For the first time, I truly understood the depths of his delusion; the lengths he was willing to go to in order to maintain control and protect what he believed was his. And I realized no amount of pleading, no amount of reasoning, would change his mind. He’d crossed a line, and there was no going back.
A part of me wanted to scream, to fight, to do anything to break free from his grip—from the suffocating reality of what was happening. But another part of me—a quieter, more resigned part—knew this was the end of the road. My father had made his choice, and now I had to make mine.
Everything he’d ever done had been about control; about keeping me under his thumb, ensuring I never had the strengthnor the will to defy him. And now he was showing me just how far he was willing to go to maintain that control.
My vision started to darken, my thoughts becoming sluggish as the lack of air took its toll. I knew I had to act—to do something, anything, before it was too late—but my body felt heavy and unresponsive, as if my will to fight was slipping away with each passing second.
We all knew nothing would be the same after this. Even if Max signed the papers, even if my father kept his word, the damage would be done. The trust, the hope, and the future we’d imagined would be ruined beyond repair.
I knew what the marina meant to Max—what it represented. It was more than just property to him, and he wouldn’t hand it over easily.
“I can’t,” Max finally said, his words hanging in the air like a death sentence.
A cold, mirthless laugh escaped my father’s lips, echoing off the warehouse walls. It was the laugh of a man who thought he’d won and believed he held all the cards. “You’d really choose the marina over my daughter?” he sneered, his eyes full of malicious intent. “I told you, Rose. The Romanos are all the same.”
Max shook his head slowly. “I would never choose anything before Rosalie. But the marina isn’t mine to sign over.” Max’s eyes never left my father’s. “The signature you need is from the person you’re holding a gun to.”
Suddenly, the realization hit my father. The marina was in my name, not Max’s.
He lifted the gun from my head, and for the first time in what felt like an eternity, I could breathe again. My father’s eyes met my own, and in them, I saw something I never expected.
Desperation.
They begged for mercy, the cold, calculating man replaced by someone I couldn’t believe. The realization he’d lost control,that the power he’d thought he had was slipping through his fingers, was written all over his face. For a man who’d always been so sure of himself, so certain of his ability to manipulate and control, this moment was his undoing. He looked at me with the panicked eyes of someone who’d just realized the ground beneath him was crumbling away.
“Rose ...” my father started, his voice on the verge of trembling. The confidence that once defined him had vanished. He was reaching out to me, but I found no comfort in his attempts.
“You held a gun to my head,” I said, the words slipping from my mouth. I was barely able to register them aloud, let alone process them in my own mind. My voice felt distant, hollow, as if it were coming from someone else. I’d never thought I’d be in this position, facing my father’s betrayal. The reality of what had just happened, of what he’d been willing to do, was something I couldn’t quite comprehend.
Slowly, deliberately, I took the gun from his hands. He didn’t resist. His arms fell limp at his sides, weighed down by the crushing weight of his regret. I could see the struggle in his eyes, the way he wrestled with the enormity of what he’d almost done. The realization his own actions had led to this moment of complete and utter defeat.
“Youkilled Sean ... didn’t you?”
“I-I thought I could—” he stammered, his voice faltering as the truth hit him harder than a tidal wave. He’d cornered himself, trapped by his own schemes. The power he’d thought he held crumbled like ashes in his hands.
I stared at him, the gun still heavy in my grip. Slowly, I released the chamber, letting the bullets fall to the ground with a dull clatter. Each one echoed in the silence.
The gun was nothing but a hollow shell, just like the man standing before me.
“You were going to hurt me to get the marina?” I almost didn’t want him to answer me, yet I needed to hear it. “Then what?”
My father’s mouth opened and closed, but no words came out. There was nothing he could say, no excuse to justify the betrayal, the sheer horror, of what he’d been willing to do. His eyes filled with tears. “I thought ... I thought I was doing it for you,” he finally managed, choked with emotion. “I thought I could protect you—that I could make everything right again.”
The words felt like a twisted mockery of the truth. He’d convinced himself this was all for me; that his actions, lies, manipulations, were somehow justified because he’d done them out of love. But love didn’t look like this. Love didn’t come with the steel of a cold gun pressed against your child’s head.
“No,” I said, shaking my head slowly. “This wasn’t for me. This was never for me.”
He flinched at my words, the truth cutting deeper than any bullet ever could. His shoulders sagged, and he looked down at the ground, unable to meet my gaze.
“I’ve lost—” he started, but his voice cracked.
“You lost everything,” I interrupted, my voice cold and distant.
My father opened his mouth to speak again, but the words never came. The realization of what he’d lost was written across his face. He’d gambled everything—the family, my trust—and now he was left with nothing.
“I want you to go,” I demanded, my tone leaving no room for argument. “I don’t ever want to see you again.”
My father’s eyes widened in shock, and for a moment he just stood there, frozen. He looked like he wanted to say something, to argue, to beg for forgiveness, but all that came out was a strangled whisper. “Rose, please ...”
