Trapped by Them novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Both, On Purpose

My father had the audio file open on his laptop on the kitchen table when I walked in.

He had not played it.

He was sitting with both hands flat on either side of the screen.

My stepmother stood at the stove with her back to the room.

Tobias leaned on the counter with his arms crossed.

Lachlan stood alone by the back door, still in his coat, and he had not been offered a chair.

"Dad," I said.

"Sit down, Larissa."

"I'd rather stand."

He looked up, and his eyes were red.

"Eighteen years," he said, not to me. "I have known this man since he was a medical student. I stood up at his wedding. I sat with him in the hospital the night his mother died."

"Please," my stepmother began, and he lifted a hand.

"I'm not shouting."

"You are not," Lachlan said quietly. "You have every right to."

"Don't tell me what I have a right to." My father's voice shook. "You've been in my house every Sunday for two years. You ate at my table with my daughter beside you."

"Yes."

"Did you touch her before she was twenty-two?"

"No." Lachlan's face was gray. "Never. Not until this week. I give you my word."

"And Tobias?" My father turned his head. "My wife's son, who sat at my table and let me call him my own?"

Tobias straightened.

"I haven't done anything I'm ashamed of," he said. "I'm sorry you found out like this."

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