My teeth clench because there’s lots of things that come to mind that I did wrong when it came to Charlotte. “How’d you know?” I change the subject. I wanted us both to get answers,but I’ll fill my wife in later. She’s exhausted. I’ll let her get her answers some other time. He’s not going anywhere. We’ve got his wife, and we told him he can visit as often as he wants.
“That you’d fall in love with her?” he questions.
“That I wouldn’t kill her,” I growl. He knew how much we hated Isabella. “Why risk her life if you were supposed to protect her?”
“One man can only do so much.” He chuckles. “And Isabella wouldn’t allow me to interfere in Charlotte’s life. Well, her plan for Charlotte’s life. It was set in course long before you killed her father.” His eyes soften when he speaks again. “And of course Ashtyn.”
“What about her?”
“What you did for her, helping her escape. My wife called that soft and weak. I call that a man.” He rolls his chair back so he can look over at Charlotte sleeping. “Not very many men in our world actually care about their wives.” He looks back at me. “I knew it the moment you saw her on the water that day.”
I frown.
“She hasn’t told you?”
“Who hasn’t told me what?”
“I’ll let your wife tell you that story.” He laughs softly and I wonder when he had the chance to talk to her alone. “But we both knew if given the chance, you’d take it.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say honestly.
He stands. “Everything happens for a reason, and I guess it was a good thing you turned my offer down that day in your father’s office.”
I stiffen knowing exactly what he’s referring to. If Charlotte would have been my chosen, would I have been forced to kill her or watch her get raped by Isabella’s men? I know what I’d choose because while in her hell, I saw it. I lived it. It was a hallucination, but it might as well have been real. “Do you thinkshe would have made her daughter live the same fate as Sierra?” I ask.
He nods. “Absolutely. Isabella would bite her own nose off to spite her face. A child…” he shakes his head. “To her that’s a justified sacrifice.”
“Why did you come to my father? Why try to make her my chosen?”
“Isabella wanted revenge. She was willing to put her in your life to make you pay for killing Trent.” He shrugs. “But I told her you refused, and she said she’d get another chance. The woman may be the antichrist, but she has the patience of a saint.”
“She wasn’t even of age to be a chosen,” I add with a growl and quickly do the math in my head. “Hell, she was what, sixteen when I killed her father?” Fuck, she looked every bit of twenty-one and was drinking champagne that night on his yacht. I never thought to question her age because I knew nothing would come of it. That would have made her seventeen when he went to my father to try to make a deal for her to be my chosen.
“Legal age of consent in Pennsylvania is sixteen.” He shrugs, and I don’t bother to ask why he knows that.
I huff. “Charlotte said that you told her her future husband was a prisoner here at Carnage. I’ve looked the name up you gave her, and he’s never existed.”
“She wanted information…”
“So you lied?” I growl.
“Of course.” He huffs. “That day she came over to the house…” he runs his hand through his hair. “Charlotte was different. She had confidence and was asking too many questions. Isabella was putting on a show for Charlotte and slapped her.”
“She what?” I bark. “Why would you allow that?”
“I had a part to play.” His eyes narrow on mine. “Just like you. Charlotte needed something to keep her interested inCarnage. If I didn’t push her, Isabella would have—especially since she was aware you took her virginity. Isabella was excited. She was finally getting something from you, you were claimingAnnabelleas yours.” He shakes his head. “It was finally going how Isabella wanted it to go, and I didn’t want to fuck that up.”
“And Hudson?” I question. “What part did you play in that?”
“I didn’t know that Hudson was helping her. I had my suspicions that he was involved but couldn’t prove it. Then I found some messages on Isabella’s phone that he was her fuck boy. I knew then he was involved.”
“Why didn’t you kill him? He was fucking your wife.” It could have solved several of our problems with one less piece of shit after my wife.
“I didn’t give two shits about her then, and I give less now.” He shrugs. “If he kept her busy, she was out of my face. Plus, I could have killed you for the same thing.”
I sigh, hanging my head and ignoring that last part. I did what I did because I had to. It wasn’t like I wanted to fuck her. She gave me a choice, and I picked what I thought was best.
I try to think back if I have any more questions to ask him. I have a feeling he’s not going anywhere anytime soon. He will always look after and check on my wife.
