Robert was still ranting and raging—the performative fucker.
Walking casually over, Severo sat down on the other side of the table, crossed his legs and leaned back, waiting for the nonsense show to be over. Eventually the guy noticed him. There was a flash of confusion in his eyes, even as he continued the act.
Rolling his eyes, Severo uncrossed his legs and slammed his hand on the table, his voice roaring. “ENOUGH!”
His voice echoing around the room, Severo sent a tendril out. Grabbing onto the man’s shadow, he twisted it up around him, stopping his struggles instantly.
Seri hesitated in the hall.On coming out, he had intended to go to the lobby, but he couldn’t bring himself to walk past the door he knew led to the room with the two-way mirror. “Fuck it,” he said, opening the door. It luckily wasn’t locked.
Bennie glanced over at him, but waved Seri in, not knowing that he wasn’t supposed to be there. He walked in, letting the door close behind him, and turned to face the window.
Seri flinched when Severo slammed on the table and bellowed. “ENOUGH!”
He couldn’t do anything to stop his heart from racing at the sight of his father’s shadow winding up, immobilizing him. Even more so when fingers on a shadowy hand slithered around the Nymph’s mouth. Seri could tell Robert was still trying to speak, his mouth twisting and bulging as he attempted to open it.
He knew what that felt like… He knew the terror, knew there was no hope of getting away, no hope of ever speaking unless the one holding on decided to let go… Yet, despite the memories coming forward…Seri kept watching.
Severo waved the two officers away, and they left without question. The Dweller sat back, his expression looked bored, which was at odds with the anger he had heard in the man’s voice.
Odder still, while his heart was racing, and fear was growing in the pit of his stomach…when he looked at the man who he knew was responsible for the shadow currently wound around his father, Seri felt…slightly turned on. It was very conflicting with the rest of his emotions.
“Robert, Robert,” Severo tsked. “You can either sit down calmly and stop this act, or continue being a fool, and remain there standing, twisted up in the unfortunate shadow that had the poor fate of being attached to your dumbass. The choice is yours, but frankly, I couldn't care less. I don’t need you to speak for this.”
His father glared, and stupidly, he continued trying to move.
“Fine, awkwardly twisted, it is. Like I said, I don’t need your input. I just wanted to tell you how fucked you are. Maybe mock you a bit. You see…you don’t know me. I frankly don’t know you either, besides the big fat file a friend just sent me about thirty minutes ago. But not knowing you, doesn’t change the fact that you hurt the person that I love. That alone means I will do all that I can to see you rot in prison. Luckily, I have the means and connections to make sure that happens.” Severo laughed.
His father’s expression didn’t change, the man just turned redder with obvious anger.
Bennie sighed next to him, pressing a button on the panel at the bottom of the window in front of them that he hadn’t noticed before.
“What did you do?” Seri asked.
“Turned off the recorder, just in case.”
“Is that legal?”
“We moved past legal when he bound his mouth.”
Seri’s head tilted. “Ah…yes…”
“I turned the camera off right after you went in there.”
“Good to know,” Seri mused, before looking back to the window.
“Now…”Severo drawled lazily. Pulling out his still open phone, the email was right there on the screen for him to read. “Let me tell you what they have found so far with just a tiny bit of digging.”
Severo tsked as he read through the email. “Gambling? Really? Your poor, soon to be ex-wife told us money was always an issue. I bet you blamed her for over spending though, didn’t you? Your type always does.”
The man growled, and he could feel him still tugging and trying to break from the shadows. It was useless. The shadow basically became unbreakable the minute he’d taken control of it. Unless the man had some dysea on him, Robert would stay there as long as he wanted him to.
Severo snorted. “Real threatening there, buddy. Moving on. You gambled. And gambled some more. The problem is, you were never very good at it. It’s interesting, you kept betting and betting, but…” He laughed. “You never won. Not even once. Not even a single cent. You lost so much that the only way to get out of it was to sell your own child to a man named Jofften Geary.” He flicked his gaze up from his phone, locking eyes with the man.
Seri’s father had stilled, his face paling now as sweat began to form on his brow. Severo smiled smugly.
“We have names, we have dates, we have transactions. They are looking through your medical files too. I bet they will find that the injury you received the day Seri was taken was self-inflicted.”
Robert tried to talk, but he didn’t let him. There was no point hearing what he had to say, as they already had their answers.
