Come and Get Me ✔️

Reunion

He was right of course. Her father always was. But when it came to Carter, she had always struggled.

Then she realized the voice wasn't coming from inside her head. She snapped her eyes open, finding a man leaning against a steel beam. Despite his casual posture, his amber eyes were sharp and focused, trained on her the way a hawk would watch a mouse.

Her father was alive.

"You aren't dead," she observed stupidly, at a complete loss for what to say.

"Neither are you. I guess fake deaths must run in the family," he told her with a small smile as he walked towards her. The smile didn't reach his eyes. They never had.

Ash had so many questions. Everything she had been doing for the past five years had been based on a false premise. She wanted to take down the company for killing her parents when her father was the one behind the company. Nothing made sense anymore.

Focus, she told herself. Prioritize.

"How?"

"The explanation will have to wait. We have to go."

Go where? Was her mother alive too? Why hadn't he contacted her to let her know he was alive? What was he planning with Alexander and Huxley? The questions were all there, tempting to spill out.

But his word was final. He had already told her he would explain later. Asking follow-up questions wouldn't get her any answers, it would just show her father that she was disobedient. In fact, there was no reason he couldn't explain right now. They were in an abandoned warehouse, surrounded by his men.

It was a test. Everything was a test. He wanted to see if she remembered the rules.

She stepped forward without another word, making her father smile. He put his arm around her shoulder - not lovingly, not protectively... possessively.

As they began to walk away, Ash realized they weren't taking Carter with them. She stopped walking abruptly and turned back to look at her unconscious brother.

"What about Carter?" she asked.

"Ashlyn, you know I care about your brother. And if you care about him too, you'll understand that taking him with us would be cruel. He can't handle this kind of life. He's always been weak. Not like you."

Ash looked at her brother's thin frame and delicate face, thinking back to how often he cried growing up. He couldn't even kill a bug - he would trap spiders in cups and release them outside. Her father was right. Carter couldn't handle any of this. She nodded. "You're right. But then what's going to happen to him?"

"Rob will take him back home," her father answered easily. "When he wakes up, he won't even realize he's been anywhere other than his bedroom."

"Why did you take him then? If you're just going to bring him back?"

Her father looked at her as if she had asked a dumb question. "You, of course. You've been trying to destroy everything I've been working to build for months now."

"Because I thought you were dead and that Duchont and Huxley were responsible for your death," Ash replied defensively.

"And I forgive you. But because of your antics, I wasn't sure if I could trust you. I needed to get you somewhere secure, alone, so we could talk. And Carter has always been your weakness, so I knew he would be the way to do it."

Her father guided her outside to where an SUV was already waiting. Silently, Ashlyn tucked herself into the back of the vehicle. Her father followed.

"You're not going to ask where we're going?" he asked her as the driver took off.