Forsaken (The Secret Life of Amy Bensen #3)(77)

“What happened to my father?”

“I don’t know, sweetheart. I knew he’d been killed. I knew it was probably murder, and I wanted the hell out to protect my family.”

Her face crumples and she bursts into tears. I release her arms and hold her, burying my face in her hair. “I’m sorry, Gia. If I’d known who you were, I would have told you sooner.”

Her arms wrap around my neck, and relief at the acceptance in the act washes over me. “I didn’t really believe you did. But you kept talking about regret, and how bad you are, and it’s my father, and I was tormented and scared because—”

I lean back, trying to see her face in the darkness. “Because?”

“Because I was afraid I was blinded by what I feel for you.”

“Which is what?”

“Too much. Too much.”

“Not enough,” I say, lifting myself off of her and scooping her up. She curls into me, shivering in my arms. I quickly cover the stretch of beach, walking up the steps to the empty porch. Eager to warm her up, I track through the living area and down the long hallway. I enter our bedroom, kicking the door shut, the moon finally peeking from behind the clouds, illuminating the dark room through the sheer blinds.

Bypassing the bed, knowing we need to talk and figure out where this has led us, I settle Gia on a chaise near the double doors leading to our private patio, grabbing the blanket on the back and covering her. She curls her knees to her chest, and it’s torture, but I do not touch her. Even so, the enormity of the situation is starting to hit me.

“Were you plotting revenge against me?”

“Oh, God. No, Chad! I didn’t even know my father was murdered. I didn’t know Sheridan was a bad man until the day I helped you escape. He was—this is so hard to even say now—Sheridan . . . is my godfather.”

“He is what?”

“Yes. He and my father were friends, I thought. When my father died, I was in Austin, in college. Sheridan was in Austin, of course, because of his company, so it was logical that he came to me to deliver the news and comfort me. He told me my father had asked him to look out for me. He paid for my education, and on the day I graduated, he gave me a special gift: my father’s journal with partial equations and notes about his dream for a universal clean energy solution. Sheridan knew I’d spent a lot of time in a lab with my father, and he encouraged me to take those notes no one else could decipher and use them to continue my father’s work and finish it.”

“I’m guessing you have the legal rights to your father’s work.”

She nods. “Yes. All intellectual property. I’m not sure how or when that would have come into play, but that has to be why he hired me and kept me close.”

“I’m guessing you signed legal paperwork that somehow signed away your rights, and you didn’t know. And I assume he thought you might know more about your father’s work than you said you did or even realized you knew, thus making you a good investment all around. You did say you were onto something.”

“I told you that because I didn’t want you to figure out who I really was. You didn’t trust me. I was sure you’d think being my father’s daughter would make me look worse to you, or make me a bigger treasure to a treasure hunter.”

“And I threatened to sell you to the highest bidder! I wish you would have told me sooner.”

“There was never a right time, and then Jared came into the picture. I was sure he’d figure out the truth, and was relieved when he didn’t because I didn’t trust him. But the fact that he didn’t made me wonder if he knew and didn’t tell you.”

“You were right to distrust Jared,” I say, hating the truth, hating it so f*cking bad. “He’s too good not to have known. Where’s that journal now?”

“I have a copy, and I’m sure Sheridan does as well, but the original was in the lab the day I overhead Sheridan’s conversation and helped you escape. And—it hurt, but I burned it.”

My hand comes down on her leg. “Why burn it, if you knew he had a copy?”

“Because not long before that day, I’d found a key sewn inside the journal cover and ripped it open. I didn’t want him to see I’d torn it open.”

“And the key goes to what? Do you know?”

“I knew immediately it was to a jewelry box that once belong to my mother.”

“And?”

“And inside, I found a piece of paper with an equation scribbled on it. It had my name on it and it said For your eyes only. I played with it being a part of the formula to create the cylinder, but it didn’t even make sense.”

“But you never gave it to Sheridan?”

She shakes her head. “No. It said for my eyes only, and I kept it that way.”

“Where is that piece of paper?”

“I burned it as well, but I kept the equation. She turns and lifts her hair, showing me the tattoo on her neck.

“Holy f*ck, Gia!” I grab her arms. “That could be the answer everyone is looking for. We’re getting it removed.”

“It’s all I have left of him, Chad. I can’t lose it, and you didn’t even notice it. I have a lot of hair.”

“I should have noticed it. It has to go. We’ll find a place to keep it safe, carve it into a mountainside somewhere or whatever, but you can’t have it on your body. And no one but you and I can know. Not even Amy. For their protection, and yours.”