“As much as I hate to agree with you, I think you’re right. He’s so blinded by his own failings that he sees you as his only way to regain what he lost.”

“But I’m a person,” Talia said.

“You are,” Parker agreed. “You are smart and intelligent and beautiful and an adult of sound mind. Your only mistake was trusting someone who should have had your best interests at heart, and that’s a mistake any one of us could make.”

“But doesn’t that just prove I’m incapable of making my own decisions?” Talia asked.

“How do you figure that?”

“If I can’t even determine that Mark was someone I...