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“Genny, you don’t have to do this,” Valerie told her gently.

“Nah, Dr. Emma said it helps to say things out loud.” Genny huffed impatiently before turning back to us. Her gray eyes locked on mine and there was that bitterness, that anger roiling in them. “I started following that crappy wee island online newspaper of yours. They mentioned the attack on her.” She jerked her chin toward Cameron. “It just felt like a movie. It didnae feel real,” she repeated. “So, I decided tae make you think the letters had something tae dae with it.”

I was still confused. “Why?”

“Because he’s deid and I couldnae get back at him,” she spat venomously. “And I thought you’re his son and he obviously creeped on you.” She gestured again to the paparazzi-like photos. “So you meant something tae him. I wanted tae get back at him and I thought maybe you were just like him and if I couldnae get back at him, I could get back at him through you.”

“Forde is nothing like him,” Cameron defended, and I felt her trembling with indignation.

Once again, I’d been targeted because of the sins of my father.

“Dae you even ken what your dad did tae me?” Genny jutted out her chin as if trying to stem the tears that glistened in her eyes. “Dae you even want tae ken? It might no’ shock someone like you.”

I couldn’t speak.

A wave of familiar shame crashed over and paralyzed me.

She stepped closer and her swelling fury and pain pressed in. “When ma mum died, he started treating me like his new wife. Dae you understand or dae I need tae go intae more detail?”

“Genny.” Valerie raised her palms like she was coaxing a wounded animal. “Sweetheart, you don’t need to tell anybody anything. Mr. Dallas and his girlfriend are leaving. Right now.”

“I’m sorry,” I choked out.

I thought the worst of Barry’s crimes were fueled by drugs.

But it turned out he was just an evil bastard.

And I had his DNA crawling through my veins.

I tugged out of Cameron’s hold and hurried from the room, from Genny’s truth, from the damage Barry had inflicted upon her. Damage she’d live with for the rest of her life and there was nothing I could do to change that.

CAMERON

My chest ached for this girl.

Even though her letters had caused sleepless nights and anxiety, I couldn’t feel any anger toward her. I felt nothing but sympathy and outrage on her behalf.

However, I was also terrified how her revelations had impacted Forde. It had taken him over two decades to shed the shame of his father’s actions to grab onto the life he wanted with me.

I was so scared this would send him into a backslide.

But first there was Genny.

“Cameron, please leave.” Valerie was white-faced and probably shitting herself that this incident would get her in trouble. While I understood that, my priority was giving Genny the truth. She deserved that. She’d hyperfocused on me and Forde as a way to deal with her trauma. But she’d been directing the rage at the one person who understood to an extent. Not all of it. Christ, not all of it—the poor girl—but Forde understood what it had been like to live with that monster.

I turned to Genny. “I won’t pretend to understand what you’ve been through, and neither would Forde. But you should know that Barry killed Forde’s mum. Forde was the one to find her. To find them both. He wasn’t even thirteen years old, and he called the police and his testimony helped send Barry to prison.”

Genny’s lips parted in shock. “He … no … he said … he told Mum he was in prison for armed robbery.”

I shook my head. “No. He killed Forde’s mum. Forde has had nothing to do with him since.”

“Okay, I really need you to leave.” Valerie got in my face. “You don’t understand what this could do to Genny’s mental health.”

“No, wait, please.” Genny stepped around Valerie. “Is that true?”

“It’s true.” I gave her a shaky smile. “I forgive you for the letters. Forde does too, I know that.”

Her expression slackened.