Page 155 of Justice II

That helped with the investigation but unfortunately, it didn’t get my two employees back.

I felt bad for my boy Bryce. His guilt was driving him crazy and he told me he wasn’t able to sleep. Losing two of his boys hit him hard but I told him to take as much time as he needed.

The woman took the clipboard and pointed toward the chairs.

“She’ll be out shortly.”

“Thanks,” I said as I sat down.

I sank back into the chair and stretched my legs out.

Kira was dead. Kyle and Will were locked the fuck up.

I rented a penthouse for Melody and Keenan because Storie was coming home. I knew I would miss her. I’d miss them both, but the time would pass. Storie’s days were numbered.

Storie couldn’t be trusted. She was so manipulative that she made me ruin Kira. And in turn Kira got me back in a far worse way. It wasn’t just the money. It was just that she was so evil. How could she have set these wheels into motion and feel no guilt?

I rubbed my hands together before looking toward the hall again.

For weeks, I had been trying to convince myself Storie could get better. She was fifteen. There had to be something a doctor could do, something I could pay for, some way to get through to her.

I had listened while they explained the therapy and anger management that would continue after she left. Everybody wanted me involved, and I nodded through that conversation knowing I wouldn’t be keeping those appointments very long.

I had already decided there would be a fatal car accident a couple of weeks after she came home. I intended to put her behind the wheel and make it look as if she had taken a car without permission. She spent enough time sneaking around and disobeying me for people to believe that.

The thought still made me sick.

I could kill a grown man who threatened my family and sleep beside Melody afterward. Looking at a discharge form with Storie’s name on it was different. I taught that little girl how to ride a bike. I changed diapers. I loved her. And now I had to end her.

I also knew I wasn’t letting her anywhere near Dream or Melody’s baby.

The paternity results had been sitting in my room since I opened them. Monica lied, and Storie lied about the letter being fake.

Neither fact erased the years I had spent answering when she called me Daddy.

“Daddy!”

I looked up.

Storie was coming down the hallway with a bag over her shoulder. Her face brightened when she saw me, and she hurried past the woman beside her.

I stood just before she wrapped her arms around my waist.

“I missed you so much.”

Her cheek pressed against my sweater. I put one hand against her back and held her while the woman waited a few feet away.

“I missed you, too,” I replied.

She looked up at me.

“Are you still mad?”

“We’re going to talk. Let’s get you out of here first.”

She nodded quickly.

“I’ve been doing everything they asked. You can ask them,” she said.