48. Renee

Sutton and I exchange pained looks. ”How”d he find you?” she whisper-yells.

”I don”t know. I don’t fucking know.” Spies, probably. Or he hired someone to hack into satellites to pinpoint my location. At this point, I wouldn”t be surprised if my father had a subdermal tracking device implanted in the base of my skull or something.

There”s no way out of this place but through the very door my father”s guarding.

KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK. “Renee!”

He”s more persistent now.

”I can tell him to go away?” Sutton suggests. ”He can”t come into your room if you say you don”t want him here.”

Yeah, maybe that’d be true—in a normal hospital where grown women don”t have to submit to the tyranny of their psychopathic, controlling fathers. But with the amount of money my father has sunken into this place? Alistair Dubois might as well own the building, the dirt the building is on, and every family of every person who”s ever stepped foot in this place.

And everyone who works here knows it.

I bury my face in my hands and dig the heels of my palms to the sockets of my eyes, like it”s going to force the impending tears back where they came from.

”This fucking blows.”

I straighten out, take a deep breath and steel myself. The switch flips so quick to the Renee Dubois who’s had to survive under her parents for more than half her life. That Renee has put all the things her father taught her right back to use against him.

I open the door with more confidence than I really have and face my father head-on.

Two things bring me some relief.

One: my mother isn”t with him.

Two: Deacon isn”t with him, either.

It”s a godsend that neither of them are here. It”s easier to deal with my father on his own without having some snake in his corner whispering lies.

When my father sees me, he doesn”t even look surprised as he takes in my attire, my bruises, my general state of disarray. He just looks mildly disgusted and majorly disappointed. ”You look like a cheap whore.”

”Does Mother know that you know what a cheap whore looks like?”

”Don”t be glib, Renee. It doesn”t suit you.”

He sweeps into the hospital room, squinting around with hard-eyed scrutiny, like he”s trying to discern if they”ve done enough with the money he”s given them.

”Hmm.” His attention turns back to me and Sutton and nods curtly Sutton”s way. ”You can leave.”

”Like hell I can!” Sutton snaps. ”I”m not leaving her alone with you, you fucking pit viper.”

My father merely regards her. It”s a look so many of my friends got growing up. A gaze that said without even deigning to say it that they were nothing to my father. So beneath him they were barely worth considering.

I want to rip that smug, sneering look right off his face.

Instead, I bring his attention back to me. ”What a surprise to see you. I was just about to leave.”

”Were you? But we have so much to discuss.”

”I don”t think so.” I hold more confidence in my voice than I”m actually feeling. I know my father came bearing bad news. That doesn”t mean I have to take it belly up.

”Renee, let”s not play these silly little games of yours. It”s unbecoming for a woman of your age and in your condition. It”s already enough that you went and got yourself in trouble. You were supposed to be discreet.”

He has some nerve. I grit my teeth. ”I wasn”t the one that told people I was here. Blame the employees at a hospital you basically run.”

”You put yourself in this position. Don”t deflect when your mistakes have directly caused this foolishness. But don”t worry—as you are being held responsible for your actions, the gossipers in question will be held responsible for theirs. They will not have the chance to do so ever again.”

How charming.”You just love ruining people”s lives, don”t you?”

He sniffles, tip of his nose twitching with the motion. ”Merely delivering people”s just desserts for their actions.”

”That”s an interesting interpretation of tyranny.”

The corner of my father”s mouth actually quirks. ”As delightful as this conversation may be, I”m here to do what I always do, Renee, which is clean up your messes. And this is a serious one.” His head tilts. ”Luckily for you, Deacon stepped up to the plate and came up with an idea I”m rather fond of. I”m sure you”ll be on board, given how desolate your other options are.”

As soon as Deacon”s name comes up, my heart plummets all over again.

One thing’s for sure: I”m not going to like this.

Not one bit.