Page 115 of Wicked Princess (Knight's Ridge Empire 2)

CHAPTERTWENTY-FOUR

Stella

Istare at my dad’s resigned eyes, my own anger over all of this kicking up a notch once more.

“Why are you letting him do this? Shouldn’t you be fighting harder for me?” I ask, needing to know how he can just stand there and let me walk out.

“Because he’s right,” he says, his voice chock full of emotion. The sound of him falling apart causes a lump to crawl up my throat.

My dad is never emotional. He never shows his feelings. Ever.

“I screwed up. I’ve tried so hard to protect you from all of this, but clearly it wasn’t enough.”

“All you had to do was tell me the truth. Tell me who I was, who we are. The things you’ve done.”

His brows crease as I say those final words.

“I know you killed Seb’s dad.”

He rears back as if I just slapped him.

“N-no. I didn’t.”

“But he—” I glance to the door where Seb disappeared a few seconds ago before looking at Toby, who just looks confused.

So that wasn’t common knowledge then, obviously.

“I took the fall, Stella. But I wasn’t the one who pulled that trigger, I swear to you.”

“But he thinks—”

“We were never going to come back here. I agreed that we’d move and start our lives over. I’d messed up too badly here, and a fresh start was our only chance.”

“Why?” I ask, hoping and praying for some honesty.

“B-because—” He hesitates, his eyes shooting to Toby for the briefest moment.

“Because of my mum. Our mum.”

Dad nods once. “I’m so sorry, Stella.” His voice cracks and he storms from the hallway, a door slamming so hard that it rattles the house around us.

“What happened with your mom?” I ask Toby, unable to even contemplate calling her my mom yet.

“Let’s get you back and we’ll talk, yeah?”

I narrow my eyes at him, needing all these fucking secrets to disappear.

“I promise. The whole truth.”

“Okay,” I breathe, reaching for his hand, because the wrecked look on his face as he even considers telling me whatever it is physically hurts me.

With a glance at Calvin, I take off toward the door, more than ready to get out of here.

“I’m working with Damien’s security, baby D. We’ll get this motherfucker.”

“Yeah,” I mutter, not feeling all that confident.

“If you need anything, you know—”