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Chapter 816 You Call That Fatherly Love

Remembering Artemis‘ warning before he came, Dale forced himself to speak gently to Tessa. “Come back to Black Mountain with me; that’s your home.”

He had thought long and hard before choosing those words.

But the moment Tessa heard them, her brows furrowed. “You think if I go to Black Mountain with you, all our problems will magically disappear?”

“What do you mean?” Dale looked at her, confused.

“I was nothing but a cover for the Ashen Pact uprising,” Tessa said flatly. “Finding me won’t help you.”

Ever since she’d been following Victor, Tessa could feel the deep, bone–deep hatred he carried for the Ashen Pact. That kind of hatred could only come from years of blood–deep enmity.

Tessa wasn’t stupid.

So when Dale came looking for her now, she didn’t mince her words.

“You were just a cover?” Dale frowned.

Tessa nodded. “Yes.”

Dale fell silent.

Just a cover. The phrase hit him hard; the news couldn’t have been worse.

If Tessa really was just a pawn in the Ashen Pact conflict, then things were far more complicated than he’d hoped.

He looked at her face–those eyes and brows that so closely mirrored his own.

Taking a deep breath, he asked, “Then what do you think we should do about the Ashen Pact’s current crisis?”

Tessa’s tone was

she wouldn’t say. Her parents stood on opposite sides, and she

was something she’d understood clearly the

where she stood, she knew how to act when things came to a

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And right now…

Dale, she couldn’t afford to care

such a crucial moment, it was better to have

Dale’s expression darkened.

his eyes narrowing slightly. “Tess, I know you hate me–for not being there, for not being the father I

I am your

to remind

careless most of the time, but when it mattered, she

words, Tessa’s lips curved into a smile–one full of

so much younger. He drew in another

or desperate to see her. Now that he finally had, he

Tessa and Victor seemed to be, if she returned with him to Black Mountain, Victor would have to think twice before

wasn’t a

mocking smile deepened. “You

am,” Dale said,

sneered. “What you really want

life has been nothing

to Black

dead–the twisted twins, the scheming stepmother who played innocent, Manny, Dan… all of them had tried to

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T

of them was

ever acknowledged the children born of his

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