She continues to stare at me, but then the frown eases, she nods, her hand releases mine. I bend over slightly, scooping her up easily enough given how slight she is. At first, she’s stiff in my hold and I have to jostle her around in order to find a position where I have some leverage to keep her held against my front.
After a few moments she begins to relax, her arms loop around my neck, her head resting against my shoulder. She sighs and I rub her back as I head for the door. “I got you, princess. I got you.”
38
ANSWERS, TAKE ONE
PRESENT DAY…
REN
Lilith stopped speakingseveral minutes ago, but here we are, still in complete silence. I have plenty I want to say, but since this is about Cassidy, I feel I should give her a chance to set the tone before I jump in with my complete outrage.
“Ferro,” she finally whispers her head turning toward me. “Isn’t Jessica’s husband a Ferro?”
“I think so, yes,” I respond, relatively certain this to be the case even though I’ve never met the man.
Cassidy leans toward the phone and asks, “Are you related to Jessica’s husband?”
Lilith’s laugh burst through the phone and then she states, “Only by choice, though, I did name him, too.”
It’s funny how such a notoriously blunt person can come off as speaking in riddles so often. But then she adds, “My daughter is married to Declan’s brother, Darius. Darius is old friends with Jessica’s husband, Matt. But I didn’t know him so well back when I met you.”
Cassidy looks at Conrad, her expression uncertain. “Are you my father?”
His eyes widen in surprise, obviously startled by her question, but then his brows lower, his expression slightly angry as he responds, “Of course I’m your father, I?—”
She raises her hand, and he stops speaking. Then she says, “Are we blood-related or not?”
He flinches as if slapped then sputters, “Yes, we are.”
“How is that possible?”
“Miranda paid off a tech at the spunk clinic,” Lilith interjects. “And then used it to inseminate her own daughter.”
Cassidy raises a brow, appearing slightly disgusted as she asks, “Spunk…clinic?...”
Conrad coughs, frowns at the phone as he explains, “I had a cancer scare at one point and was advised to collect semen because some treatments could leave me sterile.”
Cassidy’s eyes widen and she goes to respond but Conrad puts his hand up. “It’s fine, Cassidy. It ended up being nothing because it was just part of Miranda’s master plan. She engineered the entire thing.”
“How do you know that?”
“Amber told us,” Lilith answers. “Before the police took her away.”
“So, Amber was charged?”
“Yes.”
“And locked away?”
“Yes.”
Cassidy falls silent for a moment; her face twisted with emotion. And then she says, “But she was a victim, too, just like I was.”
“Yes.”
“She wasn’t fit to stand trial,” Conrad explains. “So, she was placed in a suitable psychiatric facility.”
