Page 145 of Redeeming the Villain

Running my hand down my face, I exhale. “It’s funny, really, because that’s the exact thing I would say about you.”

Pain lances his expression, and he looks up at me with confusion. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I bite my lip as tears well in my eyes. “But, Dad, I do. I know firsthand how good of a liar you are. I’ve watched you do it my whole life.”

Shaking his head, he sighs. “He’s not good for you.”

“Is it that?” I pause, readying to face the monster inside of him head-on. “Or is it because you’re scared I’ll find out the truth about what you did?”

He glances around us, but I’m not sure what he’s looking for. Wrapping his hand around my wrist, he tugs me hard, leading me through a door into an empty banquet hall.

“Watch your mouth. You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he snaps.

Smirking up at him, I push him closer to his tipping point. “Do you want to bet?”

He snarls, “You’re acting like a brat—you know that? Spoiled and ungrateful for the things I’ve done for you.”

“Ungrateful? For you shipping me off because you didn’t want to parent me anymore once I got diagnosed? Ungrateful that you forced me to keep my piano playing a secret, only practicing in an empty room? That kind of ungrateful?” My blood begins to boil. “Or when you didn’t even show up for my high school graduation? How about when you had someone follow me on campus and then suddenly pretended to be the caring father? It’s far too late for that,Congressman.”

A war brews behind his eyes as he studies me like an enemy, looking for any weakness. But thankfully, he taught me how to hide all my cards well.

“What exactly should I be grateful for?” I snap.

His eyes well up with tears, frustration brimming at the surface. “For pushing you as far away from me as I could manage. For keeping you safe from the world I built.”

“W-what?” I murmur, taken aback.

His eyes fall to the floor. “Do you really want to know the truth? Do you think you can live with the weight? Because there are days that I doubt it for myself.”

My throat tightens, and goose bumps break across my arms.Is there more than just what happened to Micah?

“The things I’ve done to protect the life that you have would haunt you for the rest of it,” he says casually as he brushes my hair off of my shoulder, his jaw twitching. “I’ve sold all of my humanity to the devil to ensure you can keep yours.”

Silence consumes me, my voice nonexistent as shock waves course through me. An ache deep to my soul throbs in my chest at his confession.

In my mind, he was always cut and dry, no room for sympathy, not after what I learned about Micah. But unfortunately, villains aren’t always one-sided. To some characters, they’re not villains at all.

Tears well in my eyes as I look at my dad, the one who used to put me first. His foundation is cracking, the vulnerable man beneath peeking through.

“I’m sorry,” he murmurs, and I can tell he means it.

A sob shakes free from inside of me, tears rolling down my cheeks. I want to run away, but I also want to freeze time and just stand still.

I want to pretend that none of this is real, that all of this has been a story that he’s telling me as I drift off to sleep in my little princess bed.

Why can’t I just hate him? Why can’t I just write him off and leave him in the dust?

Why did he have to ruin us?

As tears continue to flow down my cheeks, my shoulders rise and fall with the quickness of my breaths.

But I can’t walk away from this. I can’t pretend that he didn’t do horrible and terrible things. It’s not fair to me, to Malik, or to Micah.

So, instead of wrapping my arms around him and accepting his apology, I mutter four words that bring his kingdom to ruin. “I know about Micah.”

The room around us seems to spin as he holds my stare, layer after layer peeling away in his gaze.

Nodding ever so slightly, he takes a shaky inhale. “I assumed as much.”

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