Colters' Daughter (Colters' Legacy #3)(55)

“God,” she muttered. “This is so not a conversation I want to have with my dad.”

Ryan pulled away and she could see his utter seriousness reflected in the moonlight. “There’s nothing you can’t talk to me about, Callie. You know that. Now if you’d feel better talking to your mother, I’ll be happy to bring you home so you can have this conversation with her, but I’d rather you talk to me about it.”

Callie sighed. “I know it might be hard to believe, but I’m submissive. At least with Max. I can’t say it’s something that’s built into me because I’ve certainly never been submissive in any of my other relationships. Quite the opposite, actually. I probably wore the pants in most of them.

“Max… He’s a dominant force. He just exudes this aura of power. When I was with him, I wanted nothing more than to please him, and I won’t lie, he took very good care of me. Very, very good care. He saw to my every need. He anticipated my needs,” she corrected. “He often knew what I wanted or needed before I did.”

Ryan picked up her wrist so that the silver bands gleamed in the moonlight. “And these? Are they a symbol of his ownership?”

Callie was silent for a long time. “Yes,” she said quietly. “They are—were.”

Ryan sighed. “I can’t say I like to hear any of this. You’re my little girl—will always be my little girl. You’re in a position where power is easily abused. That worries me. It takes a very special man to have that kind of control over a woman and truly love and cherish her.”

“Yes, it does,” she returned sadly. “I thought Max was one of them.”

Ryan hugged her to him again. “I just want you to be careful, honey. We love you so much.”

“I love you too, Dad. All of you.”

“Your brothers are worried about you. Especially Seth. He’s feeling pretty awful about the way he dropped this on you. He was pissed at Max and he was angry at the way he’d used you, and you know Seth. He’s intensely protective of those he loves. He doesn’t always think before he acts.”

“I wish he’d told me privately,” Callie admitted. “That was probably the most humiliating experience of my life. But I’m not angry with him. I know he did it because he loves me and wants to protect me.”

“Don’t feel humiliated, baby. We’re your family. We love you and want what’s best for you. We were all surprised, and angry. I don’t want you to feel self-conscious around us now. That’s the last thing we want. We’re here for you. Always. This is your home.”

“I just want to know if it’ll ever stop hurting.”

Just the words made her eyes sting and her nose draw up. She closed her eyes as more hot tears slipped down her cheeks.

“I can’t answer that, baby girl. We’ve told you the story about when your mother took it upon herself to protect me and your other dads and she left us for our own good.”

He nearly snorted as he got to that part. Callie had indeed heard the story before. It never failed to get her dads riled up, but now she listened to it with new understanding.

“It was the most painful moment of my life. I thought when I was shot and the ass**le trying to kill her took her away was the worst moment. Or when I lay in the hospital not knowing if she’d live or die. But the worst was finding her gone from her hospital room and knowing there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to bring her back. Your fathers and I had to return home and hope like hell that she would eventually come back to us.

“I don’t know if I would have ever stopped hurting. It was the worst few months of my life. But when she walked back through that front door and she was all round and pregnant with Seth, it was the best moment, and the moment only got better after that. Seth’s birth. And then Michael and Dillon. And then you.

“We always believed that our family was complete. But not your mother. She was convinced that there was one more Colter yet to be born. You. And when you arrived, I didn’t think life could get any better. You completed us, Callie.

“And I said all this to make a point. You hurt like hell now. I know I did when your mother left. But you won’t hurt forever. You have a lot of happiness in front of you. Your best times are yet to come.”

“I think this is the most I’ve ever heard you talk at one time,” she said, her voice muffled against his chest.

“Smartass,” he chided. “I talk when I’ve got something to say. I have plenty to say when my only daughter is hurting.”

“I love you, Dad.”

“I love you too, baby girl. Think we could head back so your mama can fuss over her only daughter for a while?”

Callie sighed. The last thing she wanted was to go back to her parents’. But she knew she had to or they’d be worried sick. All she wanted was to be alone and to think. To absorb all that had happened. To rid herself of the sickness that welled up from her soul.

How could she face her family when nothing felt like it would ever be right?

She stared up at the sky again and gazed at the stars that scattered like diamonds. Why did she have to fall so hard for Max? Why had he lied to her? Why make her fall like she had? Why did he have to be so…perfect? But he wasn’t. He wasn’t real. He was what he wanted her to see. He’d so deftly manipulated her that she’d lost all faith in her ability to read people. How could she trust anyone after this?