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“You’re not my father! I’m not going to ask your permission every time I want to leave the house!”

I rear back like she hit me.

That stings.

“That’s what you think this is about?” I ask in a steely voice. “After all we’ve been through, you think this is about asking permission?”

We stare at each other for a long moment and something inside of me breaks.

I’ve bent over backwards to help her heal, find her way out of the darkness, and come out the other side—with me. The last thing I ever want to do is control her.

But if she truly believes that’s what I’m trying to do, then everything I’ve done has been for naught.

And I can’t do this.

Not even for someone who literally owns every piece of me.

“Hudson, wait?—”

I hear her but I don’t look back, don’t stop moving.

If I do, I might say something I regret. Something I can’t take back.

So I head for the stairs, taking them two at a time until I get to our room. I go straight to the bathroom and turn on the shower. Then I strip out of my clothes and stand under the steaming spray. With my hands against the wall, I let my chin hit my chest and memories ricochet through the windows of my soul.

The fear I felt when I realized she might be alone with Dylan was the most intense emotion I’ve ever experienced. Losing her was—is—unfathomable. There’s no universe where I’ll ever let anything happen to her, and all she seems worried about is her freedom.

I thought she trusted me.

I thought—fuck.

I thought she loved me the way I love her.

Thirty-Six

Willow

I watch him pound up the stairs and know that I’ve seriously messed up.

“Dammit,” I whisper, clenching my hands into fists, pressing them against my temples.

It’s just…

Dylan and all the bullshit he heaped onto me.

And that’s not fair.

Not fair to Hudson.

Because he’s never been anything like Dylan, not from the first moment he began reading to me. And it’s not okay for him to think that I would put him in the same category as my ex, not even for a second.

Because Hudson has done nothing wrong, nothing except care for me and love me and show me what a beautiful life I can have.

A beautiful family.

My eyes sting, and I blink rapidly as I try to find center, try to figure out what I can say to make him understand I didn’t mean that.

He’s been through so much, and he seems tough and impermeable, but he feels deeply.