Chapter 154 I'm so sorry Irene

Chapter 154 I'm so sorry Irene
Victoria hadn't realized until she felt the tear.

"Didn't you think about that? Do you want to lose me too?"

Her father's expression changed.

For the first time since the conversation started, Victoria saw something in his eyes that looked like fear, but it disappeared almost immediately.

"He was not supposed to kill! Not until Nelson was completely alone. He was only supposed to watch."

Victoria stared at him.

That was supposed to make her feel better?

The fact that the man wasn't supposed to kill her until Nelson was completely alone only made the situation worse. It meant her father had actually considered the possibility of Nelson being left without anyone around him before the man was allowed to act.

She shook her head slowly, struggling to understand how her father could talk about something so horrifying as though it were nothing more than a simple mistake in a plan.

"And of course I know how twisted he is, do you know why he's like that? Because just like me Jonathan made him lose everything as well. But he wasn't so lucky."

Victoria's brows furrowed.

There was another story.

Another person whose life had been destroyed because of Jonathan Clark.

"His father was the third person involved in the business that Jonathan pushed us away from. That family lost not only their money, but their lives as well. And he was forced to watch them all die."

Victoria's lips parted.

She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

Her father's hatred wasn't limited to one man anymore. There were other people who had suffered because of whatever had happened between Jonathan and his former business partners. And the man her father had hired had apparently lived through one of those tragedies himself.

But that didn't make what he had done right.

It didn't make him less dangerous.

If anything, it explained why he had been so willing to hurt people.

"That's why you hired him? Because you know his grudge is deep?"

Her father didn't deny it.

Victoria felt something inside her break.

All this time, she had wanted to believe that her father was simply overprotective. That his strict rules came from fear. That his hatred for the Clarks was an old wound that would eventually heal.

She had been wrong.

Her father hadn't simply carried his hatred.

He had built his life around it.

"You're a monster, father. A monster."

The words came out before Victoria could stop herself.

She watched his face change immediately.

Anger flashed through his eyes, but Victoria didn't care anymore. She had spent years being afraid of disappointing him, afraid of arguing with him, afraid of crossing whatever invisible line he had created around himself.

Not anymore.

She had just learned that the man she called her father was willing to destroy another family simply because of something that had happened years ago.

"I would do anything to take my revenge on those Clarks."

Victoria stared at him.

For a second there, she thought about everything he had said about protecting her. About how he didn't want her to experience betrayal. About how he had wanted to keep her safe because he knew what it felt like to lose everything.

She almost felt sorry for him.

Almost.

But then she remembered the stalker. The way Irene shook in fear. She remembered how close she had come to dying.

And she remembered that all of it had started because her father wanted revenge.

"For a second there I thought you were going to say you'd do anything to keep your family safe. But yeah, you're not that kind of person."

Victoria didn't wait for his response.

She turned around and started walking up the stairs to her room, her heart pounding heavily against her chest.

She didn't even know what she was going to do with everything she had just learned.

All she knew was, this information wasn't meant for her alone.

Someone else needed to hear it.

"Don't you talk to me like that! Victoria!" She heard her father yell but ignored him. "Victoria, come back here! Don't you walk away when I'm speaking to you."

She heard her father's voice behind her, but she kept walking.

For the first time in her life, Victoria didn't care whether her father was angry with her.

She was angry too.

And she was hurt.

Not because he hated the Clarks. She couldn't care less about his hatred anymore.

She was hurt because he had used her.

He had turned his own daughter into a way of watching another person's son, and when that wasn't enough, he had brought a dangerous man into their lives.

She didn't know how she was supposed to look at her father the same way again.

...

BACK TO THE PRESENT.

"I'm sorry, Irene."

Victoria's voice broke as the words left her lips.

She lowered her head, unable to look directly at her best friend anymore after telling her everything.

She had imagined this moment differently.

She had imagined Irene getting angry. She had imagined her shouting, asking questions, maybe even walking away from her. She wouldn't blame her if she did.

Because Victoria knew how bad this sounded.

Her father had hired the stalker.

And even though she hadn't known about it, Irene had still suffered because of something her father had done.

"So..." Irene voice broke. "So you're telling me that the reason the main reason my entire life went south, the reason that stalker set his eyes on me and began hunting me, the reason I had nightmares of future ending was all because of your father?"

Irene's voice was filled with disbelief.

Victoria's heart sank as she listened. She wanted to say something else, but nothing felt important or reasonable.

Because at the end of the day, Irene had almost died.

"What the fuck..." Miles shook his head, his lips slightly parted in shock.

He never expected that.

Irene's expression changed as she looked away, seemingly trying to process everything.

Victoria watched her silently, tears still sitting in her eyes.

She had known that telling Irene would hurt her, but keeping it from her would have been worse.

She sniffled and then blinked.

Then she remembered something.
"What I don't get is, if Nelson was the target all along, why was he so obsessed with you?"

Victoria rubbed her palms against her jeans.

That was something she had wondered about too.

Her father had been very clear about the man's original purpose. He was supposed to watch Nelson. He was supposed to gather information about him.

Irene had never been part of the plan.

Then why did she sound so terrified of the future him?

"Because he's psychopathic freak." Irene answered shaking her head. "I intrigued him in some way, and like a moth to a flame he got attached to me forgetting his original mission."