“<i>I was trapped and couldn't come back.”</i><br/><br/>Those words hit him as hard as any fist would have. If she was telling the truth, it would explain why he hadn't been able to find her, and more importantly, why she had just disappeared the way she did. His amber eyes snapped to Rory as he tried to puzzle out what he could possibly say at this point. The last few years, all the time he had spent hating what had happened, it had all been a misunderstanding and the blame was not his, nor Rory's. “Who took you? And why?” Dante needed answers, desperately, and he hoped that her answers were enough to satisfy him.<br/><br/>Her next words, her next admission caught him so completely off guard that his knees almost buckled, nearly planting him firmly on the hardwood floor. “My daughter...” His normally stoic voice was wracked with raw emotion, barely kept in check and threatening to overtake him completely. “Why didn't you just tell me that? Why do you make excuses for not telling me that we have a daughter together? My own flesh and blood could never be a burden to me.” Anger started to seep into his thoughts, a white hot flame that fought to take control from him. He couldn't understand why she hadn't started with that, or why she hadn't started with the fact that she had been trapped and didn't disappear for her own selfish reasons.<br/><br/>“I... I need a few minutes to collect myself. If you want to continue this discussion and it's possible implications for our future, then please give me some time.” He glanced around at his old friend's house, then back to Rory. “But first, we need to get out of here. Come on.”<br/><br/>With that said, he fell into silence and walked from the house, hoping that Rory would follow him and allow their discussion to continue once they were gone from here. Once out of the house, Dante got into his car and turned the ignition, his amber eyes staring blankly ahead as he waited a few moments to see if Rory would join him or not. Whether she got into his car or not, after a few minutes, Dante pulled out of Ansel's drive and made the short trip back to his home, maintaining his silence the entire drive.<br/><br/>Now that he was back home, Dante walked to his door and pushed it open, leaving it ajar, in case Rory had decided to join him. He quickly took his jacket off and tossed it over the back of one of the dining room chairs, followed by his docker's clutch, which held his custom pistol and clips. With that done, he moved across the room and took a seat on his black leather couch, waiting silently to see wait on Rory.