Page 95 of Broken Beauty

“You were supposed to be gone.” I shake my head before going downstairs. This asshole doesn't fucking understand that his daughter is trying to sleep. Cal leads me to his office. He closes the door behind me and tells me to take a seat. “Want whiskey?”

I furrow my eyebrows at him.

What is his play?

“No. Stop bullshitting around and tell me why you woke me up?” I lean back against the chair.

“It's no secret I don't like you, Ash,” he says while pouring himself a glass of whiskey, at nine in the morning. “You have a very dangerous mind. You are corrupted by your father, who I don't like and you have blood on your hands. It's no secret.”

“Then why don't you tell Ariella?” I narrow my eyes at him.

“Because she is sensitive when it comes to things like that. She always sees the good in people. A trait from her mother.” He sits in his chair and puts the glass on the desk. “She won't care. She loves you.”

I know.

She said it so many times last night while I was inside her.

“What is the point of you telling me all this? I'm not going to hurt her Cal and you should know that.”

“Do you love her?” My mind is hollow even though I know the truth. My heart is beating rapidly as I think hard about the answer. “Leave her. It's for the best. You will only ruin her.”

Leaving Ariella would also mean bringing back all of the demons inside my mind.

“I think that’s up to Ariella.”

“Ash, if you don't leave my daughter, I will not hesitate to tell her about what you have done.”

“Go ahead. I don't care.”

I say that but I'm ashamed of her knowing the truth.

Knowing my past withher.

“What about when she finds out what you did to her?”

My gaze finds his and the asshole is smirking at me, thinking he's got me.

Ariella doesn't know how my mother died. She doesn't know that I am responsible for my mother’s death. She doesn't know that I am a cold-blooded monster.

My father put me straight into therapy after the accident happened. He told me that I needed to see someone to talk to about what happened and how I can relieve myself from it.

My father says I shouldn't keep worrying about it because the case closed and it was an accident. But I feel awful for not feeling bad.

I didn't feel an ounce of guilt when she died. I was relieved that she died but she still manages to hunt my mind and soul.

When I am with Ariella, I feel relieved, free even. I notice I don't think about the dark thoughts and that my mother's death doesn't consume me.

“No. You can tell her. I was planning on telling her anyway.” I shrug.

Cal shakes his head lightly. “You are a hard one to crack, Ash.”

“Is this all you wanted to talk about? Because if so, I need to go back upstairs to make sure your daughter is still sleeping.” Cal is quiet. He is just staring at me and every few seconds he squints his eyes, thinking hard about something. “Great. I'll be going then.”

When I have my hand on the door knob, that's when Cal finally speaks up.

And what he says makes me stop and sit back down.

All I am thinking about is smashing this asshole's desk on top of him and making him cry out for mercy. As he tells me, he demands for me not to see his daughter.