I shook my head back and forth in disbelief, in denial, like a pathetic Bobblehead. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about.” Dad grabbed my hand and squeezed so hard, his knuckles whitened. “You had a mental breakdown, understand me? I don’t care what you come up with, but you did this. If you want to keep Rafe out of prison, you’ll do the same for your brother.” His calculating stare knocked the breath from my lungs, and his grip tightened further. “That sperm you talked about? Rafe’s name will be the one attached to it.”

My eyes widened, and I gaped at him, barely breathing. “How?”

“Wouldn’t be the first time, Alexandra. How do you think he was so easily convicted? Because of your word?” He thrust his face close. “Your word means nothing. I control you. I’ve always controlled you. Your bout with anorexia? That was my doing, and you fell for it like the naive little girl you are.”

“But I wasn’t eating…” Why did my tone come out so uncertain? “I was anorexic.”

“No, dear daughter. You’d lost your appetite after the abortion and trial. It wasn’t hard to fill your impressionable head with the idea that you had a problem.”

I blinked, feeling sick to my stomach. “Why would you do that?”

“For Zach, of course. While you were locked away in that treatment center, he finally yanked the stick from his ass and took the Chandler Vs. De Luca fight seriously. For a few weeks, he wasn’t thinking with his dick.”

Footsteps sounded outside the door to my room. A doctor stepped inside, and Dad let go of my hand. The coldness in his features instantly melted. I shouldn’t have been surprised at how quickly he shifted personas, but I was. The threatening, ice-hearted bastard I’d yearned to love me since I was six was absent, replaced by the caring and doting father I’d allowed myself to believe in all these years.

The father who’d known about Zach raping me all along. The father who’d somehow known about Rafe kidnapping me. He’d left me on that island to be tortured. I sank into the pillows and closed my eyes, too exhausted and disheartened to analyze the implications, though one thing I knew for certain.

Abbott De Luca hadn’t just fooled the world; he’d fooled his own daughter.

13. Bad Idea - Rafe

13. BAD IDEA - RAFE

“Are you sure you wanna do this?” Jax stalled outside the entrance of the hospital.

“I’m not sure of anything, but I can’t not see her.” Gritting my teeth, I stared through narrowed eyes at the building. News of Alex’s resurrection from the dead hit the media that morning. I was hoping she’d give me answers, but mostly, I had to know she was okay.