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Chapter 32

Addie

The man staring back at me was undeniably my sperm-donor. The man who had tortured me for years. Beat me.

Sent men to rape me.

His hair was longer than I remembered, cascading down his face in straggly, greasy strands. A multitude of bruises covered his face - curving up his jawline and to his cheekbones and then to his two, piercing eyes.

Eyes that were staring at me just as intently as I was staring at him.

“Addie…” he whispered just as Calax screamed. Literally screamed, his voice a hoarse growl. He lunged towards the bars of the cage, banging his fists against them.

He looked more beast than human. MoreRagerthan human. His eyes were slitted, and his lips were pulled back from his teeth in a ferocious snarl.

“You…” Calax pointed a finger accusingly at the man cowering in the corner of his cell. “You...lied...to...me.” Each word was physically pulled out of his mouth. Wrenched from it, an unintelligible growl.

“I didn’t lie,” D.O.D. said, but his eyes were fixed firmly on me. Watching me. Assessing me. I felt like I was on display in a cage, his eyes slicing at me until I was bared to him. “I didn’t know who you were. I didn’t know you knew my daughter.”

“So your name is Doug now?” I asked, lips curling into a sneer.

Daddy Dearest smiled softly.

“It was the only name I could think of in the moment.” He shrugged before glancing at the key in Calax’s hand. “Are you going to let me out?”

“Why did you do it?” I continued. My voice was quiet and subdued, barely recognizable. Demure, almost. All I needed now was to lower my head in submission, and I would be the perfect, obedient daughter. How did seeing my father revert me back tothat? The female who was scared of her own shadow?

But that girl was dead. Gone. Swept away. Buried miles beneath cement.

I wouldn’t yield to my father’s commands, not anymore.

“Why did you experiment onme, your own daughter? Why did you hurt me? Whydidn’t you ever love me?” My voice rose to a scream as tears streamed down my face. The pain...it fucking hurt. It was unimaginable.

I’d grown up hearing stories about parents who loved their children. Adored them. Cherished them. My reality was completely different. I had never known the loving touch of a mother braiding my hair back from my face. A father teaching me to drive a car. I had lived my life in the shadows so they could flourish in the light.

How could a parent do that to their child? Their own flesh and blood?

When Dad didn’t answer, I continued on doggedly. “Was it money? Was that why you experimented on your own daughter? Risked my life? Is that why you sold me out to your business partners? Is that why you hit me? Do you just hate me or something? Answer me!Answer me!” My hands balled into fists, and I slammed them once, twice, three times against the bars. He didn’t flinch, didn’t react, at my rage.

I wanted him to explain it to me. Offer me an excuse for his behavior. Tell me why I was tortured beneath his hands, the hands that were supposed to love me.

At the same time, I knew that evil didn’t always have an explanation. Their reasonings were not meticulously clear. Why did the Devil tempt Eve? Evil was just as chaotic as this newfound world we’d found ourselves in. There was no rhyme or reason for my father’s actions. He was just evil, plain and simple.

“Addie…” He released my name on a long exhale.

“Don’t say my name.”

“Look, what do you want me to say? Sorry? Is that what you want? I could give you a thousand excuses, but none of them would be the truth. You see me as the enemy, but don’t you realize how much stronger you are now because of me? I taught you how to take a hit and dish one right back out. I taught you when to fight and when to submit. I taught you loyalty. Everything you are today is because of me!”

“Everything I am is because ofme!” I countered on a scream, patting my chest to emphasize my words. “I needed a dad! I needed someone to love me and care for me and protect me! Why didn’t you? Why didn’t you ever love me?”

“Because I didn’t want you to begin with!” he interrupted. We were both breathing heavily. At one point, he must’ve stood and meandered towards the bars. He pressed his forehead against the metal, chest heaving. I was distantly aware of my men inching closer, guns raised, but most of my attention was fixated on my father. “I never wanted a child. I knew I couldn’t handle one, not in my line of work. But your mother was persistent.” I wanted to ask where my mother was now, but I knew if I interrupted him, he would clamp up. I wanted - no, needed - to hear his story.

“We had a baby girl. Beautiful.” His tone turned almost wistful, but I knew it was a lie. He was an expert on faking emotion. “She was beautiful, and I knew we would do great things together.”

“And then you grew up and learned to hate me,” I whispered. It wasn’t a question.

“I saw the value in you,” he countered. “I knew I would never be a doting, loving father, so I used you for a different reason. I made your life have purpose, have meaning. Mine to do with as I pleased. To use. To trade. To experiment on.” Ignoring the guys’ growls, he pressed his face against the bars. “I learned to be a father, the only way I knew how. Just because it’s not normal or conventional doesn’t make me any less of a dad. Our relationship has always been different-”