JAKE

The clock on my dashboard read 7:52 p.m.

I was way late for the dinner but I really didn't care.

I clenched my fist round the steering wheel in anger as I approached the house.

Victor was no longer the perfect father I knew…or that raised me.

Now…he was someone I wished never existed.

I guess my mother was right all along.

I didn’t want to be here.

But I didn’t have a choice. Not with Nicholas breathing down my neck, not with Isabelle’s safety on the line, and certainly not with the secrets I’d uncovered.

I walked through the door, muttering my greetings as the maid greeted me,...