Chapter 306 You are a bad daddy

Chapter 306 You are a bad daddy
Rose's mouth had just begun to form an answer when Julius appeared from the hallway behind them, and the look on his face made absolutely no effort to conceal what he thought of what he'd just walked in on.

"I genuinely cannot believe what I'm watching right now." His voice was flat with disgust. "You're actually sitting there trying to use your seven-year-old daughter to get your ex-wife back. Do you even understand what marriage is?"

Julius was young, just sixteen, but at least, he had learned from his parents’ marriage.

No man should put asunder what God had joined together. After learning about how happy Cassie was, he knew that she and Frederick were never meant to be.

And yet, Frederick was still trying to steal the happiness Cassie found with Franklin after suffering with Frederick for seven long years. What a monster?

Did he think that life revolved all around him and that Cassie would jump because he said so? Julius could not afford to be polite with such a sensitive matter.

Frederick's jaw locked so tight it ached, but he kept his eyes forward. What Julius was saying was true, and looking at him while he said it would have been more than Frederick could manage.

"Nobody called you into this room," he said, his voice low and controlled. "This is between me and my daughter."

Julius ignored him completely and crouched down to Rose's level with the easy warmth he always had with her, his expression shifting the moment his eyes landed on her face. "I know how smart you are," he said gently. "And I know how much you love your daddy. But don't let him talk you into something that doesn't feel right. You said it yourself, didn't you? He chose Sienna over you and your mommy, again and again."

"Julius." Frederick's voice had dropped to a snarl. "Do you understand the concept of a boundary?"

Julius straightened up and turned to face him, and the warmth left his expression as cleanly as a light switching off. "No. Maybe you should teach me."

He tilted his head slightly. "Right after you teach yourself what marriage actually means. You destroyed your own. You broke Cassie down piece by piece for years, and when she had nothing left, Franklin gave her back every reason to believe in love again."

His voice took on a sharp, deliberate edge. "And now you want to tear all of that apart because you finally decided you want her back? For your sake?" He shook his head slowly. "If Cassie ever falls for that, I'll lose every bit of respect I have for her."

He walked out without waiting for a response, and Frederick swallowed whatever was rising in his throat and turned back to Rose.

"Don't listen to him," he said, keeping his voice as steady as he could make it. "Daddy has changed. I love your mommy, Rose, and I would make you both so happy. I promise."

Rose lowered her gaze and shook her head, the small movement carrying a certainty that hadn't been coached or suggested by anyone.

"Daddy, you always made Mommy sad." Her voice was quiet and completely matter-of-fact. "Daddy Frank makes her happy. You are a bad daddy."

The words landed in Frederick's chest like something physical. He sat with them, his hands coming up to cup her small face, searching her eyes for any opening, any room to work with.

"Rose, I am so sorry. But things would be different this time. I promise you—"

Rose shook her head again, patient and unhurried. "I believe you, bad daddy. But Mommy stays with good daddy and Tristan. They treat her like a queen." She looked at him steadily. "You made her cry every single day."

She wasn't saying it to wound him. She was saying it because it was what she had seen, and in her world, what you saw was what was true.

She had no memory of her parents being tender with each other, no picture in her mind of her father looking at her mother the way Franklin did.

What she had were the sounds of crying and the particular shape of her mother's sadness, and on the other side of that, the version of her mother who laughed easily and moved through the world like someone whose feet had found solid ground.

Frederick sat completely still, absorbing every word. And then, because he needed to know, because he had to ask even though he was afraid of the answer, he pulled in a long breath and said the thing that had been sitting at the back of his throat since the conversation began.

"Rose, if you wanted to, you could go and live with your mommy and Frank and Tristan. I would let you go." He said it carefully, meaning every word of it. "If that's what you want, I would never stand in your way."

The breath went out of the room. Frederick waited, and Rose's answer took the remaining air right out of his lungs.