God of Pain (Legacy of Gods #2)(131)

A deep breath spills out of my lungs whenever I see her. It’s a mixture of relief and wretched longing.

I’ve been married to that woman for over twenty-four years, and she’s still the only person who’s able to tame the chaos brewing inside me.

The only woman for whom I’m willing to sacrifice everything I have to see her smiling freely like that.

I just never thought I’d have to let go of my daughter instead.

Lia flat-out apologized to Creighton when we brought him with us that day. I wanted to kick the slimy bastard in the balls for pulling those twisted memories out of my wife.

She said she was sorry he’d had such a terrible childhood and parents and she regretted playing a role in that.

To my fucking surprise, he apologized back for being the biological son of the man who hurt her.

Annika looked proud as fuck. I narrowed my eyes, waiting for a scheme, a hidden motive, but there was no trace of either on his face.

Ever since then, Lia has basically adopted him as her third child. She easily fell in love with him and even started to make his favorite meals whenever he comes over.

The other day, they were texting back and forth about some stupid recipe. According to my daughter, he doesn’t reply to texts from his own friends and family.

He apparently doesn’t mind doing that with my wife.

Though Lia does have that quiet, spellbinding energy, where she’d capture anyone’s heart without even trying. A fact due to which I tried my best to keep her shielded from the world once upon a time.

I still want to lock her up so no one but me can see her, where only I’m her world as much as she is mine, but I recognize how much she needs to be out there.

My reward is having her willingly come back to me every night, to willingly seek refuge in my arms, and willingly want to spend time alone.

That’s the best gift I could ever receive.

“Try this, Creigh. I made it.” Annika scoops out what looks like some sort of appetizer and places it near his mouth.

The fucker-on-borrowed-time actually opens his lips and eats. Without a change of expression.

It’s Yan and Lia who wince, sharing a look.

“What do you think?” my daughter asks with expectant glee.

I’m ready to pummel him to the ground if he so much as changes that expression, but he nods. “Pretty good.”

“I knew it!” She glares at Yan. “See? I told you someone likes my food. It’s all about perspective.”

“You really okay there, man? Want me to call an ambulance?”

“Yan!” my wife chastises.

“No, something is wrong with the kid, Lia. He actually eats the things your food terrorist of a daughter cooks.”

“Wanna die?” my daughter asks with a murderous expression.

She got that one from me.

“Don’t call her a food terrorist,” Creighton says point-blank, earning a wide grin from Annika and a motherly smile from my wife.

“Boom,” Annika says, unable to hide her boasting expression. “Mic drop.”

“The sorry fuck is too in love to see how horrible your food actually is. Listen, kid, love won’t save you when you’re driven to the ER because of food poisoning.”

“I’m going to kill you,” Annika announces and proceeds to try and stuff him with her appetizers, but Creighton snatches them and starts to eat them all.

Christ.

The little shit might have a death wish, after all. In this house, we don’t eat Annika’s food or else there will definitely be some form of food poisoning. Or stomachaches. Or just plain inconveniences.

She tends to use what she thinks is beneficial for health out of context, like honey with spicy food or some nutriments with seafood. And she has no sense of how much salt she should put in any dish.

We know she means well, so Lia, Jeremy, and I usually tell her not to cook. Kolya and the other guards try to be diplomatic about it, too.

Only that fucker Yan told her the truth directly and has long since labeled her a food terrorist.

Creighton King is the first person who’s eaten her food willingly and even compliments her for it.

However, I refuse to warm up to him due to that gesture. Or the fact that he’s the one who made Annika abandon whatever suicidal thoughts she had on that island.

I haven’t told Lia about that episode and ordered everyone not to. It would ruin her to know that dark thoughts have invaded our daughter’s mind and we almost lost her.

But we didn’t.

Because Creighton was there and managed to tug her from the edge of nothingness.

It’s mostly because of him that I still have my daughter in one piece. But it’s also because of him that she got to that state, so I will be considering that incident neutral.

“How is that girl?” Lia asks Creighton while Annika chases Yan with a flower because he keeps calling her a food terrorist.

“Girl?” he echoes with a hoarse throat—definitely not as unaffected with the food as he claims to be.

“The one who told us about where you took Annika.”

“Cecily?”

My wife nods.

“Do you really want to know?”

She inches closer, her soft features creasing. “Why? What happened?”

“You do realize that Jeremy didn’t get that information out of her by being a good sport, right?”