Page 97 of Silver Fox Daddies

I’m rendered frozen.

This is it.

But he continues to walk past me, allowing me to take a breath of relief.

Just for now.

He heads over to the computer monitor and takes one nonchalant glance at the screen. Then he moves the chair, wooden legs scratching an ear-splitting sound across the concrete floor. He turns the chair so it’s facing me and takes a seat in his own time, staring at me with a sick grin on his face.

“Is this the furniture you were talking about?” I gesture to the chair.

“You think you’re smart, staying one step ahead.”

“You lied to me.”

“Like father, like daughter.” His gray eyes settle on mine.

They look less real the more I look at them, like they belong to a reptile, not a human.

He takes another look at the screen, watching casually like it’s the news channel. “You’re fond of smashing glass, aren’t you?” he says, referring to the fentanyl above us. “The funny thing is—you never used to be this way. It’s only in the last month or so that you’ve started to derail.

Derail?That’s what he’s calling it?

“You owe me five hundred bucks. For the fentanyl.”

“You owe me an explanation.”

He laughs, the sound ringing out, echoing around the chamber as if in reminder of how much trouble I’m in. “An explanation?” he says when the laughter subsides. The man on the screen growls in pain again, so he turns around to inspect the screen. “I wish I’d done this to your three men before they impregnated you.”

One sentence. That’s all I need to feel the weight of the entire world come crashing down. I want the ground to swallow me up. I want my life to have never existed if this is what it’s gonna come to.

I shake my head. No. He’s not doing this. He’s going nowhere near them.

“You have disappointed me, Melissa. All I wanted from you was to focus on your studies and be ready for when I needed you.”

I was right. A pawn is all I am to him.

He must be saving me for a big occasion, given that it’s been nineteen years and I’m still here, unharmed.

I feel faint, like I’m about to suffer a heart attack. Quick. Easy. Over in a second. That would be the best way to go.

“Instead,” he continues, “you decided to turn yourself into a whore.”

I ignore the sting of his words and push on. “How did you find out?”

“I tried to warn you,” he says, totally dismissing my question.

“When?”

He says nothing, just smiles. “When will you learn, Melissa?”

I stare at him, trying to separate Daddy from the man in front of me. I exhale a shaky breath. All those times we went out for dinner, the jokes shared across the table. He was my biggest motivator, and I thought I felt inspired to go through life with him at my side.

The truth stings like a fucking bitch.

And now, all there is left for me to do is get the hell out of here.

My legs carry me away, sprinting back up the narrow stairway. I hear no movement coming from behind. Daddy is way too relaxed, given the circumstances. Something is wrong. I turn around and see him sitting there, smug, counting down from five using his fingers. I watch him, paralyzed with fear as he takes down his last finger, producing a fist to signal that the time is up.

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