He knows something.
“It seems,” he said slowly, as if he read her mind, “I am not the only one in this family with secrets.”
Theodora’s stomach dropped. “What are you talking about?”
“You know damn well what I am talking about!”
“I do not! And anyway…no secret would be big enough to cover up yours!” she retorted.
Lord Dowell smirked. “Are you certain?”
Before she could answer, her father turned, slammed the glass on a counter, and left the library. Theodora stood frozen as dread crept up her spine. She didn’t know what he was doing, but she knew it wasn’t good. She knew that look in his eyes because she had seen it before. It was the look of a man who believed he had found leverage.
When he returned, he held something in his hand that looked oddly familiar. Theodora felt her face flush with anger and embarrassment.
“That is mine! You have no right reading it,” she hissed at him.
Her blood ran cold when he held the notebook up between two fingers, as though it was covered in filth.
“Theo, I knoweverythingyou have been doing.”
Her breath caught. “Father?—”
“I know all about how you have been flirting with men,” he continued, voice dripping with disdain. “How you have been sneaking around and meeting the Duke of Hawthorne in secret to… ‘experiment.’”
Her father flipped the notebook open, pages fluttering like wounded wings. “Do you think I am blind? Do you think I do not know what this implies?”
“This is rich, coming from a man who could not keep his marital vows!”
Lord Dowell’s face reddened.
“You have been disgracing this family! You have been making a fool of yourself and of me!” he roared.
Theodora flinched but held her head up. Her own anger flared like an uncontained fire. “You do not need my help in making yourself a fool.”
“How dare you?” he snapped and stepped closer, eyes blazing with fury. “You have been meeting a man in secret then coming home and writing about how you have been letting him touch you.”
He pointed an accusing finger in her face. “Do not pretend innocence. I know exactly what kind of girl you have become.”
Theodora’s breath shook. “You know nothing about me.”
“I know enough,” he said. “Enough to keep you locked in this house until you remember your place.”
She stared at him, horror and fury swirling inside her. He had readeverything. Every line she had written about Alexander. He had taken her mind, the one thing she had always believed was hers alone, and turned it into a weapon against her.
Her father snapped the notebook shut. “This ends now.”
Theodora’s entire body went cold. The words struck her roundly, hollowing her out from the inside. She stared at the notebook in his hand.
Her father paced once, slowly, as though savoring the moment.
“What are you going to do?” Her voice sounded small and helpless.
“I have a plan,” he said simply.
“Youhave a plan?”
“Yes,” he replied, turning towards her with a look of self-satisfaction that made her feel nauseas with fear. “I always have a plan.”
