Fractured (Josie) novel Chapter 281

Chapter 281 

**Josie’s POV ** 

+25 BONUS 

My father was there all those years, watching me from the shadows and I had no idea. I’m devastated and extremely confused. I should be overjoyed that my mum was wrong, that she wasn’t taken advantage of, and I was created out of love, not force. I was wanted by my father because he loved me, not because he needed me to join his army. He left me for my own and my mother’s well–being, not because he didn’t care. He is not the evil man I have spent all these years hating 

They are all the things I should be focussing on and relived about, but all I have is a deep sadness and a feeling of loss. I missed out on a life with him, and that is what hurts, I’m also sad about what he has missed in order to keep me and my mum safe. If he hadn’t sacrificed everything he had ever wanted for us things could have been so different. I could have been locked in this prison with him, or be dead. I’d have never bonded with my mates, and have never had my children. I might not be ready to have a relationship with him, but I feel I owe him some credit for what he’s done. 

A tear rolls down my face and Axel pulls me up from my chair to wrap his arms around me. I bury my face into his chest whilst I compose myself. I hear the clinking of chains and I turn my head to face Robert, who looks at me with sorrow. I know he was attempting to reach me, to offer me comfort, but he can’t, he’s chained to the table. Forced to watch me but unable to hold me, like he had all those years ago. I know I should go to him, give him what he’s always wanted, but I can’t, not yet. I can’t risk letting him hurt me, not until I know everything 

“Ask him if he has fathered any more children,” I say to Deacon in the mind link, and he immediately repeats my question to Robert. 

“No, I never stopped loving Penny and wasn’t interested in any other woman. Even if I had been, I wouldn’t risk putting anyone through that again,” Robert shakes his head. 

“My mum is okay now. Deacon fixed her. She knows what I am, and she visits us and the kids often. She is happy. and runs a bookshop with her husband,” I say, feeling like it’s the only bit of comfort I can offer him right now. 

Robert smiles, his eyes filling with tears again as he nods. Thank you. That’s perfect for her. She always loved her books. Does her husband treat her well?” 

“Yes,” I nod. 

“If we have you temporarily released from here, will you attempt to abscond?” Deacon asks. 

“No. I accept my punishment. I belong here after everything I have done, I won’t attempt to escape and will come back willingly,” he answers. 

“That’s good enough for me,” Raff says from the back of the room where he has been silently observing. He pushes himself from the wall he is leaning on and leaves the room. 

The room falls silent as I process everything. I have so many questions, but my brain is so frazzled that I can’t put a single one into words right now. 

Raff returns a few moments later with a key and a bundle of clothes. He unfastens the metal cuffs around Robert’s wrists and hands him the clothes. Axel positions me behind him, shielding me from Robert’s reach. He knows I’m not ready. 

There’s a bathroom across the hall, go and get changed,” Raff says and Robert nods, picking up the clothes and standing to leave. 

“How do you feel?” Deacon asks me when Robert has left the room. 

Chapter 281 

“I don’t know. I’m confused and sad but also relieved,” it. 

“That’s understandable,” Axe says. 

When Robert returns, he looks like a different man without he boiler sult. He is wearing a simple black sweatshirt and dark denim jeans with typical work boots, which look like they have been borrowed from a prison guard. I can see what attracted my mum to him all those years app. 

We leave the prison through the front entrance and Robert stops for a moment, inhaling the fresh air deeply and closing his eyes to turn his face up to the sun, Something he’s not been able to do for over 16 years. 

Unlike human prisons, prisoners here don’t have the opportunity to go outside. It’s too risky. There are wards up to stop anyone porting in or out, and the prisoners are given suppressants to dull their gifts, but that doesn’t mean their friends and family on the outside can be trusted not to attempt to break them out. For that reason, they are kept indoors, behind walls that are infused with the precious stones that give us our powers, making them impenetrable to molecular gifts or super strength 

We load into the minibus we had arrived in and Robert is quiet, his eyes busy taking in the outside world as we drive. 

So where is Comelius‘ place where he kept the journal?” Deacon asks, breaking the silence. 

“I don’t know, I only know how to port there,” Roberts says 

“For fuck sake,” Mason curses. 

“What?” I ask.