I froze, staring at the sidewalk, seeing nothing but blinding white rage. “You knew?” I breathed out, my heart pounding.
“Who do you think sent him out to find you. I spent the last three years relishing in the fact that you were fucking him. Fucking some lowlife cretin and I loved it. I loved knowing that I was destroying you. That one day, you would find out, and it would ruin you. Shatter your mind like you shattered mine.”
Something soft touched my leg and I instinctively threaded my hand through Lucy’s fur, squeezing tight, my teeth grinding.
“I never wanted a daughter. I wanted a son. And your father never gave me one, so I went out and adopted one. Steven was 6 when I got my hands on him, left him with his father, paying them month in and month out, raising him from afar, and he didn’t give a damn. Us women,” she laughed. “Men always think they’re in control, but the truth is,werun the game. We do. Having a daughter was perfect for the cameras. Perfect for the photos, but I wanted a boy to take over the company. I needed a son. One I could manipulate easily and raise to be my perfect little prodigy. But I needed you out of the picture.”
I couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe.
“So I told him to either fuck you up enough to kill yourself or marry you so he could get the company. He took his damn time, but I think it’s time you understood who you’ve truly been letting into your bed these last few years.”
And then I laughed.
I had no idea where it came from or why the sound made shivers run down my spine, but there it was. Loud and evil and dark.
“What? What are you laughing at? You’ve been having sex with a disease ridden boy!”
It was pathetic how weak she sounded. How hysterical. Driven to madness because I didn’t break like she wanted. All those years she must have spent planning, giving money to that man, building Steven into this perfect little demon to take over a company that wasn’t even hers to give away. It was…it wassatisfyingknowing that I didn’t shatter like she wanted me too. All thanks to Everett, but I wasn’t in the mood to give him any kind of props for that.
I nodded. “I know,” I told her, the line on the other end going silent. “I know, and guess what? Mr. Kingsmen’s littlegoonfucking slammed his gun into his head. And then,” I went on the laughter dying, “he disassembled him like he was a doll. Right in the middle of his kitchen floor. Isn’t that just perfect? Your perfect little dream, disassembled and scattered across God’s holy country.”
She was silent for so long that I would have thought she hung up had she not been breathing in a whimpering, pathetic way.
“What is wrong with you?” mom finally shrieked. “You’re a psychopath.”
I pulled the phone to the front of my face, my lips nearly touching the screen. “I get it from you,” I hummed and then put the phone back to my ear. “Send everything over or I know a very bad man who just realized you never had any intention of paying him, and I doubt he’s happy about that. Maybe he’ll disassemble you. Maybe he’ll send any one of his many sons to capture you and torture you and show you why youneverget in bed with sharks. Maybe your snake oil spitting tongue will finally cease to be. Sleep with both eyes open, mom. You think you’ve met the devil? I’ve fucked him.” I hung up, turned, and walked over to the porch swing, falling into it with a huff. Suddenly exhausted but worked up all at the same time.
I could feel Malachi’s eyes on me, cool, familiar. I scratched behind Lucy’s ear and stared out across the too quiet street while Everett and Evelyn carried my things in from the truck. “I’ll do what I can about the debt,” I assured him.
4milliondollars. What was I going to do?
I swallowed. “What are you going to do?” I finally asked, my voice quiet.
“Oh, I don’t know. Sometimes the best way to scare someone is to leave them be. Let them sit in their own fear. You did a good job at threatening her. Sounded like one of my very own. How do you feel?”
I inhaled deeply and exhaled, glancing over. “Tired.”
He chuckled, tapping my knee. “Anger will do that to you, dear.”
I searched his eyes for a second, my tongue flicking over my lips. “When did you find out?”
“My son came home some time ago in a rage. His anger is worse than Jack’s, but not as volatile as Azrael’s, thank goodness. It’s different, hard to handle sometimes. When he cooled down, we spoke. It didn’t take us long to realize that the woman I was meeting with and the woman paying off her boyfriend’s—ex-boyfriend’s debt, were in fact the same person.”
I frowned, turning back to the street. “I’ll pay them both, I promise.”
“We can work something out.” He was quiet a moment. “You wouldn’t consider selling me the company, would you?”
One corner of my lips flicked up for half a second before dropping. “I don’t think so. Why?” I asked, looking over. “You want to get in on the oil game?”
He chuckled. “Oh, no. No, oil is nasty business. Too dirty for my taste. No, my daughter, the one that just became engaged to my son, she sold me her company at a benefit just a few months ago.”
I saw the love glinting in his eyes and felt a sort of jealousy at seeing it. “What’s her name?”
His smile grew. “Emily. Emily Glass, a publisher now. She’s marrying my son Greyson, and my other son, Jack,” he nodded as if I should know the name, “he signed papers with his wife about a year ago now. A little over a year. They are quite a team. They travel a lot, doing assignments while they wait to take down her father for what he did to her.”
My brows furrowed, my interest piqued. “What do you mean?”
“Parents,” he sighed. “Always doing their children wrong whether intentional or unintentional. Rae was trained like my boys were, but for far longer. However, something happened, and her father decided it would be beneficial for him to erase her memories of her past life and replace them with new ones. Don’t you worry,” he said when my lips parted. “She’s okay now. Fierce and unstoppable. A fire in this world, truly. She works well with Jack and his sister Zo. Emily picked another route, staying behind while Greyson does his assignments, although he’s slowed down quite a bit, focusing mainly on where they live. They have a good life.”
