“Fuck,” he chokes out.“He really is… there’s nothing he won’t do…”
He sits beside me, staring at the wall like he’s looking into the abyss.
“Nate, what are we going to do?”he whispers.
“I don’t know yet.”
Silence settles between us.Not heavy—just tired.
Then Jake speaks, voice soft, almost ashamed: “You still love her, huh?”
“I never stopped.”
He nods once.
“Then don’t fuck it up this time.Make all of this right.”
CHAPTER29
THE SINS OF OUR FATHER
JAKE
My hands won’t stop shakingas the last of Dad’s files transfer—financial records, communications, lists, contacts.His entire darkness laid out in neat little folders.
It’s a fucked up kind of organized evil.
One folder in particular—the one that proves what he almost did to Nora—makes my stomach flip in a way that has nothing to do with fear and everything to do with guilt.
When Nate told me they’d found nothing the other night, something in me snapped into overdrive.Dad doesn’t “get rid of” evidence.
He relocates it, hides it.
So I dug.
Hard.
His calendar, construction schedules, property permits.And there it was—brand new estate, conveniently filed right when Nick and Danny started sniffing around.
Classic Scott Sullivan: always three moves ahead, always anticipating, always watching.
Only this time, I was watching him.
The half-built house feels like a mausoleum—silent, unfinished, cold.The kind of place where bad things happen because no one’s around to hear you scream.Every creak in the wood hits me like gunfire.
I keep checking my phone.
Where the hell is Nate?
He said ten minutes and it’s been close to twenty now.
And of course, my brain decidesnowis a great time to dump the entire Nora situation on me.
God, I was such an idiot.
She was my best friend, and instead of acting like it, I let jealousy turn me into a complete asshole.I pushed her and I hurt her.I tried to wedge myself between her and Nate like I had any right.
And yeah—everyone knew.
