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A disturbing amount of possessiveness coated his latter words, and Frankie stilled as the truth hit her "Did she know?"

"Knohat?"

"That you loved her a little too much?" It explained why he’d never been in a relationship and didn’t have a family of his own All he’d wanted was Caroline It even explained why he thought of Frankie as a daughter "I’ll bet my father sensed it No wonder he wanted her far away fro to allow hiun, even knowing that if Christopher died, she’d die"

He scoffed "That’s what shifters say, but it’s not true The bond isn’t so" He paused at the beep of a remote car lock, but the owner of the car didn’t even look their way as they hopped into their vehicle "She was convinced that the bond was unbreakable Convinced that she couldn’t live without him I knew that when he was dead, she’d see the truth See that he’d fooled her, lied to her, manipulated her" He sed "If I’d known that Cruz really un I would never have urged him on You have to believe that, Frankie"

"Do I?" She sneered "You say you hate that pack because they stole Caroline from you But you knew exactly who killed her You knewand you didn’t tell anyone You protected his identity to save your own skin and because it suited you just fine that I was taken from the pack And then you used him in other ways--maybe even threatened to expose his secret if he didn’t do things like steal her belongings, pass the sculpture to Iris, and God knohat else you asked him to do By that point you’d truly convinced yourself that you played no part in my mother’s death"

"If she hadn’t mated with him and joined that pack--"

"Oh, everyone else is to blary at is yourself You played Cruz You armed him You, you, you If you’d have exposed Cruz for what he was, I wouldn’t have alht, I almost died That’s on you"

"And you deserve to be dead for that alone," Trick ru as he noted that both Ryan and Marcus were closing in on him Brad turned to her "You wouldn’t let them hurt me, Frankie I’m your uncle Hell, I’ve been a father to you all these years--"

"Because you helped Cruzto pay for it"

Fear flashed across Brad’s face, but he jutted out his chin "You can’t prove that I did anything There’s no evidence If you go to the police--"

"There would be no point in handing you over to the police, although I did record your confession on the cell phone in my pocket See, the crimes occurred on pack territory, which is out of the police’s jurisdiction Even if there was so like conspiracy to coet you off--especially since recent events prove that Cruz wasn’t entirely stable No, the human authorities wouldn’t make you pay for what you did But someone has to"

Sweat beaded on his forehead "I’m not responsible for Cruz’s actions He was the one who stabbed and strangled your mother He was the one who fired the bullet that killed Christopher If Cruz really wanted theardless"

"Maybe Cruz would still have killed un--I guess we’ll never know But you gave hi he intended to kill my father You say you loved Caroline, but it sure didn’t bother you that her killer wasn’t brought to justice No, you protected his identity and lethe never did Heartbreakingly, both his parents died believing he was truly guilty of it