Page 151 of Velvet Corruption

“I’m not threatening you,” I said. “Not yet.”

She took a step back. Just one. But I saw it.

I saw the fear.

“You don’t get to decide what kind of father I would’ve been,” I said, quieter now. Quieter was worse. “You don’t get to erase me and hand my daughter off to some other man like I was never here.”

“You left,” she whispered. “You disappeared.”

“And you kept my kid,” I said. “Don’t pretend one cancels out the other.”

I looked at the stairs. At the door. At the place where Rosie had stood.

“She has my eyes,” I said.

Ruby didn’t respond.

“I want time with her. You’re not shutting me out again.”

“And if I do?”

I met her eyes. Steady. Unforgiving.

“Then I take her.”

Her face went pale. “You wouldn’t.”

“Don’t test me,” I said. “You know exactly what I’m capable of. That’s my daughter.”

I took a step forward.

Ruby didn’t move.

Another step.

She still didn’t move.

She crossed her arms, lifting her chin. “I think you should leave before you make a mistake.”

I laughed. Short. Humorless. “You stole my kid, and you think I’m about to make a mistake?”

“I didn’t steal anything,” she shot back. “You left.”

“That’s bullshit, and you know it.”

“Stay away from us,” she said. “Stay away from Rosie.”

Ruby didn’t flinch, but her eyes flashed—bright with fear, with fury, with the fight she never learned how to lose. I reached out—just to touch her, just to remind her who she was speaking to—but she turned on her heel and ran.

She ran from me.

What the fuck else was I supposed to do?

I followed her up the stairs, two at a time. Her name was on my tongue, but I didn’t speak it. Didn’t need to. She knew I was coming. She reached the bedroom, tried to slam the door in my face.

I shoved it open like it was nothing.

“We have to talk about this,” I growled.

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