Page 40 of Embrace the Darkness

“Why don’t you tell Angela and she can make sure you get everything you need?” he suggested.

“I’ve grown independent. I like doing things for myself. Plus, I need to get out of the house. I’ll go stir crazy if I don’t.”

“You need to take someone with you.”

I bristled.Here we go with this shit again.“I’ve been on my own for six years without your goon—uh, security following me around.” Stefan didn’t like me calling his men goons, but old habits and all.

He turned distant. The quick change in him caused unease to bubble in the pit of my stomach. Was there a threat to the family? Were we at war again? “What?”

He didn’t answer. Instead, he looked down.

“Stefan?”

“You weren’t entirely alone in Hartford.”

My back straightened, preparing myself. I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like what was coming. “What do you mean?”

He steeled himself, eyes determined when they met mine. “I hired a security team outside the family. Over the past six years, eight men were rotated in and out. Each stayed for a year or two at a time. All blended in as fellow students or neighbors to watch over you.”

…What?!

Gritting my teeth, I bit out, “You mean they spied on me?”

“No. Watched over you. I couldn’t risk someone going after you to get to me. Especially in the beginning, when things were still tense between us and the De Lucas.”

This was a new low.

“You said I was out!” My outburst startled us both.

His shoulders squared and his expression hardened. “You’re a Quinn and my daughter. You can never be out.”

“So you lied to me?” I scoffed. “I don’t know why I’m fucking surprised. It’s what you do. It’s what you always do.”

“I was losing you!” he roared.

I reeled back, but still kept my feet cemented to the ground. He thought he could put this all on me?

“Yes, you were,” I seethed honestly. “I couldn’t trustyouto let me fall apart—to feel the pain of what those assholes did to me in order to heal. I was worried you’d shame me for my weakness. So I held it all in. I stayed strong to makeyouproud. With each passing day, the burden of having to hold it all in became harder and harder until it was too much and I didn’t see the point of living anymore.”

His shoulders sagged slightly and the muscle in his jaw ticked. “I know,” he said in a low defeated voice.

“You knew?” I repeated in disbelief. “And what, you just didn’t care?”

“We both know that’s not true. You may like to paint me as the villain, but at the end of the day I am still your father.”

“Then why didn’t you talk to me? I needed you, yet you kept your distance.”

“Would you have believed my intentions were pure if I had?” he asked, eyes leveled with mine, waiting to read my reaction because we both knew I wouldn’t answer. What would be the point? He knew I would have assumed the worst.

I folded my arms across my chest. It was a defensive gesture. I knew it and Stefan knew it, but in that moment I didn’t care. I just needed something between us. “I’m assuming your spies reported everything they saw?” I asked, deflecting.

He hesitated before replying, “They gave me weekly reports on your activity.”

I was starting to feel overwhelmingly exposed.Wait… If they'd been watching me, did that mean they'd seen what Tom had been doing? Had my sad excuse of a relationship been broadcasted like a fucking soap opera?

“Did you know Tom was cheating on me the entire time?”

I got my answer when he didn’t respond. I stormed out of the room before I said something I’d regret later.