Chapter 74 Daddy’s Little Lesson
Inside the drawer sat a modified handgun, scaled down to fit smaller hands.
Two neat rows of brass bullets rested beside it.
It had been meant for Alfred. But now Raymond felt like Maya might need it more.
Maya’s voice came out quiet. “What is this?”
Finished
“A gun.” Raymond didn’t bother easing into it. He looked straight at her. “You’re sensitive. You’ve been carrying that lack of security for a long time.
“But you’re smart. You already know what I do, don’t you?”
Maya didn’t deny it. Held in his arms, she instinctively hugged him back. She pushed down the unease and nodded. “Yeah.”
She’d figured it out a while ago. Wendy’s reflexes. The constant trace of gunpowder on Raymond. All the little things that didn’t add up.
Put together, it wasn’t hard to guess.
What she didn’t understand was why. Why bring it out into the open now?
“See?” Raymond pulled the bedroom door open. Right outside, Wendy and the two boys were pressed against it, listening.
“I told you. She’s a smart kid.”
She just hadn’t wanted to say it out loud.
Maya was still a little dazed.
“So,” Raymond said, all the usual laziness gone from his face, “are you going to leave us? Want to trade us in for different parents?”
He hadn’t forgotten what she said when she first chose him.
“You look ordinary. We’re the same.”
She chose him because he was ordinary.
So what about now? Would she leave?
Maya glanced around. Wendy’s hands were clenched tight. Toby bit the inside of his lip like he didn’t care. Alfred stared straight at her. They were all waiting.
“No.”
Was she supposed to run away for no reason?
The simple reply broke the tension. The tightness in the room eased, and Raymond finally relaxed. You
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Chapter 24 Daddy’s Little Lesson
could see it in his face, his tone turning light again.
“Good.” His tone lightened. “Then class is in session. Daddy’s Little Lesson.
“Rule one: If you don’t feel safe, you build your own sense of safety.”
Existed
He’d never really seen himself as a good father. His sons grew up fast and handled themselves. They didn’t need much from him. A daughter was different. She needed more care.
They all moved back to the living room.
Raymond handled the gun casually, then raised it and aimed at a glass on the coffee table.
“Maya, you want to see what it can do?”
Maya’s expression shifted.
Not fear. Something else.
Nervous. Curious. A little excited.
Across two lifetimes, she’d never touched a gun.
“I don’t know how,” she said honestly. “Can you show me first, Dad?”
Wendy didn’t even react to him holding a gun. She was used to that.
What she cared about was something else entirely.
“You are not firing that thing inside the apartment, are you? You’re trying to turn our walls into Swiss cheese?”
The shot went off before she finished.
A sharp crack. The glass exploded. The bullet punched into the wall, leaving a clean hole.
Maya watched him casually shatter the glass with a single shot, her eyes lighting up.
And honestly… It was kind of cool.
Raymond clicked the safety back on, casual as ever. “People die every day. The world doesn’t change. Only the ones at the top get to decide how things run.
“A lot of rich people pay off assassin groups. Buy themselves protection. Which means the real money is in the shadows. The groups nobody talks about.”
He smiled, dragging it out a little. “So if you’re that worried about safety… Come work with me. If we take people out first, nobody gets a chance to threaten us.”
Raymond didn’t agree with that whole “being alive already pretty great” mindset. A girl should be a little more willful than that.
If she wanted something-even something dangerous-that was fine. He’d clean up the mess. –
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Chapter 74 Daddy’s Little Lesson
Maya had always told herself this was a normal family. That staying quiet and not causing trouble was the right move.
Even if Toby’s background was different, it had nothing to do with them.
If she held on to that kind of play-it-safe thinking, she’d only turn more withdrawn over time.
So Raymond decided to lay everything out. Break that thinking early.
“Think it over, okay? You don’t have to do this. Whatever you want to be later, that’s fine. Just don’t be so… well-behaved. No matter how big the problem is, it can be handled.”
If the problem couldn’t be fixed, you dealt with whoever caused it.
Maya understood that a little too well.
。
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This Time 11 Be the Villains Favorite Daughter
