Page 18 of Betraying Him
I swallow and take a seat opposite him, waiting on tenterhooks for him to explain what the fuck is going on.
“Dad?” I rasp when he stays silent long enough for my hands to start fidgeting.
“Savannah Marks,” he murmurs, and indignation flashes through me. Is this about us seeing each other? Has he really been waiting in my room to question me about our… relationship?
Whatever we are, it has fuck all to do with him, so he needn’t concern himself with it.
“What the fuck?—”
“I got an email tonight,” he states, cutting me off. My heart hammers in my chest, and my mind whirls in confusion.
“Okay…” I say slowly.
“It was from her father. It turns out he’s been keeping tabs on me for a while—he’s recently started campaigning for the next election. He sent me an encrypted file with pictures of the two of you. Pictures of me and your mother, and a hell of a lot of information he shouldn’t be able to access.”
Bile rises in my throat. I figured she had a complicated relationship with her father from the way she always avoids talking about him, but for him to do something like this? For him to take pictures of his own daughter and use them in… what? Blackmail?
It sounds like their relationship is so much worse than I originally thought. Who would do something like this to their own child? Their flesh and blood? It’s barbaric.
“What sort of information?” I ask because it seems better to focus on that right now, and I’ll deal with whatever that asshole is doing to my girl later.
My dad sighs, hunching in on himself. He looks old, tired, and more vulnerable than I’ve ever seen him. Whoever this man in front of me is, he’s not my father. I’ve never seen him look so defeated and worn.
“Your Uncle Jackson wasn’t a good man,” he starts, surprising me by bringing up my mother’s brother. We never talk about him,ever. She’s always said his death was just toohard to bear, so she doesn’t like talking about him. Clearly, there’s more to it.
He keeps going. “He did some shady shit when we were younger and implicated your mother without her being aware of what he was doing. I’m not going to go into all of the details right now, since all you need to know is that I was… terrified something would happen to her, so… I covered it up.”
Questions swirl. My dad should know my curious nature won’t be satisfied with not knowing, but there are more important things to focus on.
“Did you somehow fuck up while trying to hide what happened?” I ask, not in the slightest bit bothered about whatever it is he had to do. My dad is a good man, and I know he’d do whatever it took to take care of my mom.
You can’t always play fair when it comes to those you love.
He rubs a hand down his face, looking exhausted. “No, son. I didn’t. The only evidence was on my laptop in a file no one could access remotely. The only way anyone would have been able to access the information was from my computer… directly.”
I swallow the lump in my throat. “So… from the party we had a few weeks ago? He was here then.”
Dad slowly shakes his head. “No, it wasn’t him who accessed it.”
Frowning, I jump up and begin to pace. “What are you saying? I feel like you’re trying to tell me something, so just go ahead and say it.”
I don’t get why he doesn’t just tell me whatever it is he has to say—the anticipation is killing me.
My dad’s voice is hoarse when he says, “The file was last opened four days ago, Harley.” I glare at him, hating the way he’s beating around the bush.
He’s not making any sense. No one other than our familyhas been in the house since the party weeks ago, so unless someone broke in, no one would have been able to access it.
Besides, I’ve spent most of my time in the house alone this week, since Savannah has been too busy. The only day I saw her other than today was—my head snaps toward my dad. He glances at me with a despondent look, and that’s when it hits me.
It hits me like a fucking sledgehammer to the face.
“No,” I rasp. There’s no fucking way.
She couldn’t.
Shewouldn’t.
My father looks pained as he picks up his phone from the table next to him, unlocks it, and then turns it to face me. A video begins playing, and I can see exactly what it is—it’s his office on the ground floor. My knees threaten to buckle when I see Savannah entering the image and then goes straight to his computer.
