Cross My Tigress Face the Wrath (Stella) novel Chapter 957

But Susanna was no fool.

The sneer curled deeper at the corner of her lips. “You’re claiming to be my father?”

“I am,” Derek replied, his words forceful and heavy.

“My father, is that right?” Susanna’s laugh was bitter. “Funny. All you care about is dragging me back as leverage. What a miserable joke my life’s turned out to be, hasn’t it?”

Back to Blacktower? That place was crawling with people who wanted her dead—those grotesque twins, the scheming stepmother with her crocodile tears, and the likes of Finch and Dan Murray, all of whom had tried to ruin her in the shadows.

And over it all, a father who’d only ever claimed the children born to his favored wife. He wanted her to walk right back into that hell?

“Do you think I’m stupid?” Susanna shot back, voice icy and sharp. “Or do you honestly believe I’m so desperate for your fatherly affection?”

Derek’s expression tightened, shadows crossing his face. “That’s not what this is.”

“No?” Susanna’s tone was acid. “Then what about the children you had with Adelle?”

She’d had plenty of time with Hull to untangle the web of relationships swirling around Derek. Mentioning Adelle’s children was enough to bring up the memory of the twins’ last attempt on her life.

When Derek stayed silent, Susanna let out a low, mirthless chuckle. “Those twins tried to kill me. What did you do about that?”

A father, supposedly. When his children turned on each other, where did he stand? Derek had been a nonentity her entire life. If he owed anyone, it was her. So how had he handled it?

Clearly blindsided by the question, Derek’s face stiffened.

Susanna raised an eyebrow, her interest purely performative. “You did nothing?”

Her offhandedness made Derek’s jaw clench. “Leanne was badly hurt,” he said at last. “She’s laid up in the hospital. She still can’t move.”

Derek fell silent, his face turning ashen. Susanna, having said her piece, stood up and turned to go.

“You really mean to cut ties so completely?” Derek’s words came after her, sharper and colder than before. He’d never accounted for this—he’d fought to track her down, only for her to walk away without a backward glance. The bitterness sat heavy on his tongue.

Susanna stopped, laughing under her breath, derision sharpening every syllable. “Cut ties? That’s rich.”

She turned to level a stare at him. “You call me heartless? That’s a bit much coming from you, don’t you think? You deal your cruelties with both hands and expect warmth and loyalty in return? For a businessman, Mr. Murray, you really have a knack for arranging things so all the loss falls on me and all the gain lands in your lap.”

The self-serving calculations could not have been clearer if he’d written them across her face.

And he dared call her heartless?

Derek’s jaw set, his shoulders tight as wire. Susanna met his eyes over her shoulder—his gaze was hardening into something unrecognizable and dangerous. There wasn’t a trace of a father meeting his own daughter—not in those eyes.