He blinked, pulled off his glasses, and laid them on the paperwork. “Oh, really? You okay with that decision?”

“Would I make it if I wasn’t okay with it?”

“Maybe.”

“Well, how about, yes, I’m totally okay with my decision.”

“Doesn’t really seem like it.”

I took another drink. “Don’t pretend like you’re not thrilled about it.”

He rubbed his eyes with forefinger and thumb. “Well, no, if you’re not happy, I’m not happy. You know how this goes. I’m your dad. I love you.”

I ground my teeth together to keep myself from asking why a dad who loved me so much was keeping things about my own mother from me. How a dad with such love for his daughter could lie to her for her entire life.

“I’m happy,” I said instead.

“Nikki,” he said, in that voice I’d grown so sick of ever since that night at Tesori Antico. I’d been a mess when I came home from the hospital that night. Filthy, bloody, emotionally wrecked. There was no hiding anything from Dad at that point. Luna had gotten away again, and Chris was at death’s door, and every time I closed my eyes, I saw Vanessa hitting the ground, blood blooming around her, the same crimson that bloomed around my mom. How was it possible that they bled the same?

After, there had been investigations and statements and questions and questions and questions. All the while, Dad tiptoeing around me, using that voice, as if he was half-afraid that talking too loud would make me break. And, honestly, it might have. “You don’t have to keep up the act with me. I know you’re scared. They’ll find her. They will. In the meantime, let me help.”

I rolled my eyes. Here we go again. Was I scared? Hell, yes. I was scared shitless. I would be a moron not to be scared. Luna had attacked me too many times for me not to be scared. And she obviously could literally get away with murder. She was still out there, and someone was helping her. And I’d killed her mom. With Chris out of commission, she and I were the only two who knew, and I intended to keep it that way. She could hardly turn me in to the police, so she had to want me dead more than ever. Every time I thought about her, my whole world filled with asphalt gray and black. I was so scared I could hardly walk upright.