“You’re not going to apologize? You knew how we felt about each other for weeks before that night. Months! This wasn’t something that just popped up out of nowhere. You knew, and you lied to me. You took away the one thing that brought me happiness, and shattered my entire world. And you didn’t even have the decency to tell me the truth.”
“It’s not that easy!” he shouted.
“It is! Just admit that you lied and tell me you’re sorry. You were wrong.”
“I did what I thought was best.”
“Bullshit!”
He pointed a finger at me. “You’re still my daughter, and I’m still your father, in case you’ve forgotten. Watch your mouth.”
“Or what? You’ll take something else away to punish me? There’s nothing left to take. You’ve hurt both of us, me and Huck. You’ve hurt us, too,” I said, gesturing between us.
He stared through the bars, his big body in shadows, firelight outlining his troubled profile. His throat bobbed. “I know that,” he said.
That was probably the closest he’d come to saying “I’m sorry.” I should have been satisfied, but I wasn’t. I was just... disappointed.
“I want you to know something,” I said. “If we get out of this alive, I’m not going back home to New York unless Huck comes with us.”
His brow lowered. Jaw shifted.
“Theo, I beg you. Can we please talk about this some other time? When we’re not behind bars in a madman’s lair?” He shook his head as if to clear it. Exhaled heavily. Then, in a softer voice, he asked, “You sure you trust the herbalist woman? The boy’s going to be okay?”
“If he’s not, I’ll blame you.”
He snorted a cynical laugh. “Get in line.”
“Stop acting like you don’t care. I know you do!”
“None of this is turning out how I planned. You aren’t supposed to be here. You were supposed to be safe in Istanbul. Huck and I were supposed to find the ring in Tokat, and it was supposed to be the right ring, and then I could have beat Rothwild at his own wicked game and taken it back home. The ring is your mother’s ancestry, and it belongs to her. I just... wanted to find it for her,” he said, leaning against the wall. He slid down it and sat on the rocky floor. Defeated.
All the times I’d resented my father and wanted to prove him wrong.
This was as close as I’d come.
Strangely enough, it was less satisfying than I’d imagined.
“If Mother were alive, she’d be more concerned about keeping all of us together as a family than a ring.”
He sighed as if the entire mountain had settled onto his shoulders.
“I could have helped, you know,” I said. “This summer. If I had, things may have turned out differently.”
“Maybe.”
“But you never let me help you. You just stick me in hotel rooms, and that’s not fair to either one of us. I don’t need your protection. I need your confidence. I needyou.”
“Empress...”
“Never mind,” I mumbled. “Just forget it.”
I hadn’t even meant to get into this with him. I needed to concentrate on figuring out an escape plan. So I methodically checked the bars, looking for a chink. A flaw. Something loose. There had to be a way out. If I could just focus harder. If I could stop thinking about Huck’s ashen face. Now that Father was questioning my trust in Lovena and the twins, it made me doubt myself. I’d abandoned Huck with strangers—and for what? To get locked up with my father? Who wasn’t speaking to me now?
There was no use trying. The prison cell wasn’t a puzzle that could be solved. All of this was a mistake. I was no better than Father. I’d failed.
Despondent, I gave up and sat down against the wall across from him. We sat together in silence. Both defeated.
Twenty-five across, “all-time low.” R-O-C-K-B-O-T-T-O-M.
