#Chapter 179 – A Job for my Husband

My father leads me to a little sitting room just off the dining room, built for little chats like this. We settle on a sofa where we can still see most of the action at the party, and where, indeed, I have a direct view of Tristin, who glares daggers at me while she holds my baby sister on her lap. Romulus leans across her, stealing a piece of chocolate from her plate, about which she doesn’t notice or doesn’t care. She’s too busy hating me. I grimace a little, but turn my attention to my father, who focuses on me. “What is wrong, daughter,” he says, raising a hand to my cheek and cupping my face softly in his palm. “I can see that you are worried.” “It’s nothing,” I say, laughing a little and raising my hand to cover my father’s, pretending a fondness and affection that belies the rage that burns in me whenever I look at this man. Because I have not forgotten, not for a moment, what Ivan told us: that my father was the one who, alongside him, sold Kent out. That in exchange for