You think Ashna will go against our wishes? Our daughter doesn’t do anything we don’t approve of. Why do you think she never brought you home? She’s a princess, you’re a bastard. Does she know that your mother was your father’s whore?

Even now the words made Rico want to wrap his hands around the man’s throat and squeeze the life out of him. He didn’t care that he was Ashna’s father.

Then your daughter’s going to be with a bastard. Because try what you want, Ashna and I are going to be together.

The man had gone red in the face. Spittle had flown from his mouth. He’d issued his challenge with absolute faith: Try bad-mouthing me to her. She’ll drop you like the garbage you are.

He had been rummaging in a drawer while shouting obscenities at Rico when the door flew open. What are you bellowing about now, Bram? A tiny woman in a sari had pushed her way into the room and Rico had pushed his way out, done with this bullshit.

Your daughter is a whore like you. That’s what I’m bellowing about. Those were the last words Rico remembered hearing.

Ashna had found him underneath the bleachers. Angrier than he’d ever been in his life. Your father’s a sick asshole. How can you stand to be around him?

He’s my father, Rico.

And that explains so much. I don’t think I can deal with him for the rest of my life.

What are you saying? Are you leaving me?

Without waiting for an answer, she had run out of there. Had she really believed that’s what he’d been doing? Leaving her because he hated her father?

Rico had waited there all night. She hadn’t come back. No matter how much he’d begged after that, she hadn’t come back.

“What did your father say to you, Ash? What did he say that changed everything?”

She pushed her hair off her face with both hands and gaped at him, so much horror in her face it was like these past hours hadn’t happened.

“I had never fought with my father, Rico. Never. Not until that day when I told him I couldn’t live without you, and I wasn’t going to. But when I came to you, you had already met him and you didn’t want me. Not after you’d seen the ugliness I came from. Just the way my father said you wouldn’t.”