All of different ages.
The gagging comes back in full force when I realize one of them must be around seven years old.
Beaten, bruised, their clothes dirty and torn, while they grip the bars tight and press their bodies against them, staring at me.
“Oh no,” one of them whispers, and I stumble back in shock, recognizing her at once. She shakes her head at me.
She’d been missing for almost a year. Her father used all his connections to find her and kept the world in an uproar, and all along she has been…here?
Raped by my father?
She rushes to the far corner and wraps her arms around her knees, hiding her face between them while rocking back and forth. “Not you too. Please don’t. Please.” And that’s when she shifts, and I see the remainder of her clothes stretching over her stomach.
A very pregnant stomach.
“I’ll use my own connections to verify this information. Keep an eye on Jones and his son until then. Either way, I’ll deal with them.” We share a long look, then Rafael puts his hands inside his pants pockets and rolls his shoulders back, nodding. “And when I do, you’ll need to cover my tracks.”
“Trust me. You won’t be the only one who deals with them.” A beat passes as I squeeze the folder filled with a past that I wish to forget and can’t atone for, no matter what I do. “I’ll see you at the party. Make sure to smile for the reporters and don’t do anything to upset my sister-in-law. Rush is feral when it comes to her. Any sadness will result in your jaw being broken.”
Despite the situation, I crack a smile. While the temptation to ruffle my cousin’s feathers is strong, I won’t do it. If he feels this way about his future wife, he will indeed break my jaw, and then I will have to break his, therefore causing drama.
We have no time for that, and besides, close bonds or not, we still have the Scotts and Kings watching us. Our family is all shades of fucked up. However, we have a reputation to uphold, and fighting in front of witnesses is something we wouldn’t ever do.
We owe it to our parents.
And as I said, Wrights don’t have patience for the stupidity.
Rafael taps me on the back and heads toward the exit, throwing over his shoulder right before leaving, “Remember what they say. Happy wife, happy life. Keep that in mind, Orion.”
That’s the thing, though.
As long as she stays with me…my wife could never be happy.
Because the hands that wish to hold her tight and chain her to me?
They are smeared in blood.
Her husband is a murderer.
And as such, I should stay away.
Because what woman would excuse such a past?
CHAPTER TEN
“Interesting fact about history?
It tends to repeat itself.
We should be careful otherwise…
We might live through the same circle we tried to avoid in the first place.
And isn’t that just tragic?”
Diana
Diana
