Instead, I was banished for my efforts.

“I’m over it. Though I suffered quite a few black eyes and bruises courtesy of Daddy.”

I paused a moment. Then, “Were there ever any marks on Riley?”

“Are you kidding? Of course not. She was his angel.”

No marks. At least not where he would have seen them. Nausea clawed up my throat. Reid and Roy truly didn’t know what he’d done to our sister. Or perhaps they didn’t want to know. Perhaps they were so clouded with their own envy that they refused to see.

But I saw. The bastard had beat me black and blue many times before I found him sneaking into Riley’s room at night. I hadn’t refused to see. In fact, I’d taken the situation into my own hands.

That had been my downfall.

A fourteen-year-old on the cusp of maturity, testosterone coursing through my veins. I’d let the rage and anger take control, and I’d acted without thinking.

I’d paid dearly for it…and so had my baby sister.

Apparently so had my brothers.

Because of my rash decision in the heat of the moment, all four of us had suffered.

And Derek Wolfe was never going to let me forget that. He made sure of that with his last earthly action—forcing me to take control of his company or my siblings would suffer.

He knew I’d do it, because he knew my actions had already caused them to suffer. I wouldn’t allow it to happen again.

He knew I’d do it because I was a good man at heart.

And that meant…

Holy shit.

That meant Derek Wolfe thought I was a good man. Better than he had ever been.

I’ll be damned.

Lacey had once said that maybe he’d put me in charge because he felt I was the best person for the job. She was still wrong. But my father had been sure of one thing. The choice would be mine. Either I would suffer, or my siblings would. He didn’t care one way or the other, but he was betting on me. He knew what I’d done for my baby sister all those years ago, and what it had cost me. He assumed I’d pay the price again to save my siblings.

My father might be a malicious bastard, but surely he didn’t want his company sold off.

On the other hand, he didn’t seem to really give a crap about any of his children, even his little princess. If he had, he wouldn’t have abused her the way he did.

I rolled my eyes. I was overthinking this. Here I was, trying to make sense of what my father had done and why he’d done it, when the task was impossible. The man had been a weasel. He’d done it because it would fuck us all over.