Chapter 0096

“He just…he pisses me off, Daniel,” she says softly. “And then I say things I don’t mean – and I do

things I’d never do, just because I know it pisses him off –“

Daniel laughs at her here, just a little, in a comforting way.

“Yeah, he has that effect on people,” Daniel says softly. “Though, I have to admit, you’re the only one

I’ve ever seen respond like that. He has most people shaking in their boots –“

“Oh, I’ve got plenty of that going on too,” Fay says, and she laughs a little as well, sniffing again. “I

just…I don’t know. Something comes over me.”

There’s a pause in conversation, and then Daniel presses her. “So, what are you going to do? What’s

next?”

“What do you mean?” she asks.

“Do you still want to…go? To run? Leave this life behind?”

Kent blinks, surprised. She was considering running?

Foolish girl, he thinks. There was nowhere she would go that he wouldn’t find her. And the trouble

she’d cause him as he hunted her down – god damnit, he’d be livid –

But that. Kent checks himself, realizing that he’s growing angry again, that it is precisely this side of

Fay that fills him with this kind of rage. When she’s unpredictable, and stupid, and follows what she

wants instead of what he knows is good for her.

“I don’t know,” Fay says softly, distracting Kent from his thoughts and bringing him back to the

conversation. “I don’t know…if there’s anything to run to,” she says, thoughtful.

Kent nods, agreeing.

“Not back home? Or to France, like we talked about?” Daniel asks, curious.

“I just…” she says slowly. “I don’t know if that world exists for me anymore. Or, maybe it’s that the old

Fay, the person I used to be? Who fit into that world? I’m not sure she exists anymore.”

“I’m sorry,” Daniel says, and Kent can hear the guilt in his son’s words. “It’s all my fault.”

“No,” she says, quick to assuage him. “I’m not sure…honestly, Daniel, I’m not sure I dislike the person

I’m becoming in this world.”

Kent is surprised by this, his eyes opening wide.

“The old me is gone,” Fay continues, “but…the new me? She’s not half bad. I just wish…that your

father realized that. That I want to be here. Honestly, I said some stuff to him today about – well, about

wanting to explore the relationships with the jerks my father introduced me to the other day.”

She laughs then – she must see something on Daniel’s face as he reacts to her words.

“No, Daniel,” she says, her voice a little more cheerful now, “I didn’t mean any of it. I just said it to piss

him off. I just wish that you dad would figure out that I want to be here, with you, and with…I guess with

him. I don’t want to be on my father’s side. I would be more than happy to pledge myself to the Lippert

family. I’m just not going to do it because he forces me to. God, if he were just…a little bit kinder to me.”

“More flies with honey,” Daniel says, his voice understanding. “That I do get. But I’m not sure that my

dad will ever understand something like that. Allegiance, in response to kindness? It’s not something

that makes sense in his world.”

“Well,” Fay says, a little pity in her voice. It rankles Kent to hear it. “That’s really a shame, isn’t it?”

“Enough,” Kent mutters to himself, pushing up from his spot against the wall and striding out of the

kitchen, towards his office.

As much as he hates to admit it, their quiet conversation outside…it’s given him a lot to think about.

The next morning, a car takes Fay to the stables, as requested. It’s not Jerome driving this time and

she stays quiet on the journey there. She’d been miserable all night, but a smile tugs at her lips as the

driver pulls up to the barn.

As Fay gets out of the car, her mind elsewhere, she does a double-take when she sees a flash of long

purple hair -

What –

“Oh my god,” Fay says, standing shocked and still as Janeen peeks her head out of the barn.

“What are you doing here,” Fay asks, unable to stop the tears streaming down her cheek.

“I can’t believe you have a horse!” Janeen says at the same moment, laughing.

Fay shakes her head, unbelieving. Of all of the people in the world who she thought would help her

reconnect with her sister...

The last on the list would have been Kent.

What the hell had changed?