His head turned towards me, and for one desperate beat, I thought he’d reach for me.
Instead, his face contorted with pure hatred—red and twisted and ugly.
“You!” he bellowed. “You Judas! You—you Jezebel!”
I jerked back like I’d been slapped. “Father—I don’t—I didn’t—”
I tried to get closer, but arms locked around me from behind—Daddy’s arms—hauling me back against his chest. I fought him without thinking, struggling in his hold. He didn’t understand. I needed to get to Father. I needed to—
Father’s gaze sliced past me.
To Daddy.
“It was you!” he snarled, bearing his teeth. “I should have known! I should never have taken a chance on you. You did this—you brought them here!”
Daddy went rigid behind me, his grip tightening protectively. I could feel his heartbeat against my back—badump, badump, badump.
I reached toward Father again, even though Daddy was holding me too tightly to move forward. “Father—please—I don’t understand—why are you—?”
But Father refused to look at me again, keeping his furious glare fixed on the man at my back.
“Father, please—” I tried again, my voice breaking.
“Shut up!” he roared, finally tearing his gaze from Daddy to look at me with disgust. “I should’ve known you’d be a goddamn back-stabbing whore, just like your mother!”
His words didn’t just hit me—they split me open.
For a second, I didn’t understand them—not really. My mind tried to twist them into something else, some other meaning, because he couldn’t have said what I thought he said. Not Father. NotmyFather. Not the man whose approval I’d starved for, whose voice had shaped my entire world and existence.
But his face—his face left no room for misunderstanding.
“Father—w-wait—” My voice came out in a whispery gasp. “No, I-I didn’t—”
“Don’t lie to me!” he spat, lunging against the strangers holding him. “After everything I did for you? After everything I forgave? This is how you repay me?”
My stomach lurched. My breath stuttered out in short, broken bursts.
Forgave?
Forgavewhat?
“I didn’t—” My throat tightened, the words scraping painfully. “Father, I swear, I didn’t do anything—please—please don’t say that—”
“Whore,” Father hissed. “You betrayed us. Betrayedme.You let him corrupt you.” His chin jerked toward Daddy. “You’ve been rotting ever since your mother put you into this world, and I should have cleansed that stain years ago.”
I felt Daddy stiffen behind me, heard a dangerous rumble in his chest.
But I couldn’t even look back at him.
The world had narrowed to Father’s words.
Father’s face.
Father’s hatred.
My lungs felt like they were folding inward, collapsing like burned paper. “P-please—Father, please—don’t—don’t say that,” I begged, tears flooding my vision, burning my already stinging cheek. “I can do better, I can—just tell me what I did, tell me, and I’ll fix it, I promise, I—”
“Fixit?” He laughed—a horrible, broken, mocking sound. “You think you can fixthis? You think you can fix what you are?”
