He jerked her chin up. “So defiant. I see the fire inside you. I will enjoy beating that rebelliousness out of your screaming body. I couldn’t have your mother, but I will have you.”
“My mother?” she choked out. What did her mother have to do with this?
“I suppose you wouldn’t know,” he mused. “I almost married her, but she chose that fool you called a father. She broke my heart and so I damaged their business. I hurt them in a thousand little ways, but never enough.” He continued to study her as he talked, as though enjoying finally revealing his schemes.
“You ruined my parents?” She remembered the finances always being tight, and the whispered conversations between her parents. Blankenship had caused it.
“Not just them. Your uncle too, naturally. It was the only way I could get to yo
