raised, while me and Mom were left to rot in The Row.
I tried to see you.
His words echoed through my mind, refusing to dissipate.
Did it really change anything? He was Michael Rowe, one of the wealthiest, most revered men in Hudson Valley. If he’d wanted to see me, he could have found a way to make it happen. Besides, I would never blame the woman he practically threw out of town. Even if she had failed me as well.
Tears burned the backs of my eyes like acid.
“You know, Harleigh.” Sabrina clicked her tongue, disapproval rippling off her immaculate presence. “Most girls would be grateful to be here, yet your attitude really is quite something. Now I know you’ve had a hard time, I understand that. And after the blip last winter—”
“Blip… the blip?” Strangled laughter spilled from my lips. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize trying to slit your wrists amounted to a blip.”
Sabrina sucked in a sharp breath while Michael said, “Harleigh, that is enough.”
“Enough what, Dad? Enough anxiety? Enough manic depressive thoughts? Do you think I like being like this? That I wake up in the morning with a smile on my face because I get to spend yet another day overanalyzing every little detail about my life? I mean, it is pretty special attending a private school where everyone hates you and thinks you’re nothing but trailer trash scum. I’m sorry if I didn’t express enough gratitude. How fucking rude of me.”
My chest heaved with the weight of the words, the crippling truth laid bare before them. Sabrina looked horrified, utterly speechless as she stared at me, the stepdaughter she’d never wanted or cared about.
But it was Michael’s expression that unnerved me. The guilt etched into his crinkled eyes as if he knew exactly what had happened and his role in it. He looked… sad.
And I hated it.
