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His eyes widen.

“Anything, my sweet! Anything! Gods, I’m just so happy you’re alive.”

I take a deep breath. I’m certain he’s not going to react well to my request – even after he promised to help me.

“Father, I need you to help me get the Aurelian Law Enforcement to forgive Brennan’s triad and drop the charges.”

My father looks like I’ve doused him in ice water. He stiffens.

Suddenly, his eyes are filled with hate.

“Those bastards are going to rot in jail until they die for what they did to us.”

“To us? They kidnappedme, not you – and I’m telling you; Ineedyou to help me with this!”

He grabs the dress from the bed – the slinky one that Lazar had chosen for me. With a snarl, he throws it across the room – slumping onto the edge of the bed in disgust.

I watch as my father takes a ragged breath, and then he motions for me to sit next to him.

I can see every line on his face now – every pained worry, etched into his skin.

“Natali, I haven’t slept since you were taken. If anything had happened to you…” He gulps. “Well, I don’t know what I would have done.” He pats the bed next to me. “Please, sit.”

I sit myself down beside him. My head is spinning.

I know my father’s been through pain, but I feel like he’s slapped me in the face by going to the Aurelian Law Enforcement agency. Even my own triad didn’t trustthemto make a clean grab for me.

“You made a business decision with my life. Instead of waiting for a ransom, you went straight to the Aurelian Law Enforcement. It was all so you could keep your bloody mine.”

My father looks at me with sad eyes.

“It’s not like that, Natali! You saw those bastards. They were amateurs – you could have gotten hurt! I knew I couldn’t rescue you on my own, so Ihadto get help.”

“That’s not true! You could have waited. You could have heard their demands, and negotiated with them. You said yourself that their initial offer wasn’t even unfair.”

I take a ragged breath.

“Brennan only let me go because he didn’t trust Aurelian Law Enforcement not to hurt me in a rescue attempt! He was worried that they’d come in guns blazing, and I might get hit. Those threekidnapperscared more about my safety than you did!”

I know I might regret these words, but I can’t hold back. I jump up from the bed, not wanting to even be close to my father right at this second.

He raises his hands, pleading with me:

“Natali! There’s not a person in this universe that cares more about you than I do!”

The anger overwhelms me.

“Liar! You promised me that the second we could get away from this planet, you’d take me somewhere safe. Yousaidyou’d do it. Well, you could have taken the deal those Aurelians had offered! We could be safe and rich at the center of the Human Alliance right now – but you didn’t take their offer, and nowthisis what has happened.”

My father sighs deeply. Then, his face flickers – like he’s considering the wisdom of what he’s going to say next.

“Natali. I didn’t want to burden you with this knowledge, but I’ve been following the politics of the Aurelian Empire. There’s something bubbling up inside of their society – a rot they can’t cure. It’s going to get ugly. I don’t know when it’s going to happen – maybe in my lifetime, or maybe in yours.”

My lifetime – which now extends thousands of years.

“Maybe it would occur during your children’s lifetime, or that of your grandchildren. I don’t know – but I do know that there’ll be nowhere safe inside the Human Alliance when it happens. The only people who will be safe when the universe turns to war are those in control of the Orbs.”

He’s bringing me to the inside of his thoughts. Now, I see so clearly the stress that has been weighing down on him for all these years; brought into focus by the discovery of his priceless Orb-Deposits.