“It’s a boy,” I say to her as she leans against the bars, sweat dripping from her bruised skin and tears gliding down her cheeks that she quickly wipes away.
She never cries in front of anyone, and unfortunately for her, that probably made her Conrad’s favorite. “Don’t let Conrad take him,” she urges to me, her voice weak, and she gasps for air.
She winces, adjusting her position, and I tell her, “Help is on the way. My friend is a doctor. They’ll help you and call your father.”
Right after, I’ll finally kill mine because no punishment sans death would be enough for his madness.
And maybe that’s his blood in my veins speaking, because I don’t mind dishing out death if it ensures no child will suffer.
Lachlan and his faithful knights, as I call them, have already taken all the girls to a secret location for treatment before returning them to their families.
My father is on a business trip, and the only reason Magdalena is still here is because she was in labor, so I stayed with her, horrified that she was about to deliver my sibling alone.
The cheerful girl I used to see at rare social gatherings, who found my name fascinating, even though she disliked fairy tales and myths. She adored the legend of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table instead. Her father used to buy her all kinds of special edition books on the subject.
“It’s too late for that.” She licks her chapped lips, and our eyes clash. The pain in hers is so strong I could barely stand it. “My father would never accept him. If he ever finds him, he’ll…” Her eyes slowly close as her breathing becomes fainter. “My father loves me the most, but the baby…the baby he would hate. Remember that.”
And after a moment, she’s gone, leaving me with a screaming baby.
A baby I name Arturo Actaeon Castillo, ironically giving him his mother’s real name, thus making him invisible to his grandfather’s wrath.
“I’ve been more generous than any father should have been. I’ve given him a chance to live a normal childhood. You can’t ask for more without consequences.” His dry tone pulls me back to the present, and I study the man in front of me again.
Gael might be the head of a cruel cartel, but he has laws and values he abides by and forces everyone around him to adhere to.
Because going against those rules is punishable by death.
He never kidnaps or hurts women and children. In fact, he has created an organization that helps sexually abused victims get back on their feet if they have no one to lean on, and he even provides them with legal aid.
His enemies know he would never use their families against them.
Until they turn eighteen, that is.
Then he has no qualms about killing off their sons or arranging marriages for their daughters to ensure good relationships between Mafia gangs.
He always collects his debts.
The only reason he even knows about Actaeon is because Conrad sent him a letter with Magdalena’s pregnant photo, gloating about his victory and how Gael would never find them. Based on his journals, he wanted to hide what he did to Gael’s daughter, but his narcissistic nature couldn’t stand keeping his mouth shut.
The fucker was a perverted idiot who I would have killed over and over again if I had the chance.
Also, when Lachlan gave Magdalena’s body to Gael, he requested an autopsy that showed she had just given birth. And since there was no baby in sight, he didn’t believe the story that the child had died.
“You expect me to give my brother to you so you could kill him?”
He finishes his cigar and presses it into the ashtray on my desk. “Killing him would be an easy way out now, wouldn’t it? First, he will suffer, and then I’ll think about what to do with him.”
A humorless chuckle slips past my lips, a warning that Gael has a lot of nerve to come to my domain and threaten my brother’s life. “Oh, is that so? Well, Gael, I’m sure you don’t hear this often, but you can fuck right off with that particular proposition of yours. I won’t give you my brother.” A muscle on his cheek twitches at that. I imagine anyone rarely, if ever, speaks to him this way, and under any other circumstances, I wouldn’t have. I respect the man despite everything and feel forhis pain. I can understand his point of view. “If you’ve come to me, it means you couldn’t find him on your own, and it will stay this way. He has nothing to do with the past. Everyone involved in the kidnapping and abuse of your daughter is dead. I took care of that.”
“And in this, you left me no choice. He has to answer for what his father did to my daughter.” I don’t miss how he doesn’t call Magdalena my brother’s mother. “It’s as inevitable as sunrise and sunset.”
“I’m Conrad’s son too. I was alive, eighteen years old, when he did what he did. Why don’t you retaliate against me instead of my brother?”
“Sometimes we must pay for the sins of our fathers. Such is life, cruel and unfair.”
Actaeon has never been a perfect child, but I raised him, and he’s my brother. I would never allow anyone to hurt him.
“Why not me?” I repeat once again.
