All Chapters of Daddy's Little Secret : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Melissa's POVI thought silence was safe once.That if only i kept quiet, kept secrets locked in the deepest parts of my chest, nobody would notice and nobody would be able to use them against me but now, under Eleanor’s poisonous smile and Jamal’s burning stare, silence felt like a loaded gun in my hands and one wrong word or none at all and everything I’d fought to hold together would shatter.I couldn’t look at him. Not when Eleanor’s words still echoed: She’s been playing both sides.It was a lie. God, it has to be. But Jamal did not know that. And the pungency of his suspicion stung worse than anything Eleanor was capable of."Melissa." His voice was harsh, gravelly, like raw splintered rocks. He still held my hand, but the grip had changed. Less hold, more restraint. "What she says."My throat closed and the truth was there, yearning to be released but fear hung like an anvil.If i told him the truth, would he hate me or would he think me weak, manipulative, unworthy of his love

Melissa's POVThe door shut and the sound echoed like thunder inside me, rattling my ribs and shattering the last gasp i had been holding as i stood in the middle of the room, my knees shaking, my heart crumbling in a way i did not believe possible.He had walked out and not with a flash of fury in his eyes, not with the same sort of anger I'd witnessed Jamal wield like a tool to slice into the world. No, this was more terrible as he just left me with nothing but silence, with coldness and with the type of detachment that felt ultimate.I pressed a trembling hand to my chest like i could hold myself together until i could begin to fall apart."Melissa, darling" Eleanor said, stepping in "Do you feel it now and was that hollow space where his trust used to reside and that's what happens when you play with fire. It burns you eventually"I faced her, my tears blurring my vision and fury trembling on my mouth "You did this, you put this poison between us"She arched a brow, face calm and

Melissa's POVRain clung to my skin like it had frozen there as i slid between the iron gates and my heart was racing so furiously, i thought it would tear itself out of my chest with each footstep on the gravel driveway echoed too loud but i pushed myself forward and i couldn't go back now not when everything I’d tried to bury was clawing its way back to the surface.Jamal’s voice had reached me, sharp and commanding even through the storm. I’d heard the anger, the confusion, the ache and God help me, part of me had wanted to stop, to run back to him and to collapse into his arms and confess everything but the other half that had come to be skilled at surviving secrets and lies understood that this was something i had to do alone.Lightning ripped the sky in two, illuminating the long, sweeping drive ahead of me and the headlights of a black vehicle flickered once briefly, just past the bend and my gut twisted that he was here...the one who had been lurking at the periphery of my lif

Melissa's POVRain had soaked through my clothing and chilled my skin but the rain hadn't made me shiver as Jamal's eyes had. Those same eyes that had comforted me, desired me and made me unattainable. Now they looked at me as an outsider who stood amidst the wreckage of everything we had built together and all because of Dante's poison."Jamal please" I stuttered, attempting to close the step of distance he had newly created between us. That one step was a gulf. If i let it grow wider, i could lose myself.He tilted his head slow and measured and the rain ran down his sharp jawline, obscuring the tears i was certain i had seen hiding there "Why can't you just say it Melissa? Look at me and tell me Dante's lying. Tell me you never" His voice broke and he fell silent, swallowing hard "Tell me you never gave yourself to him"My chest caved in, lungs straining with the weight of the truth he did not want to hear as i could have shrieked the refusal he desired and i could have hurled word

Melissa's POVThe air in the room reeked of rust and moisture with the sort of pungent metal taste that hung at the back of your throat and refused to dissipate and my wrists throbbed, trussed up with thick rope that bit into my skin whenever i moved with my legs secured to the chair, the wooden frame groaning as i tried to move and yet, the actual prison was not the ropes or the chair, it was the figure that moved across the room, slow and deliberate, savoring my fear like a good wine.Dante rested against one of the metal beams, pockets filled with his hands like meeting me for a beer at a pub. His eyes was sharp and predatory, never leaving my face."You look good like that" he said at last, voice silky smooth but with the bite of venom "Vulnerably quiet just the way i remember you"I winced with the words, abhorring myself for letting even the tiniest crack appear. Fear strengthened him as he lived on it and yet, despite my best efforts, my body betrayed me and my heart thundered