Hurt shuttles across Julia’s face as she lifts her hand to her cheek. There’s a noticeable handprint on her skin. “I’m sorry,Daddy. It won’t happen again,” she says in that fake whiny voice she is fond of. The way she calls him Daddy and the adoring expression on her face make me want to puke.
Rhett grabs her shoulders and viciously shakes her. Losing her balance, she falls flat on her ass. Thankfully, her dress doesn’t ride up this time. Not sure I could handle that a second time. “Do not call me that,” he instructs, looming over her with a dark look.
“But you like it.” Julia pouts, and her lower lip wobbles.
“Time and place, child.” I watch a veil shroud his angry face, replaced with a neutral expression. He helps her to her feet before forcing her into a chair. “Sit down and stay quiet, like a good little girl.”
Bree and I exchange looks. Whatever fucked-up relationship they have, it’s obviously not healthy or equal.
Rhett walks over to Mom and rips the tape off her mouth in one fast yank. “Tell her. Tell our daughter what you did.” He turns her chair around so she’s facing me. “Ashley deserves to know the truth.”
“Fuck you, Rhett.” Mom holds her head up high even as he raises his hand to slap her.
Her head whips back, and blood flies from her mouth as I cry out. “Please don’t hurt her!”
Rhett’s jaw clenches as he removes a gun from behind his back. “I have never wanted to hurt your mother, but she makes it so hard to be nice to her.”
“That’s because you’re a monster,” Mom says. “You beat me and raped me. I didn’t want my child anywhere near a cruel bastard like you.”
He puts the gun in her mouth, and I scream.
Julia laughs.
“I know you brought us here for a reason,” I say, and it takes effort to sound calm. “Whatever it is you want of me, it won’t happen if you kill my mother.”
It won’t happen, period, because this psycho has already killed my father. Pain stabs me through the heart, and tears flood my eyes again. But I purposely push all thoughts of Dad aside for now because I need to keep my wits about me. Something that is already challenging in my injured, drugged-up state.
“I don’t want to kill her, Ashley.” He strokes the gun along my mother’s cheek. “But I won’t tolerate her insubordination or her disrespect. She has disrespected me enough.”
“Mom.” I turn beseeching eyes on her. “Think of Emilie and Richard. They need you. I do too. Please just tell the truth.”
“Explain to our daughter how you denied her her birthright,” Rhett says, calmly rubbing the gun back and forth across Mom’s face.
Mom lifts her head and looks at me with a glazed expression. “I was betrothed to Rhett from age four. By the time I started Lowell U, I was already madly in love with Richard, but he was promised to another. She glances between me and Jase. “A lot like you two.”
Julia scoffs. “I’m sick of hearing about Ash and Jase.” She inspects her fingernails. “It’s tiring.”
Rhett drills a look at her, and Julia lifts her chin and smiles at him like a lovesick puppy. “Continue, Pamela,” he says, keeping his gaze focused on my cousin. “My whore won’t interrupt you again, isn’t that right, Julia?”
“Yes,Daddy.” She smiles sweetly at him while parting her legs.
Jase and I lock gazes, and I know he’s thinking the same thing I am. We were damn fools not to follow Julia. If we had, we might have discovered she was fucking Carter and realized they were playing some angle.
Rhett ignores her, turning back to Mom. “Keep going.”
Mom shoots him a poisonous look before returning her focus to me. “When Rhett found out I was seeing Richard behind his back, he beat and raped me.” She visibly gulps. “I tried to report it, but his father, who was the Greed & Gluttony Luminary back then, got wind of it, and he threatened to kill me. It’s against the rules to rape any woman from a Luminary family even if that woman is your fiancée. Rhett would have most likely been stripped of his heir title.” Her tongue darts out, sliding over her split lip. “When I discovered I was pregnant, I knew it was his child because Richard and I always used protection and the dates aligned.” She gulps anxiously. “His father kidnapped me before I could tell anyone.”
“What?” Shock splays across Rhett’s face, and it’s evident this is news to him.
“He violated me for days in a room where my mother’s corpse lay rotting on the floor. He had murdered her as a threat.” Emotion splays across her face. “It wasn’t necessary. I would have agreed to complete secrecy to keep you protected and to avoid marrying his son.”
Rhett barks out a laugh, sounding more and more psychotic. “That crazy bastard. He’s lucky he’s dead.”
“He was protecting you,” Mom snaps. “He knew the baby I was carrying would prove your treachery, so he ensured my silence. It was his suggestion I find another man to claim ownership of my child, and he helped me and James to doctor the medical reports when Ashley was born.”
“He still should have told me.” Grabbing Mom’s face, he leans down and kisses her blood-tinged lips. “All this time I blamed you.” He slaps her across the face. “You’re still not blameless, but this helps, Pamela.” He kisses her again as she stares straight ahead. “Good girl for telling the truth.”
“You got what you wanted. Now let us go.” I know he won’t, but I’ve got to try.
