“He wouldn’t. My father loved his employees⁠—”

“He loved you more,” he said with a frown. “He wanted the best life for you. A life where you’d grow up with no worries.”

I swallowed my words. I didn’t know what to say. Should I curse him? Should I deny it? But after what I saw with Nick… Was Warren truly lying?

“So it’s my fault?”

“Babygirl, none of it is your fault,” he said. “Not his actions, nor your mother’s. You aren’t them. They made their choices.”

I finally let go of him to wipe my tears. I fucking hated this.

“So you what? Just sold him out? He did some shitty things, but as his friend⁠—”

“Do you know how my adoptive father died?” he asked.

I shook my head.

“His employer had him working long, exhausting hours with hazardous materials. One day, when he finally was hurt badly enough, do you know what the insurance company said when we tried to get them to pay for his life-saving procedure?”

I didn’t like where this was going. I knew the end of the story without him even saying it.

“His employer never activated it. Took money out of his paycheck, thousands of dollars, and never activated it. He had no money, was unable to work… unable to provide for himself.” Warren’s voice was thick with grief. “I had just made enough. I was going that day to show them proof of funds and…”

“I’m sorry, Warren.” I cleared my throat. “But that has nothing to do with⁠—”

“Ask me where he worked, Addi.”

No.

I shook my head. I didn’t want to hear it. I looked away. His hand came to grip my chin and forced me to look at him.

“Just like you, I wanted revenge,” he said. “It took me some time, but I was patient. I wanted him to suffer the consequences of his actions. I wanted everyone to know what a shit person he was. Even if Alec was still my best friend, my father was everything to me. And he didn’t deserve what he got. He didn’t deserve to die that way.”

Betrayal hit me like a punch to my gut. I didn’t want to believe him. I wanted to yell at him.

But his eyes were red-rimmed. His grip on my chin was weakening, shaking.

“You loved my father,” I whispered.

All he could do was give me a nod.

“If I had known what he’d do, I would have found another way, Addi. Believe me.”

“Did you…” I didn’t want to ask. Didn’t want to ruin the one thing I had left. But I had to. “Did you come for me? Did you come to try to corrupt his little girl as revenge?”

A frown marred his handsome face.