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I shake my head quickly. That’s a terrible idea. My father wants to put a bullet in Brennan’s head, not shake his hand.

“You’re thelastperson in the universe he wants to see right now.”

Brennan looks behind me, thinking silently.

Eventually, he murmurs: “Maybe – but I’m the first person heneedsto see. I’ve done deals in the past when the other party has hated me. I know I can make this work.”

“This isn’t some business deal,” I counter. “You can’t breakhisarms to make things go your way. This is myfather,and his dreams for the future have been crushed. How could you possibly make things right?”

If Brennan is annoyed at the cheap shot I’d just taken at him – bringing up his violent past – he doesn’t show it. I wish I could sense his aura – his, and the auras of Lazar and Otho. They’re watching silently, letting us debate.

“His dream can still happen,” Brennan promises me. “He wantedyouto be the head of his business. He wanted you to lead your family into prosperity.”

“He’ll never trust me! Not after what I’ve done to him! Not after I chose you three over my home.”

Brennan walks up to me, and takes my hand in his. He stares down at me with his endless, swirling, galaxy-tinted eyes.

“We trusted you when you needed to speak with your father – and you got us off the charges we faced, which would have imprisoned us forever. Trust me when I say that if you can get me a meeting with your father, I can make things right.”

Iwantto believe him. I want to think my father can look at me again without suspicion and hurt. I truly wish that Brennan could make this right, but I just can’t see a way forward.

But if I’m going to live a life with these Aurelians, then I’m going to need to believe in them.

I nod, and Brennan releases my hand.

I grab my grey dress from the floor and bring it back with me to the bathroom – where I change and get fixed up with what scant toiletries the Aurelians have in this battleship bathroom.

It’s important, though – I can’t have any trace of what I’ve just done on me if we’re going to make a holo-vid call to my father.

Finally, I leave the bathroom, walking back to the cockpit. Brennan stands there looking at me – as if silently asking if I’m ready. I nod.

Lazar presses a button on his panel.

“Open comms link – Mr. Carani.”

The AI system that helps control the alien starship blinks, and a moment later the comms link opens.

The light blinks three times before it’s answered. When his face appears on screen, my father looks haggard and angry. He searches the video feed, searching for my face.

“Bring me my Gods-damned daughter back!”

Brennan pauses.

“She’s safe, Mr. Carani. Now – I need to meet with you. Tomorrow morning. At your estate.”

The estate. The one place my father could easily mount an ambush. When I saw the look in his eye back in the courtroom, I knew he would be capable of it.

My father’s always been controlling, but I was never one to fight his wishes before. That’s why I’d never realized just how aggressive he could be – not until I’d tried to leave.

Now, he wants to hold onto me and his dreams – to cling to the future he had planned, no matter the cost.

I blink as my father’s face sticks in my memory. Now I think about it – look at life through the lens of my recent experiences – I realize he’s always been like this.

Ever since my mother died and left him alone, he’s become a controlling monster.

Back when my mother died, he’d sometimes just sit alone for hours and stare at pictures of her – pictures which he’d hide whenever I came near, never wanting to show me the weakness of his feelings for her.

My father always wanted to be strong for me after we lost her.