Keegan POV:“What the hell is he doing here?” she asked, running her hand over her hair and tugging at her ponytail, removing it. “My guess is, he’s hoping I got some answers from you or he has found something out.”“So, either way, he’s looking for information,” she said through her clenched teeth. There was more to her anger about her father, there had to be. It wasn’t Clement’s fault that he was absent from her life. So, why was she so angry?“You’s going to have to give him something,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck. “Or else he will never leave.”Without looking away from the monitor, she said, “We don’t want that.” She didn’t seem aware that she had said it out loud. Did she want to continue what she had started downstairs?I was sweating, still hard and my back stung with a few scratches from when Vianne had pulled o

Keegan POV:We all listened with rapt attention as she continued weaving her story. She had remained with Brant, recording conversations with shady politicians and keeping records of his abuse, all the while starting to skim money from credit cards and bank accounts. Then she hit the jackpot. For someone who didn’t like crime, she had a knack for it. Maybe it ran in her blood. “I managed to record a conversation. He had a nice little nest egg of about ten million dollars, all from his father’s campaign funds through the years and some shady business dealings. I finally had what I needed to blackmail him. So, with little difficulty, I made arrangements. I knew that my mother and sister wouldn’t be safe. Brant would use them to get to me. I sent them away. Brant thought they were going backpacking around the country. Then I confronted him.”“I threw copies of my files and recordings at him and told him that Claire and I

Keegan POV:Clement stiffened. He rose to his feet, both of his hands clenched into fists. “Are you telling me that the bastard raped you?”She shook her head violently, looking over her shoulder to check on Claire and then back to Clement. “Keep your voice down. He didn’t manage to,” she added when her father sat back down. “I reached for the nearby lamp on the bedside table and hit him.”Clement visibly calmed but barely. He was sitting stiffly, his whole body radiating anger. Not that I blamed him. I felt the same way towards Brant and the situation as a whole. “After I knocked him out, I left him a note. I told him that his father would be receiving information that someone was stealing from him and that if he came for us again, I would disclose everything to his father and the media.”“You blackmailed him again?” I asked. “Do you have any idea what you have done? That man

Keegan POV:“Oh, Keegan,” Vianne said from behind me. I turned toward her and smiled. I looked at Claire, who had her arms crossed over her chest, glaring at me?Like mother like daughter. “Claire,” I said softly, dejected as I looked away. I had never been at the end of a look from a little girl like that. I knelt beside the door I had to work on, putting my tools down, not sure what to say to her. I knelt beside the door I had to work on, putting my tools down, not sure what to say to her. I heard Claire sigh, and then, I felt her tiny body tackle me to the floor. Vianne chided her softly, but I could hear the laughter in her voice. Claire tugged on my hair so that I would look at her. “Don’t break your promise,” she pronounced each word as if each one was a statement. The promise was about what I had said to her when she had arrived. To take the hurt away, to make sure the monster never got her mother

Keegan POV:The rest of the day passed by slowly and I spent the afternoon completely avoiding the woman that called to me like no one had before her. An hour after the incident in the office, she knocked on the door, letting me know that dinner was ready. When I had made my way to it, she was already gone. I ran my hands through my hair in frustration for the remainder of the day. Dinner was mostly in silence. Vianne only spoke when someone asked a question, though she was more lively when she spoke to Claire. Me, however, she answered in one or two words. I hated it but knew that it was for the best. How many times did I have to tell myself before I truly believed it?Claire kept looking between us and sighed, no doubt sensing the tension. After dinner, Vianne and I sat down with her daughter. We discussed all the rules and things she could tell her friends she made while at school. We had her repeat everything back to us until she got the sto