Trapped Read Free Page B

especially since that was apparently some kind of secret between Nick and Scotty all of these years.
    “Crap,” Nick said. “Then I guess I need to talk to you alone. Later, though.” He shook his head and addressed me. “When are you going to stop bringing this up, Dalilah? It happened, it was years ago, and he got what was coming to him. Let it go.”
    It was my dad’s turn to look mystified. “Wait,” he said to Nick. “You knew that Dalilah found out about that, and you never told me?”
    He shrugged. “I didn’t find it to have any relevance. Dalilah promised, on her word, that she wouldn’t let that whole sorry incident out of the bag, but, apparently, she’s not good with her word.”
    “Listen,” I said. “I only brought that up to let you guys know that sometimes you have to make solutions that are not exactly legal, when you’re up against the wall. That’s what I’m going to do, here.”
    Dad looked like he wanted to slap me, which is a look that I had never seen on his face. “Two wrongs don’t make a right,” he said. “Listen, I’ve made mistakes in my life. Nick has, too. Your mother has made mistake, Scotty too. We’ve all made mistakes. Some of them were pretty huge ones. But that doesn’t give you carte blanche to repeat the pattern.”
    “That wasn’t a mistake, Ryan,” Nick said. “Paul Lucas wasn’t a mistake. He got what was coming to him, and you know it.”
    “That’s not the topic of conversation, here,” dad said to Nick. “The topic is whether or not my daughter will commit a felony by doing what she’s planning on doing. Dalilah is the topic, here, not what you and I did 17 years ago to a pervert who didn’t really deserve to live.”
    “Huh, dad,” I said. “Nick made himself judge, jury and executioner of that man. And you’re going to lecture me on what I’m about to do?”
    At that, my dad slapped my face, hard. I put my hand up to my cheek, and looked at him. He had an expression that I had never seen in my entire life. His face was red, his eyes menacing, his mouth turned down. “You will never talk to me like that again,” he said. “How did you turn out like this? So devious, so underhanded. I didn’t raise you to be a criminal. And you will never bring up Nick’s past to try to justify your shitty actions. You will face up to what you wrought by doing what you did with Nottingham – using him, getting trapped by him, and marrying him for the wrong reasons – and you will do it within the bounds of the law. Do I make myself clear?”
    “Crystal,” I said, thinking to myself that I was just going to have to run away with Luke without his blessing. I looked over at my mother, who wasn’t saying much. She at least seemed to have a little bit of humility, considering all the devious things that she did in her own youth. Namely, running away from my dad when she was pregnant with me. She, essentially, did what I was proposing to do in this situation, only my motivation for doing so was much, much different than her motivations for running away all those years ago.
    Ironic. For once, my mom really seemed to understand me. At least, if I read her expression correctly, she understood me. It seemed that she was furtively trying to give her non-verbal approval for what it was that I was going to do. 
    My mom put her hand on my dad’s. “Calm down, Ryan,” she said. “Listen, you and I have to talk about this later.”
    “There’s nothing to talk about,” dad said. “I know what you’re thinking, beautiful, and it’s not the same thing at all. You running from me when you were pregnant with Dalilah wasn’t the same thing as what Dalilah is proposing to do.”
    “It’s not?” mom asked. “What’s the difference?”
    “For one, you knew that I wouldn’t press charges for kidnapping. At least, I hope that you knew that.”
    “Regardless, it’s the same thing,” mom counteracted. “If you’re going to call Dalilah a felon, then