I stuffed them behind me to hide the shaking.

“I’ll do what I need to do. Monson won’t be able to raise Nova. I’ll make sure of that.”

Fuck.

I knew it then. I hadn’t known it, but I did right then and right at that moment.

I let out a small laugh, a sad laugh. “I was ready for you. I called you. I knew what I needed to do when you came to see me, but I had hoped that I wouldn’t have to do it. I hoped that you wouldn’t be who you are, and there would’ve been a part of you that would’ve come in. You would’ve seen me. You would’ve realized you were being wrong in everything you’re doing, and you would’ve asked to hug me. You would’ve told me you loved me. And you would’ve asked what you could do to make it better.”

A tear tracked down my cheek.

I let it be.

My voice was hoarse, almost cracking. “But you didn’t, because that’s not who you are. And I can’t have who you are in my life anymore, even if you are my father. This is it, Dad. This is the end for us. I want you to stop plotting after Nate or me.”

“You are not thinking clearly—”

“I called Carl.”

He stopped.

I didn’t want to play this card, but he was giving me no choice.

So I played it. “You never paid back that loan.”

“What?”

“To the mafia family in Canada? The loan you took out from them for your casino? You cheated them.” I held up my phone. “Carl sent me the proof.”

If he could’ve killed me, he would’ve. Right then and there.

His hands jerked up, but then he froze.

Those hands stayed up, and they curled forward as if he were imagining it was my neck he was squeezing. His nostrils flared as if he were enjoying that he was pretending to kill me.

“You ungrateful bitch.”

“Drop everything you’re planning against Nate and me, or I’ll send this proof to those people.” I wasn’t bluffing when I told him this, but I was about to bluff what I was going to do next. “Nate knows people who can get in contact with them. It would not be hard to do it, and Carl told me their reputation. They’re not as bloodthirsty as most mobs, but if you fuck them over, you are annihilated. Simply put. Seeing that the proof is coming from your own daughter, I don’t imagine they’d want to reach out to enact their revenge on the blood that’s turning you in. Though I could be wrong. If I am, then I am. So be it because I am more than willing to die to save Nova from you.”

He stared at me, long and hard.

It was a full-on glare.

Hatred and the promise of violence lurked in his gaze, but I held firm. My dancing façade was firmly in place, but also the mere fact I was Nova’s mother and God help those who try to hurt a mother’s child.

I’m right here, sister. I’m not leaving you.

I felt another tear slip past and fall down my cheek. I let it go. That was a good tear because I felt my sister there with me, and I felt her support, and I now fully believed in the afterlife.

I love you, Valerie.

I love you, too, Q.

I almost smiled, hearing her use Nate’s nickname, but then my attention flew back to Duke.

“He will never love you.”

My knees almost gave out from relief because that was his capitulation. He was giving in. He would just spew as much hate and hurt before he did, though.

My throat closed up. I was used to his hurtful words. Those weren’t the ones that would disarm me.

“You don’t think I know that?”

He frowned, his eyebrows pulling in. He cocked his head to the side as if unsure how to take that from me.

“I know he’ll never love me. I’m not her, but Dad, I don’t care. I have enough of you in me to be selfish with him for Nova. Nate doesn’t love me. He’s told me this. He’s never lied to me, but I’ll love him. I’ll love him for as long as he’ll have me. And when the time comes that he finds the one he does love, I’ll step aside so he can be with her. We’ll figure it out. Nate is a good man. I’m Nova’s mother now, the one on earth for her, and he won’t take that away from Nova. He’ll do what’s best for her. He’s everything you aren’t and thank God for that.” Another tear fell. “Thank God that I’ll know what it feels like to love someone who’s like him, who’s nothing like you, because I’ll be better for it.”

His eyes were so cold.

It hit me that he wasn’t questioning the proof I had or the ability I had to go through with my threat. I almost laughed at that, because in that sense, he wasn’t dumb. He knew I’d do it, no matter if it meant my death with his.