But believing him doesn’t do a thing to help ease the overwhelming sense I’ve been deceived. Seven slept with me under false pretenses and kept it a secret all this time! It’s a betrayal that stings. A violation. I can’t resist the temptation to lash out.
“Arden is notyours,” I snap, my face hot with rage.
“She is, Sophia. Godmother confirmed it. She’s half leprechaun.”
I glare at him, and everything I am feeling must come through as clear as day because he takes a large step back. “You might be her father, but she isn’tyours. Was it you who fed her in the middle of the night and rocked her back to sleep? Picked her up when she fell and kissed her boo-boos? Did you teach her how to ride a bike and how to stand up to the bullies at school?” I hold up a finger between us. “You might be her father, but she is notyours.”
His throat bobs on a swallow. “You’re right. It was a poor choice of words.” Tension thickens the air between us. “I’m sorry this is how you found out. I wish there was an easier way. I should have told you… before. Even before Godmother confirmed it. I just...couldn’t.”
I bury my face in my trembling hands, all my cherished memories of Dark Stranger rushing back to me. Those memories and Kiko—oh gods, she came from Seven!— kept me alive the years I was living on the streets. I try to reconcile everything that happened that night with the man standing in front of me and all that’s happened over the last weeks. I have to swallow down the emotion rising in my throat and I sob openly from the effort.
I want to kill him. I want to run into his arms.
“Please forgive me,” he rasps. “I was so young. I couldn’t say no to you.” He rubs my shoulders. “What can I do? How can I make this better?”
“Godmother told you not to tell me, didn’t she?” I say through my teeth, lowering my hands to look at him. I know it’s true, and I know why.
He takes a deep breath. “She refused to confirm Arden was mine until we solved the case, and threatened to not tell me at all if I confessed that I was the one who was with you that night before then. She said it might interfere with our work. Once we solved the case and she finally told me Arden was my daughter, I came to the hospital to tell you, but she convinced me it would ruin your life and Arden’s. She told me if I loved you, I’d stay away from you.”
My conversation with her in the hospital comes back to me—the way her eyes twinkled when she’d said there had never been anyone like Arden. She knew. Sheknew!And not only did she not tell me, she used her influence to convince Seven not to. “Godmother never does anything out of the goodness of her heart. There’s a reason she didn’t want you to tell me, and it isn’t to save me or Arden from pain.”
“Godmother stores up secrets like currency.” He runs a hand down his face. “And this is a powerful secret.”
My mood darkens further the more I think about it. Exhaustion and hunger combine to stir my stomach, and I brace myself against the wall.
Seven reaches out slowly, cautiously, his eyes meeting mine in silent question. I give him a barely perceptible nod. “Come to the kitchen. I’ll make tea.”
I allow him to wrap an arm around my shoulders and usher me out the door. He leads me to a surprisingly cozy kitchen in the otherwise modern penthouse and starts a kettle. The sound of the steam building fills the space. All of what he’s told me swirls in my brain, and I feel the seed of an intense and prickly emotion forming deep within me. I repress the urge to cough. “Everything changes now. It has to.”
He spoons loose tea into a pot and pours in the boiling water. Reaching above his head, he retrieves two mugs from the cupboard and sets them on the counter. When he speaks again, it’s with the confidence and authority of a man who fills out every inch of the suits he wears daily.
“In all likelihood, my father will spend the rest of his life in prison. Evangeline has no children. My mother has cut all ties with the family. As my daughter, Arden is the sole heir to my half of the Delaney fortune. It won’t matter that she’s part pixie, Sophia. The leprechaun elite will want to meet her. She’ll become the most eligible bachelorette in Devashire overnight.”
I can’t keep my face from betraying my feelings. “You say it like it’s a good thing, but they won’t want her for her. Those elites are a pack of wolves desperate to bite a piece off of her. She can’t even wield luck! They’ll eat her alive!”
He presses his lips into a thin line. “She can wield luck. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. She’s been using her luck all along.”
I think back to what he said in his secured room. “You think she protected me when I was living in the US?”
“Iknowshe did. And when she called your parents and they needed help getting you back, I just happened to be standing right next to Godmother when she got the call.”
I can’t believe I didn’t see the signs. “But if Arden’s fae, why couldn’t she pass through the moon gate?”
“The ward keeps out anyone foreign to Devashire. Any fairy born outside the boundaries might have had the same problem until Godmother welcomed them in and they became a citizen of Devashire.”
Lifting the mug, I take a sip of tea. It’s too hot, and it burns my tongue. I stare at the mug as if it’s betrayed me. “She got herself into Bailiwick’s, didn’t she?”
“She did. I was prepared to help her, but I didn’t need to.” Seven said something like this before but I discounted it. “She doesn’t know she’s doing it, Sophia. It’s as natural to her as breathing.”
I bury my face in my hands. “Oh my gods, Seven! What are we going to do? All she knows is the human world. She’s wanted to be a doctor since she was twelve. Her entire life, we’ve made decisions based on the assumption she was a US citizen, human, and born on US soil. This means she’s not. She’s one hundred percent fae. If this comes out, she won’t be able to leave Devashire. They’ll suspend her passport again.”
“She seems happy enough here.” His expression is controlled, but I glimpse a spark of hope.
“Because she thinks her stay is temporary. This will crush her.”
“Maybe not. I hear she’s thriving at Bailiwick’s.”
I stare down into my tea, my thoughts racing. “Who knows about this, other than us?”
