Twisted (Never After, #4)

by Emily McIntire

It’s amazing what we’re capable of overlooking— what we’re willing to do— when it comes to those we love.

I’m not the delicate flower he wants to believe I am.

That I won’t feel like I’m drowning from everything I always want to say but don’t.

I don’t miss the way he doesn’t lean into her.

Still, that small boy inside me who aches for love breaks a little more whenever I think about what life will be like once he’s gone.

It is odd though, now that I think about it, how he never pushed for us to spend time together, yet he’s so eager for my father to know of him.

After everything I’ve given him, after everything I’ve done, I’m still not enough. He should be honored that I’m choosing his worthless daughter, and yet he’s so blatant with his disregard. It’s a slap across my face. Worse, it’s a knife in my back.

“This was my decision. The only thing she’s done wrong is love a man she wasn’t supposed to love and give in to his selfish, demanding ways.”

“That’s what you love about it? The silence?” I ask, suddenly desperate to know more about her.

He can pretend he’s in control all he wants, but I see the way this is affecting him just as much as it is me.

I don’t want to give her back. Even temporarily. I’d rather keep her in this bubble we’ve created, one where she lets me touch her and I don’t hate that she’s touching me, and we can pretend, even for a little bit, that this is more than what it is.

I don’t give a single fuck if I inherit Sultans. Couldn’t care less about the lost lamp. Not as long as I get to keep her.

“Because I don’t love you like he does.”

“My love for you is dangerous.”

I don’t hold any hate toward him, just a profound sadness for what we lost. He was my first love, my first everything, and while I don’t know how things ended up this way, I have to believe it was for the best.

People only have the power you give them,

but then I remember what real family is. What it feels like when someone chooses you over everyone else.